What the Arizona Republic calls "one of the more dramatic and notorious murder trials" in the state's recent history is over: Jodi Arias will spend the rest of her life in prison. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens today handed down the sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Stephens was deciding between natural life or a sentence that would allow the convicted murderer, 34, to be eligible for parole after 25 years, the AP reports. Two juries had deadlocked over sentencing (the second was 11-1 in favor of death), and the Republic explains that Arizona state law would not permit another trial and dictated a life sentence in the case.
Relatives of Arias' on-again-off-again boyfriend, victim Travis Alexander, had asked that she be given the maximum sentence. Arias killed Alexander in 2008 in what prosecutors said was retaliation for his desire to break off the relationship. Arias will begin serving her sentence in a 12-by-7-foot cell in a maximum-security unit at the Perryville prison for women, located 30 miles west of downtown Phoenix. If prison officials deem her behavior good over time, she could be moved to lower-security units. After being convicted of murder in 2013, Arias told an interviewer she wanted death, noting "longevity runs in my family"; she later changed her mind. (More Jodi Arias stories.)
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