PHOENIX (AP) — Jodi Arias' effort to get the death penalty option in her murder case temporarily set aside has been met with a swift rejection from the Arizona Supreme Court.
Arias is charged in the June 2008 stabbing and shooting death of her lover, Travis Alexander, in his suburban Phoenix home. She claims self-defense, while authorities say she planned the attack in a jealous rage. Testimony has been ongoing since early January.
After failing to win a mistrial or stay of the death penalty option in the lower court earlier this year, her defense attorneys sought relief Friday from the state's highest court, which quickly rejected it. Her trial is set to resume Monday with the death penalty still on the table if prosecutors can secure a first-degree murder conviction.
