Was Jodi Arias confession true? Was she the killer?  

James King Human Rights - Protection

Jodi Arias confession changed. She said she killed Travis Alexander alone to protect herself. But how did she kill him alone, when crime scene evidence did not support her claim. Yet the jury believed she acted alone but didn’t believe it was in self-defence. We may never know the truth.

jodi arias confession

The Jodi Arias case has become extremely complex and convoluted over time for a number of reasons. As a result, it will become more and more difficult to unravel and ascertain the truth. Did Jodi Arias make a false confession, is a question that may still be asked.

Who knows what to believe? Jodi Arias seemed to change her story to suit her mood. And her mood probably changed many times in the early days after her arrest. From bravado to fear, to confusion and tears, she must have been in turmoil.

Search for the truth and Jodi Arias confession.

TRUTH! That is the big word which in the adversarial system has little value or meaning and, in this case even less than usual as emotion has played too big a role.

It seems increasingly unlikely that the TRUTH will emerge in the foreseeable future, if ever because:

  1. Jodi Arias was charged with the First Degree Murder of Travis Alexander.
  2. Jodi Arias confession changes are confusing. She eventually pled not guilty to the charge above but pleaded guilty to killing Travis Alexander alone in self-defence.
  3. A jury found her guilty of First Degree Murder.
  4. The judge sentenced her to life without parole because the jury failed to deliver a sentence.
  5. Appeals could drag on for years.

Observations.

Many unbiased, rational observers who have taken an objective and dispassionate interest in the case are disturbed. Some concerns have been consistent and some have gradually manifested themselves. The view has become about as clear as a bowl of thick pea soup.

Many people have voiced opinions. Some, like ‘Spotlight on Law’, ‘Inconvenient Truths’ and ‘Richard Speights’ have analysed the evidence in considerably more detail than the prosecution or the jury appear to have done.

I struggled to make sense of the prosecution’s presentation of so-called evidence, which was mostly circumstantial. I could not see how a jury could possibly think that the prosecutor had proved the state’s case. But I can understand how jurors, influenced by media, physically and otherwise threatened, could return a guilty verdict.

Perjury?

Among many concerns, has been the lack of credibility of so many witnesses. It is not easy for anyone to maintain a credible level of dishonesty for too long. And the longer witnesses were examined, the more evidence of perjury surfaced.

If perjury is considered a serious offence in Arizona then the courts could be in for a busy time when this case is finally put to bed. But I doubt they care.

Despite the fact that there was overwhelming evidence of prosecutorial misconduct the prosecutor continued without compunction. It is difficult to believe that Juan Martinez has not suborned perjury on more than one occasion. His antics in the courtroom were enough to make any reasonable person cringe.

When prosecutors have too much power, they may feel immune from liability during the course of a trial, and they are liable to misuse that power. Thereby undermining the integrity of the legal system and its ability to achieve justice. A police officer in a similar situation would be suspended pending investigation.

So, perjury and prosecutorial misconduct (add to that a wishy-washy judge, if you like) may have pervaded throughout. If so, then by the end the waters will have been so muddied as to render any chance of uncovering the TRUTH highly improbable.

Juan Martinez disgraced and disbarred

It was all too late for Jodi Arias. The lawyer who became a public figure for prosecuting Jodi Arias was disbarred in 2020. Juan Martinez was fired by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for prosecutorial misconduct.

There are many unanswered questions  

I am suspicious about Jodi Arias confession and why she changed her story about the involvement of others in the killing of Travis Alexander.

Early in the proceedings, she claimed (in an interview with 48 hours CBS News) that there were two masked intruders in the house. They told her to leave and threatened to kill her and her family if she said anything.

Furthermore, the evidence indicated it would have been physically impossible for her to kill Alexander alone and leave the scene as it was found.

What are we to make of this?

Was the story of the masked intruders purely a figment of her vivid imagination?

If not, then why did she drop this claim when it made more sense than her final confession, when she said she did it single-handed?

Was she still scared for her family’s safety?

Is the crime scene evidence misleading, or was Jodi Arias confession false?

The crime scene evidence is not conclusive, and it doesn’t support the confession. Whichever way I look at the evidence, I cannot see how Jodi Arias could have carried out the killing alone and left the crime scene as it was.

Because of the attorney-client privileges, we are precluded from knowing what may or may not have been disclosed to the defence attorneys. Or whether the defence advised or supported the plea.

False confession?

So, did Jodi Arias make a false confession?

False confessions are not uncommon, and a number of theories could be put forward in this case. For example:

  • Jodi may have genuinely believed she did it alone, even though it may not be true.
  • She was prepared to sacrifice her life to save another or others, so she knowingly made a false confession.
  • Jodi was threatened with something worse than execution or incarceration by the intruders and so she said nothing more about them.

