Convicted murderer Jodi Arias will have to wait longer, at least another few weeks, for a date to be set for the penalty phase of her trial that captivated the nation earlier this year and inspired a Lifetime movie.
After a five-month trial in Phoenix, Ariz., 33-year-old Arias was convicted in May of first-degree murder in the 2008 death of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, 30.
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Prosecutors said Arias killed Alexander in a jealous rage after finding out he was planning a trip to Mexico with another woman. She claimed, however, that she fought back in self-defense after he attacked her.
After determining that Arias was eligible for the death penalty, a jury got tripped up deciding whether she should be sentenced to death or life in prison, and Judge Sherry Stephens declared a hung jury for the penalty phase of the trial.
Stephens was expected to set a date on Monday for the retrial but said a decision could not yet be made because the court was
not ready to hear pre-trial arguments, according to ABC News.
The arguments include motions filed by the defense to ban cameras from broadcasting the sentencing phase live and to allow lawyers to monitor jurors' Twitter accounts.
The sentencing retrial is expected to take several weeks as a panel of 12 to 18 jurors is selected and briefed on evidence from the original murder trial. If the second jury cannot reach a unanimous decision, Arias will automatically be sentenced to life in prison and Stephens will decide whether that means life without parole or life with eligibility for parole after 25 years, ABC News reported.
In the meantime, Arias is being held in Maricopa County jail.
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