Jodi Arias Trial News Update: Hearing Postponed Until Oct. 4

Arizona Judge Sherry Stephens has once again rescheduled another pretrial hearing on the second penalty-phase of the Jodi Arias murder trial. 

In August, Judge Stephens pushed the trial back to Monday, Sept. 16. However, on Friday the judge delayed the hearing again until Oct. 4, without giving a reason for the postponement, reports the Associated Press.

Jodi Arias was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8 in the ghastly 2008 death of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in his suburban Phoenix home. However, the same jury that found her guilty 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 33-year-old California native stabbed her ex 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 where she left him. In total, the gruesome killing took place in a little less than two minutes.

Earlier this month, Arias' lawyers filed a motion requesting 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."

In the motion, Arias' lawyers claimed 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.

Defense attorneys also filed a motion for the retrial to be moved out of the Phoenix metropolitan area because of excessive publicity and asked 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.