Jodi Arias Body Language As Mistrial Declared Shows Shock, Hurt, Relief, and Frustration

As Jodi Arias is about to learn her fate as to  whether she was to  live or die it is essential to note how  she is dressed and how she  has  arranged her hair. With the exception of her pony tail, her hair do was similar  her court  minder who sat by her side whenever her attorneys left the defense  table for a sidebar  with the Judge.  Jodi copied the woman’s style with her hair in back of her ears  wearing bangs in front. Gone are the phony librarian glasses we saw throughout the trial.

Her copying this woman’s  style once again shows evidence of Jodi’s adhesive personality, whereby she takes on the likes or identity or style of others. With her own attorney,  Jennifer Wilmott  (when they were on better terms) you would see Jodi wearing similar colors and styles to her female attorney. She even took on  Ms. Wilmott’s posture and demeanor as she perused documents and took notes. She did the same thing with collapsing Travis’ identity with his Mormon faith as part of her own. She even remarked that the reason she smiled for her mug shot was because she thought “that’s what Travis would do.”

When she finds out that there is a hung jury and that there will be a mistrial she immediately shuts her eyes as if to process what she just heard.

Then you continue to see her processing the information while her attorney Jennifer Wilmott begins to show visible signs of surprise and anger based on her facial tension and tension around her eyes.

Now Jodi  begins to show signs of upset as she processed that the jury  did not give her life which she believed that they would, but instead sent her a clear message  that they couldn’t decide whether she should live or dies. She looks hurt due to the fact that there were some members of the jury who could even think about putting her to death.

Now we see that she is not only surprised but beginning to get upset with the findings because it means there were some jury members who didn’t believe her claim about being abused and killing in self defense. She also begins to realize that she will have to do her little ” and dance  act” all over again. It is as though she is nonverbally saying “Oh my God not again.”

She doesn’t release her hand from her face as now it is  a form of self comforting and self support as she sadly listens to each juror speak . There is an expression of hurt as she hears each juror speak the same words and no doubt feels “betrayed ” by them. She spoke of feeling betrayed by them in the ABC interview. Now we see the visible physical facial expressions reflecting her perceived betrayal. Her  shoulders are rounded as she appears defeated.

She cannot move her hand from the side of her face as she continues to listen to the jurors.  There is a lot of facial tension around her lower jaw as she looks as though she is emotionally hurt and as though she could cry any second. Her potential tears are clearly due to he feeling that the jury did her wrong.

Her hand moves over her mouth indicating that she is literally “speechless” at what is happening. The tension around her eyes have relaxed more as she realizes that this may not be such a bad thing. She doesn’t have to go to death row now and be in isolation for the rest of her life. Now she has more time before she leaves the jail and heads to prison. Most of all she’ll remain in the limelight for a lot longer with all the attention paid to her, thus feeding her insatiable narcissism.

She scratches  and presses down on her midface region, nasal bridge, and inner portion of her closed eyelids  as a  way of releasing the pent up emotional pressure. It is a signal of relief. She is relieved she wasn’t sentenced to death (at least not yet).

But for the Alexander family, not seeing her sentenced to death for what she did to their brother was devastating as his sister immediately broke down in sobs.

The same was true for his other sisters,  while  both his his brother and brother in law showed visible signs of anger with clenched jaws and furrowed brows.  For them it was as though al this effort to seek justice for their brother who had his throat slit and who was killed so shockingly by Jodi,  was done for nothing. Apparently some of the jurors mouthed the words “I’m sorry”” to this distraught family.But to the Alexander family, these were empty words. They were the ones that were sorry that they weren’t in the courtroom seeing Jodi sentenced to die.

To the family, there is only one logical conclusion and that is death for Jodi. But that was not the case with the jurors. The lack of  the Alexander’s family wish for a  death sentence and now their  lack of closure will have severe emotional repercussions on this family until they  return to the courtroom and once again in July to still see  their brother’s monster murderess.

Following this hung jury’s dismissal from the courtroom, the Jury Forman  William Zervakos spoke to the press. He  said that  be believed Travis Alexander verbally and emotionally abused Jodi Arias. That is a shock to many who did not believe this to be the case. No doubt other jurors fell for this  line fo thinking. Otherwise they would have all  quickly agreed that she deserved to die by lethal needle.

The judge showed frustration with the jury as she read that it was a mistrial as reflected by her letting out a huge burst of air, resulting in a huge sigh before she spoke , which is a clear signal of frustration and exasperation  on her part. . There is no doubt that this trial took it’s toll on her too, since  she always had to be on her toes throughout the trial to make sure a mistrial would not be the result of anything she did. This must have been extremely  taxing on her psyche .

Now there will be  a new group of jurors to assist in deciding Jodi’s fate. For the next 2 1/2/ months, Jodi will sit in a cell 23 hours a day and do no media. This may be her worst punishment yet.