The life of Jodi Arias was spared by just one person.
A woman in the jury voted against giving Arias the death penalty during the last deliberation for her sentencing retrial, which means that the jurors voted 11-1 in favor of death. But the votes were not enough to send Arias to death row.
Because of the jury's decision, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens declared a mistrial, and she is now required to make a decision whether to give her a life sentence or a life penalty with the possibility of release after 25 years in prison.
The unidentified jurors claimed that they were not happy with the turnout of the events, and they were disappointed with the lone vote that blocked Arias' possible death penalty.
"We really feel like we made a huge effort," one of the jurors stated, as quoted by USA Today. "I could not say how sorry I am that it wasn't enough."
"The 11 of us strived for justice but to no avail," another one of the jurors claimed. "We absolutely feel the penalty should have been death."
USA Today also reported the despair and disappointment of the sisters of Travis Alexander, Arias' former boyfriend and victim.
"The real justice will be in the afterlife, when Jodi burns in hell," one of the sisters said.
Arias' case became a global phenomenon after the 2013 decision that convicted her for murder failed to come up with the penalty. She stabbed, slashed, and shot Alexander in his home in Phoenix, Arizona in 2008, and left his body in the shower. She earlier claimed that she was innocent, but she later on admitted to the crime, claiming that it was just self defense. Her legal team tried to put death penalty out of the options but the court denied the petition.
Arias will begin to serve her sentence in a maximum-security unit in Perryville once the judge comes up with the decision on April 13.
