. >> reporter: in session's beth karas has been in the courtroom every day of the trial. the forensic evidence that the prosecution said linked jodi arias to the crime scene. >> blood. fingerprints. palm print, and hair. >> jodi loved travis. and so what would have forced her to have to take travis' life someone help me!!! i have a flat tire!!! well it's good... good for me. what do you think? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. there's no subtext... just tacos. yeah, it's our job to make you want it. but honestly... it's not that hard. old el paso. when you gotta have mexican. >>> monday, june 9, 2008, 90 minutes until midnight in a mesa, arizona, community called mountain range. nobody has heard from travis alexander in five days. >> these friends meet at the house to try and determine travis' whereabouts. through another friend they get the code to the garage. they go inside the house. it smells, there is a foul odor hanging in the air. travis' roommate and his friend go inside the bedroom. >> oh, my god. >> 911 emergency. >>

beth karas, vinnie politan, ryan smith. want to start with you because you have been a prosecutor and we together and this whole team in fact have covered a lot of death penalty cases. and if you ask the average american out there, many would say they have no idea that we share this death penalty with some of those very frightening other countries and not with most of the rest of the world. >> let me make an addition to what you just read. actually connecticut was the most recent state almost a year ago april 2012 they repealed the death penalty. it's not retroactive. it's anyone from that date nord. end of april last year. so now 17 states in the united states do not have it. 33 do have it. and it is shock to ing to many people because we're called the civilized world that does not have the western world, we're the only one that has the death penalty. there had been a trend for a while against the death penalty. i think that trend continues. authority carolina had a moratorium for a while. it was on the table to be repealed

i want to bring in beth karas from "in session." she joins me from outside the courthouse. it may seem unreasonable to some people that someone is fed two times a day, 12 hours a part. this is standard for inmates at maricopa county, isn't it? >> yes, indeed. and i'm assured that sheriff arpaio has consulted with a nutritionist to make sure that the meals are balanced and they're getting sufficient, obviously, nutrition and calories. it's a total of 2600 calories in a day. but a 12 hours is a long period of time. the inmates at the jail and not being transported. they can a commissary and they can buy snacks. jodi can do that. but she can't bring any snacks to court, and nobody can give her food. that's why they have to have permission to get her food during the day. unless and until the judge says, give her more calories, give her additional food from the two meals she's getting every day. she's going to continue to get half of the breakfast at breakfast. and half of that breakfast at lunch. and she gets a warm meal at night when she returns. >> when people heard she had a

that's what they want the jury to have to look at. >> so beth karas, jump in here.e have two issues that the domestic violence expert is answering to. first and foremost is the kind of violence that she said she suffered growing up and then the kind of violence that she said she suffered with travis alexander. i want to go back to the agreeing up part because i glue up in the 60s and 70s and the wooden spoon was part of everyone's vernacular or the belt or the brush or anything else. and i just have to wonder how many jurors, i'm not sure it's easy for you to tell, but how many jurors look for be about my anyone and have medical others that that's just standard operating procedure and it doesn't make and you killer? >> well, it is an older jury. there are 18 of them and six will be randomly selected as alternates. but i've spoken with a number of people around the courthouse and they said it sounds like what i experienced. it's not so bad. so maybe there will be some jurors that that are resonate with that will be on the same page with you. you know, the whole point

. >> reporter: in session's beth karas has been in the courtroom every day of the trial.orensic evidence that the prosecution said linked jodi arias to the crime scene. >> blood. fingerprints. palm print, and hair. >> jodi loved travis. and so what would have forced her to have to take travis' life on that awful day? >> reporter: the defense team argued a lifetime of physical and mental abuse by family and boyfriends had reached a tipping point for jodi arias. >> and on june 4, 2008, it had reached a point of no return. and sadly, travis left jodi no other option but to defend herself. on that horrible day, jodi believed that travis was going to kill her. >> can you speak to how much contact you had with ms. arias? >> the defense began with a friend of jodi's. >> probably a minimum of once a week we would touch base with each other. she was always very well spoken, a little timid, shy. >> a former boyfriend. >> i know jodi because we were in love. >> and even friends of travis. >> how did travis treat jodi when it was the four of you? >> very well. >> what did he do? >> t

. >> "in session's" beth karas has been in the courtroom every day of the trial. >> and i want to knowng him nine times in the back and in the heart and in the abdomen and slicing him and he has defensive wounds, as he's stumbling down the hall, what was going through your mind when you took that knife and drew it across his throat? >> how long did you date travis for? >> i would say about seven to eight months. >> the defense called witnesses, including a mormon ex-girlfriend, to try and shatter the image of travis as the pure mormon man. what they claimed was nothing more than a facade. >> let's talk about the first time you broke up. what was the reason for that? >> um, i came to the understanding that he was cheating on me. >> do you know who he was cheating with? >> yes. >> who was that? >> jodi arias. >> jodi was travis' dirty little secret. despite projecting himself as a good and virginal mormon man, someone who is a temple member, from the moment he met jodi, he was pushing and pushing her to have a sexual relationship with him. >> travis alexander, there's no question he was

