Jodi Arias' lawyers filed for another motion on Thursday, this time to request that the jurors in her retrial be sequestered in order to "to ensure that the jury is not exposed to community and/or media influence."
Arias was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8 in the ghastly death of her ex-lover Travis Alexander in his suburban Phoenix home. However, the same jury failed to reach an unanimous decision on her sentence. As a result, she will face another trial to determine whether she will be sentenced to death or life in prison.
Medical examiners found that the 32-year-old California native stabbed her ex-boyfriend 27 times, primarily in the back, torso and heart. She also slit Alexander's throat from ear to ear, nearly decapitating him, and shot him in the face, before she dragged his bloodied corpse to the shower. In total, the gruesome killing was done in a little less than two minutes.
In the motion, Arias' lawyers claim the jury will be subjected to intense publicity, which will hinder her from receiving a fair trial. The motion cites thousands of TV news shows and newspaper articles about Arias throughout her roughly five-month trial, as well as a recent Lifetime movie about the case that attorneys said attracted 3.1 million viewers.
"This integrity is in the most danger of being compromised when the process is contaminated by outside influences," the attorneys wrote, according to the Huffington Post. "Given what took place in the last trial and the propensity for history to repeat itself, it is certainly beyond legitimate dispute that the threat to the integrity of the retrial is severe."
Prosecutors have not yet filed a response.
Last Tuesday, defense attorneys filed a motion for the retrial to be moved out of the Phoenix metropolitan area because of excessive publicity and to prohibit live television coverage, reports HLN-TV. Additionally, the defense has requested that lawyers be able to monitor the Twitter accounts of new jurors and that media is prohibited from covering the sentencing retrial.
Arizona Judge Sherry Stephens scheduled another pretrial hearing for Monday, Sept. 16 to allow herself more time to review the motions.