Life Or Death For Convicted Killer Jodi Arias?

By Sky News US Team

The case of convicted murderer Jodi Arias has gone to a jury that will decide if she is sentenced to death or life in prison for killing her boyfriend.

The jury of eight women and four men began weighing the former waitress's fate on Wednesday and are set to resume deliberating on Thursday.

In 2013 Arias was convicted of killing Travis Alexander, 30, in his Phoenix-area home.

The case became a sensation and the trial was broadcast live, drawing a large audience with its lurid details, graphic testimony and blood-splattered crime scene photos.

The jury that convicted her deadlocked on her punishment, prompting a penalty retrial before a new jury.

In closing arguments earlier in the week, defence lawyer Kirk Nurmi pleaded for Arias's life, saying the woman, now 34, was remorseful and fragile, suffers from mental illness and was physically and emotionally abused as a child.

Prosecutor Juan Martinez closed his remarks by showing a gory photograph of Mr Alexander with his throat cut. He said that there were no mitigating factors that should preclude a death sentence.

Mr Alexander was killed in 2008, his body found in a shower at his home. In addition to his throat being cut, he had been stabbed multiple times and shot in the face.

Arias said she acted in self-defence, but prosecutors accused her of murdering her former partner in a jealous rage.