I’m reverting back to living on west coast time, eating lunch with the Arias jury and staying up too late. We are back and Geffner is talking about PTSD. I’m pretty sure she has it, FROM VICIOUSLY MURDERING HER SEX PARTNER. I don’t see how they can seriously try to attribute that to any prior trauma. You can’t give a test for PTSD now and prove that she had it prior to her murderous rampage. I’m sure Juan will point that out. There are lots of charts and graphs but no photog has shown up today. I’m almost as upset about that as Jodi.
Geffner continues to go over MMPI(2) results which I say are meaningless when done after the murder. I’m pretty sure her “extremely low self-esteem” is impacted by sitting in prison for murder. I know I’d think less of myself in that situation. Geffner says that according to his assessment of the assessment, Jodi is submissive and eager to please others. Geffner is laughing on the stand. I assume maybe he is nervous. Tweeters pointing out the inappropriateness of laughing during a death penalty sentencing trial.
Geffner says Jodi has subjective depression that affects her body, feels apathetic, not much energy, brooding. Um so does half of the US population in general and nearly everyone in prison. What is the point of this? How is this in anyway mitigating? She certainly didn’t have any of that when she loaded up the car, dyed her hair, and set off to commit premeditated murder. I have depression and low energy and apathy and I can tell you I can barely be arsed to drive to the store to buy wine to self-medicate with let alone drive hundreds of miles with a new hairdo to brutally murder someone. That’s not watch bored, anxious, depressed, apathetic people do. We sit on the couch and write crappy blog entries. We drink wine and shop on the Internet. We nap. We consider walking the dog but rarely do. I should be called by the prosecution as an expert witness.
Geffner says he can’t confirm a personality disorder based on this batch of assessments. Her main coping disorder is disassociating. She blocks out traumatic situations. Um, isn’t that a pretty common coping mechanism.
For the remainder of the afternoon, Geffner went through series of assessment given over the years that Jodi has been incarcerated. There was very little change over the years. Her anger levels have increased, her suicide levels have decreased but neither category was significantly high to start with.
The test for malingering (trying to effect the outcome of the test) showed that she answered her questions truthfully. Or else she is really good at taking the test for malingering. Her own attorney began his case in chief by saying she is a lying liar who lies a lot.
And that was the afternoon session. The media were bored. The jury was bored. Everyone was bored. And tomorrow is expected to be more of the same.
I read part one and part 2 from today; one thing I learned from jury duty — court does not run to appease the public or jury’s schedule.
All I can say is–glad I am not on this jury, taking forever.
I really enjoyed reading this blog. I am right here in Phoenix (a suburb), followed the first trial, read every book and came to the same conclusion every single time…Jodi is a psychopath and she can’t possibly have PTSD because sociopaths ad psychopaths have no empathy, no true emotions and no remorse. You would need to possess some of those qualities to feel the trauma that she is claiming to have suffered from. The only oners who have PTSD and probably are developing depression are those having to listen to the crap spewing from the mouths of those frauds in the courtroom. I commend you for writing about this awful case and for having the stomach to follow it.
I really look forward to your insightful commentaries on the Jodi Arias retrial. Please don’t give up – it is a tedious re-hash of her trial but you do summarise it so wittily and add clarity to the nonsense and I really do appreciate it.
I just love reading all your blog synopsis’ of this disgraceful excuse for a penalty trial. Well done, once again.
Thanks y’all. I really wasn’t fishing for compliments… I really just wanted to know we were all still paying attention.
It’s exhausting. I just wanted to know you were still with me… I appreciate it.
On Mon, Dec 15, 2014 at 8:52 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote: > >
Tamara, your writing/reporting is superb, we owe you a debt of gratitude even though some of us sprinkle a dab of salt and tend to read between the lines of your lovely prose.
Is there a limit of how many people can psychoanalyze her from the stand?
I’m still reading as always! You are my source for Jodi news! But, dang that big ol’ mug shot pic kinda jumped out me when I was scrolling down…it scared me!
Glad I wasn’t the only one!
Make that 3 of us!
(⊙.⊙)(☉̃ₒ☉)(⊙.⊙)
She should have been convicted solely on the merit of her creepy ass mugshot smile.
I thought judge Stephens had the trial on winter recess so I haven’t bothered checking up on it. You’re a real trooper Tamara — thanks for taking one for the team! Re Geffner — isn’t he the guy from the 1st trial that got so nervous during cross with Juan that he spilled his water all over his papers then said “oh shit”!? Wonder how he’s fairing this time around?!.☺☺
Yes. Nothing spilled yet but lots of nervous laughter….
On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 2:50 AM, Tamara Tattles wrote: > >
I cannot stand to watch more than 6 minutes of Vanderpump Fools. I can’t even read more than one paragraph of your blog about those whiners. But, I read every word you write about the Jody trial, now that I cannot watch it. I am not sure why I do, I dislike the thought of her. It must be because I dislike the thought of her getting any kind of consideration more.
isnt it nice the people of arizona have so much money nobody cares that they are throwing millions of dollars away just so jodi can get a life sentence out of this? we ALL have PTSD after this. the Alexander family have the worst case of it. the trauma from having to look at her and be that close to her must be horrific.
Tamara, I read every word of these posts, and you take all of the confusion out, and make good sense of it all. So, a huge thank you to YOU! Off topic, I saw an ad for a New York City shop, selling artisan bone broth! How chic. How expensive. How ridiculous!
I saw an article on that. Everytime I make it I look up the recipe while it is simmering as if it has changed from the last time I made it a few weeks before. lol.
On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 2:35 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote: > >
Thank you Tamara for this brilliant post! I appreciate you take’n the time to keep us posted in the most insightful and funny way. Happy Holidays!
Tamara, do you have a gut feeling as to the outcome of the sentencing trial?
I don’t think they will agree and then Judge Stephens will sentence her to life without parole.
On Wed, Dec 17, 2014 at 6:34 AM, Tamara Tattles wrote: > >