Appeals court : Jodi Arias' testimony in death penalty hearing should be open

PHOENIX, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Jodi Arias's testimony at her death penalty hearing should be available to the public and news media, an Arizona appeals court said Tuesday.

A three-judge panel found that threatening mail the convicted killer has received, including death threats, did not justify allowing her to take the stand in secret. When Arias testified in late October, Judge Sherry Stephens did not even identify her as the witness on the stand.

"While we do not discount the volume or nature of Arias' mail or the fact that some people may wish he ill, her concern does not, as a matter of law, amount to an extremely serious substantive evil warranting closing the trial to the public and press," Judge Maurice Portley of the Court of Appeals said.

Arias was convicted last year of killing her former boyfriend, Travis Alexander, in his apartment in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa in 2008. Jurors were unable to agree on whether she should receive the death penalty, so the judge declared a mistrial for the penalty phase and scheduled a new trial on the issue.

The appellate opinion revealed that Arias did not feel she would be "able to fully communicate what she wants to say, communicate her remorse and go through all the mitigating factors and get them out there in front of the jury with the public here."

The trial resumed Monday after a week's hiatus. The judge suspended the trial after defense lawyers said some of their witnesses were afraid to testify openly.