Jodi Arias, who is due to be sentenced for the murder of ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, reportedly wants to send an investigator back to the scene of the crime.
According to a Maricopa County Superior Court minute order, Arias wants the investigator to go back to the crime scene at Alexander’s home in Mesa, Az. Alexander was murdered in 2008, and Arias was convicted in May 2013.
The retrial in the death penalty phase is slated to start Sept. 29.
HLN-TV, which has been covering the Arias case, wrote on Saturday: “Arias asked that her investigator be permitted to observe the Mesa, Arizona, home where Alexander was killed.”
The court order then stipulates that the prosecutor was to allow Arias’ investigator to head back to Alexander’s former home no later than this week.
According to The Associated Press and other reports, Judge Sherry Stephens granted Arias the right to represent herself in the death penalty phase.
Recently, several experts weighed in on her decision to represent herself.
“It’s actually probably a good idea to represent herself,” San Francisco-area defense attorney Daniel Horowitz told CBS.
“She looks like a vicious psychopath with a ridiculous defense. If she can get just one juror to bond with her on some level, even if they hate her, they’re getting to know her, and it’s harder to kill someone you know.”
He added that the jury might find “her pathetic.”
Mel McDonald, a former Maricopa County judge, added: “I think generally that anybody that represents themselves has a fool for a client, but it also gives her a way, if she’s out there making a fool of herself, to maybe invoke some sympathy from a juror.”
