Reuters
Arizona prosecutors on Thursday called on an appeals court to uphold the murder conviction of Jodi Arias but admitted that mistakes were made during the trial. The Arizona Attorney General's Office acknowledged that Maricopa County prosecutor Juan Martinez was argumentative with two witnesses during the trial but said that did not cause any prejudice against Arias, who was subsequently found guilty in 2013 of murdering her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander. The statements came in response to Arias' case appeal, which included allegations that Martinez improperly questioned witnesses and courted news coverage during the 2008 trial. Her lawyers also claimed that Judge Sherry Stephens permitted news organizations to turn the trial into a “circus-like atmosphere,” an argument that state prosecutors refuted Thursday. “While the prosecutor unsurprisingly made some mistakes during Arias's 69-day trial, those errors did not prejudice the jury in light of the court's curative actions and the overwhelming evidence of Arias's guilt,” wrote Terry Crist, an assistant attorney general. Arias, 38, is serving a life sentence following her first-degree murder conviction.