Life or Death for Jodi Arias? Jury Must Decide

In the case of the Jodi Arias murder trial, jurors told the judge Wednesday that they are unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether the convicted murderer should get life or death for killing her boyfriend.

This ambivalence has prompted the judge to send the jury back to the deliberation room to work through their differences.

"I do not wish or intend to force a verdict," Judge Sherry Stephens told the jurors before sending them back to continue their discussions. She instructed them to try to identify areas of agreement and disagreement as they work toward reaching a decision. Under Arizona law, hung juries in the penalty phase of trials require a new jury to be seated to decide the punishment.

The panel heard emotional comments from the family of victim Travis Alexander as the prosecutor argued that the 32-year-old Arias should be executed for the murder.

Arias talked out about her murder trial, her many fights with her legal team and her belief that she "deserves a second chance at freedom someday."  

If the jury opts for a life sentence, the judge will have the option of determining whether Arias spends the rest of her days behind bars or could be released after 25 years. Following her conviction last week, she told a local TV station that she preferred the death penalty.

"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.

Arias believes she didn't receive a fair trial with all of the media attention she received. 

"The prosecutor has accused me of wanting to be famous, which is not true," she said. However, countering her statement, Arias seems to enjoy the limelight, and even used a third-party to tweet throughout the entire trial.

If the jury cannot agree on a sentence for Arias, new jurors will be selected and the penalty phase will begin again. If a second jury cannot decide unanimously on a penalty, Arias would be sentenced to either life in prison without parole, or life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.