Final Thought

There are too many unanswered questions and little conclusive evidence to make me feel comfortable about the verdict.

  1. This has been over for a long time, but I can’t help noticing that a lot of people assume she was being truthful when she said Travis was posing in the shower and knew she was photographing him. The photos are considered lousy and ‘taken in haste’. As a photographer, she wouldn’t have taken lousy photos. I think he didn’t know he was being photographed and that the photo of him looking up from under the shower is when he first noticed her. She was only using his new camera as a prop to get close enough to kill him.

  4. Thank you for your comment Anonymous. I will try and respond as best I can as I think you may have missed the point of my post. (Maybe I wasn’t clear in my objective). Your first point is that I missed the possibility that ‘she did it’. I can’t really answer that until I know what you mean by ‘it’ because JA must have done many things.

    We do know that she admitted to killing TA single-handed in self-defence. But her confession is only a part of the evidence admitted. Of itself it doesn’t prove anything. We know the Jury believed the first part of her confession but not the second, ‘self-defence’. But we also know that Juries make mistakes as is evidenced by thousands of unsafe convictions over the years.
    This case was decided on circumstantial evidence. The only proven eye witness is dead. Whatever anyone believes is just ‘a belief’ and not a concrete fact.

    You say “Just because we cannot imagine how she did it doesn’t negate fact she did.“

    Someone else might say ‘I can imagine how she did it but in the absence of proven facts I do not believe the hypothesis put forward.‘

    The point of my post is:

    There are still far too many unanswered questions and very little conclusive evidence to make me feel comfortable about the verdict. And I am not convinced that JA’s confession/plea was truthful.

  5. You add in all possibilities accept the most obvious, she did it. If you take time to read whole g chat or what little of his journals remain, you see he was relieved for even one day free of Jodi and her drama. In the g chat which the defense used a few lines to show what an abusive man he was, he pleads her for answers, if she had not destroyed her own computer and hard drive maybe we would know what her motive was. Just because we cannot imagine how she did it doesn’t negate fact she did

  6. Yes, James, there was absolutely “overkill” on the emphasis of Jodi being alone. I’ve noticed it in a number of places.

  7. Why did they both need to re-enforce the, JA did it all alone, story? Because it is inconceivable? If it was a proven fact there would have been no need to mention it. The interviews only served to put more doubt/suspicion in my mind as they seemed both contrived and totally unnatural.
    Martinez did not surprise me at all (except for the ultra Mr. Cool) but Wilmott’s attitude and stance was surprising.
    I wonder why she emphasised the point, on a number of occasions, that she developed no relationship with JA because she wasn’t a first choice defender and came into the picture later. As though it was an excuse!!!
    Some of her statements floored me; particularly. “She’s just a client, like any other client.” “It’s not about the person; it’s about the case.” “It’s over.” “I think this is all gonna go away.”
    As you say: “…more questions…”

  8. Yes, I agree, they were doing what their profession requires. They also “appeared” to be firm in not discrediting either of their own stories, that Jodi was alone. Now, did Jodi convince them of this? Or is Jodi doing what she believes she has to do? Is she afraid, unwilling, and unable to access a bigger truth? On the stand a couple of times, she referred to “we” during parts of her trip, and then corrected herself. As always, more questions….

  9. Sandra. I watched the 2 part after sentence interview with Jenny Wilmott and Juan Martinez interview as well. Martinez, smug as hell and smooth as silk. Wilmott trying to convince us that she has no human emotions, no instinctive feeling for the people she defends and only deals with the evidence. It was just another case for both of them. It’s a cold profession. One thing that came across strongly to me, however, is that they both appeared, pointedly, to have no doubts that she committed the crime single-handed. That was interesting.

  10. You’re right, Jim. Jodi said on the stand, “the simple answer is…..” Either she can’t or isn’t willing to reveal the complex answer. Would that set her free? I don’t know. So many pieces of this puzzle don’t fit……

  11. Hi Patrick. They already made a movie before she was convicted which I thought was in very bad taste and apparently not good. Now she has life without parole but this saga is not likely to go away for a very long time if ever.

  13. She never expected him to take her to Cancun. That is illustrated in their communications. She wanted to keep Travis around as an “ex with benefits”. She had no motive to kill him. He was not “soaped up” . He was posing for photos with the spray of water from the shower.

  15. She did kill him, he wasn’t going to take her to cancun. Also if she dropped his camera like she says if he was in shower stepped out soaped up he would,ve slipped and fell how dumb does Jodi think people are? She is the dumb one! She killed him!

  17. James, you’ve managed to sum up my thoughts very nicely, here! You’re right. Jodi has never fit any known criteria for a pathological killer, no matter what mainstream media and the masses want to believe. Nothing in her past, and nothing in her actions after Travis’ death, support this. Thank you for taking the time to veer off into this debacle and speak up.