The court is now turning toward the rebuttals from the testimony of the defense's key witness and the mental health of defendant Jodi Arias to determine the outcome of her sentencing retrial.
Fox 10 News reported via live tweeting during the courtroom proceedings that the current direction of the trial is leading to Arias' mental health to determine the level of her mental illness when she killed her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander back in 2008.
During the trial on Wednesday, Dr. Robert Geffner was asked to go back to rebut the testimonies shared by psychologist Dr. Janeen DeMarte from the prosecution. According to Geffner, the prosecution's psychologist is less experienced than he is and he believes that he can understand the results of Arias' psychological tests better compared to DeMarte.
In one of the Twitter posts of Fox 10's official correspondent Steve Krafft, he wrote, "Geffner really dragging the prosecution's #jodiarias expert through the mud. Suggesting DeMarte is unethical."
Geffner reportedly went on with his rebuttals, and tried to convince the jurors once again that his earlier testimony — that Arias was abused by her victim and was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and mental illness — still stands, while describing Alexander as a sexually disturbed person.
Then Krafft posted the alleged thoughts of the jurors, saying, "Jurors left to wonder: Is Geffner, of Alliant International University in San Diego, a renowned expert or basically a hired gun? #jodiarias."
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens announced that the rebuttal of all the witnesses should not go beyond the Feb. 26 deadline.
The Travis Alexander murder case became controversial after the first set of jurors failed to come up with a decision regarding Arias' penalty when she was convicted in 2013, which is why a second set of jurors was called to make the decision. Arias' defense attorneys are working to eliminate the death penalty from the possible outcome of the trial.
