Convicted murderer Jodi Arias — who just last week was saying she wanted the death penalty — now says she prefers life in prison, with hope for eventual release.
From her jail and just hours before a jury began deliberating her sentence, she told The Associated Press that she “deserves a second chance at freedom someday.” And for the sake of her family, and to spare them further suffering, she now wants the jurors to give her a prison sentence rather than death.
Arias was convicted of stabbing and shooting to death her boyfriend in 2008, in a much-watched first-degree- murder case that she tried to present as merely domestic violence and self-defense. Prosecutors portrayed her — successfully, it would seem — as a cold-blooded killer, and jurors currently are deciding her fate, and whether she will live or die, AP reported.
Depending on the jury’s decision, the judge could also rule her eligible for parole in 25 years.
After her conviction last week, she claimed a desire for the death penalty. On Tuesday, after meeting with family members, she changed her mind.
“I felt like by asking for death, it’s like asking for assisted suicide, and I didn’t want to do that to my family,” she said to AP.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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