Jodi Arias: Legal Bills Cost Taxpayers How Much?


Jodi Arias, who was convicted of murder in May 2013, has been awaiting a verdict on her sentence ever since as jurors failed to decide what her fate should be.

Prosecutors in the case are pursuing a second penalty phase with a new jury in order to obtain the death penalty for the 33-year-old. The trial is due to take place on March 17. Arias has been incarcerated in the Maricopa County jail, and her legal bills keep on rising.

The County has already coughed up $2,150,536.42 for Jodi Arias’ court-appointed attorneys and other legal expenses. Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery has not said how much Arias’ legal bill relying on a court order that prevents attorney’s from discussing “Arias-related matters.”

Jodi Arias was convicted of killing her boyfriend, Travis Alexander, in 2008 at his home in Phoenix. Arias pleaded self-defense, but as Travis suffered around 30 knife wounds on his body and died from having his throat slit and being shot in the forehead, her self-defense argument was regarded as not feasible.

At the time, the Jodi Arias trial drew a lot of attention around the world and the court proceedings were televised worldwide, showing each and every gory detail of the case. The judge this time around, wants to limit media coverage of the trial in order to avoid the same publicity.

In order to achieve that, the judge has ordered no live TV coverage of the trial and a ban on reporters bringing any electronic devices into the courtroom for the purpose of offering real-time updates via Twitter, as they did during the first trial.

Legally, in Arizona, if the second set of jurors fail to reach a unanimous decision, the option of the death penalty will be removed from the table. If that happens, the judge will most likely sentence Jodi Arias to life in prison with a possibility for release in 25 years time.

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