Jodi Arias can still be sentenced to capital punishment now that a judge denied a defense motion to take the death penalty off the table.
Arias' defense team motioned to set aside the Arizona jury's determination that she killed her lover in an "especially cruel" manner, one of the criteria for the death penalty, reports the Associated Press.
Arias was convicted of first-degree murder May 8 in the stabbing and shooting death of Travis Alexander in his suburban Phoenix home. The same jury failed to reach an unanimous decision on her sentence. As a result, her case has been placed in limbo as prosecutors decide whether to put on another penalty phase with a new jury in pursuit of the death penalty or settle for life in prison.
Defense attorneys argued that the definition of "especially cruel" is too vague for jurors to determine what makes one killing more cruel or heinous than another. However, "prosecutors argued that state and federal courts have found the process continues to pass constitutional muster, and that the defense motion, which also claimed the process violated the separation of legislative and judicial powers, lacked merit," reads CBS News.
The original jury only took three hours of deliberation to decide Arias had killed Travis Alexander in a "cruel, heinous, or depraved" manner that would warrant the death penalty. Medical examiners found that she stabbed Alexander 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.
A hearing is set for Aug. 26.
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