Can Jodi Arias' defense team recover? Up against the ropes after its experts' testimonies were effectively hobbled by the prosecution and skeptical questioning from the jury, Arias' attorneys have filed a request to bring in another expert witness and "allow jurors to consider lesser charges."
One of Arias' lawyers, Kirk Nurmi, appealed to the judge Sunday to include "Manslaughter by Sudden Quarrel" or "Heat of Passion" charges to the jury's options. For someone with no previous criminal record like Arias, a manslaughter charge usually draws a seven-year prison term. However, because of the gruesome nature of the crime, specifically the overwhelming amount of stab wounds, criminal defense expert Brent Kleinman believes the jury will likely chose a harsher sentence.
"That's reserved more for someone who might've accidently killed another person in a traffic accident and is negligent," Kleinman told ABC News.
Kleinman added that manslaughter sentencing ranges from 7-21 years.
A 32-year-old photographer from California, Arias is charged with the grisly first-degree murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in June 2008, when she stabbed the 30-year-old man 27 times, primarily in the back, shot him in the face, slit his throat from ear to ear with so much force it almost decapitated him, and left his bloodied corpse crumpled over in the bathroom shower of his home - all in the course of 106 seconds. Arias' guilt is not up for debate - but her mental state at the time of the killing is. Arias' future depends on whether the jury believes she killed Alexander in self-defense, or was actually a jilted lover exacting jealous revenge.
The jury could also decide Arias is guilty of second-degree murder, a charge Kleinman said carries a sentence between 15-25 years.
If Judge Sherry Stephens choses to allow the jury to consider a manslaughter charge, they would have to determine if "a reasonable person in a similar situation would believe that physical force was necessary against the use or threatened use of deadly force," according to court documents.
Arias has claimed she remembers very little of the actual act of killing Alexander. She has testified that she doesn't even recall firing the gun at Alexander after he allegedly became enraged, fiercely attacked her, chased her down his bathroom hallway, and threatened to kill her.
Arias' lawyers have also asked judge Stephens to allow them to question yet another expert witness in an attempt to rebuff the prosecution's expert psychologist, Dr. Janeen DeMarte's assertion that Arias has borderline personality disorder.
Defense attorney Nurmi told the judge it is "necessary and critical to Ms. Arias' defense after this court allowed the state to present new evidence during rebuttal via its witness Dr. Janeen DeMarte."
During her first days on the stand, DeMarte easily poked holes in the credibility of the defense's experts, psychotherapist Alyce LaViolette, and psychologist Richard Samuels. Based on her review of the psychotherapist's notes, DeMarte said she did not believe LaViolette had conducted a thorough evaluation. DeMarte also said that she did not believe Arias had post traumatic stress disorder, or memory problems, and said she showed no signs of domestic abuse, all arguments the defense has repeatedly hammered.
DeMarte testified that when Arias explained the day of Alexander's death, she told her that she didn't realize she had killed Alexander until she noticed blood on her hands when she arrived at the Hoover Dam. DeMarte said that someone with acute memory loss, a condition the defense claims Arias is afflicted with, would never believe they killed someone, and instead think they had mistakenly cut themselves.
If the defense is allowed to call another expert witness, Arias' lawyers will question Dr. Robert Geffner, a psychologist of 28 years, and founder and president of the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Institute in San Diego.
With the defense having finally rested its case after roughly 12 weeks of testimony, prosecutor Juan Martinez is currently in the state's rebuttal phase with its first expert witness, Arizona clinical psychologist DeMarte. Intent to prove the defense's experts were inaccurate in their claims and could not be trusted, Martinez has set up DeMarte as a consummate professional, and an objective contrast to the defense's numerous lapses of ethics and judgment.
Arias faces the death penalty if convicted. The trial resumes Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. EST when DeMarte is expected to continue her testimony.
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