beth karas is in phoenix covering the trial for trutv's "in session."s the defense possibly in cross-examination make that any better? >> reporter: good morning, soledad. we have seen 13 days of jodi arias on the stand. eight days by her attorneys, five days by the prosecution on cross, and now her attorneys get another day, two, three days, who knows, to try to rehabilitate. what can they do with her? i'm not sure. they'll go over some of the areas they already covered on direct examination. she had great recall when her lawyers were questioning her about all kinds of detail in her life except when it came to the killing itself. she's in a fog, blurry. she remembers shooting and nothing else until she's driving in the desert about a half hour later, probably, maybe more. this is after slicing him up and slitting his throat and deleting photos on a camera of his, incriminating photos that placed her at the scene, which investigators later found. pretty incredible stuff. so on cross-examination, she had memory loss about all kinds of detail she remembere

beth karas and vinnie politan from our sister network on trutv are joining me. guys have watched from day one as this woman has told lie after lie after lie and it reminds me of casey anthony who is making news today back in court. i'm going to talk about that in a moment. beth, start here. redirect, it's what her defense attorney gets to do to try to clean up the mess that was left behind by a ruthless prosecutor. can they do it? >> i really don't know, ashleigh, if they can do it. but two things -- three things the defense has to focus on, her allegation that the victim travis, alexander was actually attracted to little boys. and his increased violence against her so she says once she found out that little secret. her defense will fall apart if because -- that's what it hinges on, if he cannot rehabilitate her. because the prosecution has pretty much neutralized it. also, they'll deal with this premeditation, the state said she planned this trip to go and kill him. they brought out new facts on cross-examination and the defense has to deal with her road trip f

join us are ted rowland and beth karas from trutv.he's finally off the stand and didn't go without fireworks from the prosecutor. what was that about? >> well, frustration. as you said she has an answer for everything. she's very good, very quick on her feet, very intelligent. but the prosecutor says basically all she's talking about is a lie. it's frustrating. it has been frustrating. yesterday it erupted on a couple different times when he's trying to get to her and basically tell her that her story doesn't make sense. take a listen. >> started to come in after the gunshot after i got up and he threatened my life. i have no clear memory after that. >> and that's when the memory issue started, correct? right? >> i would say that. >> actually, ma'am, the way you describe that, it's impossible for the killing to have happened in that manner, isn't it? >> objection. argumentative. >> no. that's just according to you. >> isn't it? >> no. it's not impossible. >> she doesn't give an inch. he's saying the way you have laid it out, it's impo

. >> "in session's" beth karas has been in the courtroom every day of the trial. >> what was the forensiccution said linked jodi arias to the crime scene? >> blood. fingerprints, palm print and hair. >> jodi loved travis. and so what would've forced her to have to take travis' life on that awful day. >> the defense team argued that a lifetime of physical and mental abuse by family and boyfriends had reached a tipping point for jodi arias. >> and on june 4th of 2008, it had reached a point of no return. and sadly, travis left jodi no other option but to defend herself. on that horrible day, jodi believed that travis was going to kill her. >> can you speak to how much contact you had with ms. arias? >> the defense began with a friend of jodi's. >> it probably at minimum of once a week we would touch base with each other. >> she was always very well spoken, a little bit timid, a little bit shy. >> reporter: a former boyfriend. >> i know jodi because we were in love. >> reporter: and even friends of travis. >> how did travis treat jodi when it was just the four of you. >> very well. >> and wh

. >>> beth karas is a correspondent on trutv. to see you. >> good morning. >> this woman has been talking almost nonstop. she told the police she wasn't there. then she says i was there but intruders came in. then she says she was there and she was attacked. and she does jailhouse interviews. how does the defense thread this needle in front of a jury? >> you know, that is still to come, lester, when the experts take thestand. she admitted all the lies. she had to. she said i did it in self-defense. i did all the horrible acts but i was justified. he was abusing me. so she says at this point that the lies, all these lies were because she was still protecting his reputation. she had dirty little secrets on him and she still was protecting him in death. i don't know what the psychologist and domestic violence experts still to come for the defense will say about that. maybe they'll have some interpretation that this is consistent with victim of abuse. however, the state says this is not a woman who was abused at all. there is no evid

joining me now are alan jackson, the prosecutor who helped convict spector and former prosecutor beth karasthe trial. great to talk to you both. >> nice to be here. >> hello. >> beth, i want to start with you. lana's publicist tells the hollywood reporter, to see that film was going to be made was a slap in the face, we were so happy that phil spector was in prison. beth, why do you think this group is so mad about this picture, this movie? >> well, it's because the movie takes literary license, they have a right to do that, but they portray lana clarkson's death as a suicide, not a murder. and that was the defense in the case. that's the defense that the jury outright flat out rejected. and nothing in this movie is going to affect the integrity of the evidence and that verdict that sent phil spector to prison for the rest of his life. >> and alan, i want to get your take on this, phil spector's life was on piers morgan last night and we're going to listen. >> but i will say the one thing that was accurately depicted through the film and was reiterated was the fact that lana clarkson was lo