Arizona Supreme Court Denies Review in Arias Case

The Arizona Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal on whether a judge improperly allowed prosecutors to seek a death sentence for Jodi Arias in the 2008 stabbing and shooting of her former boyfriend.

Arias' lawyers filed the mid-trial appeal with the state high court three months ago after Judge Sherry Stephens denied a mistrial motion and a mid-level state court then refused to consider an appeal.

Arias' lawyers say Stephens wrongly allowed a potential death sentence to be based on trial testimony that contradicted a police detective's testimony during a 2009 hearing about how Travis Alexander was killed.

A Maricopa County Superior Court jury in Phoenix convicted Arias on May 8 of first-degree murder, but jurors deadlocked May 23 on whether to impose a death sentence.

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