Arizona Supreme Court won't allow secret Arias testimony

• The Arizona Supreme Court will not reconsider the Court of Appeals ruling banning secret witnesses.
• Jodi Arias' defense attorneys said witnesses feared testifying in open court because of harassment.
• Sentencing trial for convicted killer resumes Wednesday morning

The Arizona Supreme Court refused to reconsider Tuesday whether convicted killer Jodi Arias should be allowed to testify in secret during her current sentencing retrial.

Without comment, the state's highest court denied Arias' "petition for review," which lets stand a November ruling by the Arizona Court of Appeals.

In May 2013, Arias, 34, was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of her sometime lover, Travis Alexander, 30, who was found in the shower of his Mesa home in June 2008 with a bullet in his head, a slit throat and nearly 30 stab wounds.

But the jury that found Arias guilty of the murder was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether she should be sentenced to death or to life in prison, which mandated the current retrial. A new jury was impaneled in October 2014 to consider only the life or death sentence.

Because witnesses were harassed during Arias' first trial, her defense attorneys persuaded Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens to allow "mitigation" testimony in a closed courtroom, out of earshot of the public and the press.

As the first witness was about to take the stand on Oct. 30, Stephens cleared the courtroom. The Arizona Republic, 12 News and other media outlets filed a motion to get back into the hearings, which Stephens denied, so the media took the case to the Arizona Court of Appeals.

The Appeals Court imposed a stay on Stephens' decision after two days of closed testimony and ultimately ruled that witnesses could not testify in secret. It was later learned that the witness on the stand was Arias herself.

Subsequently, Arias defense attorney Kirk Nurmi claimed that 14 witnesses decided not to go public by testifying. Nurmi then petitioned the Arizona Supreme Court.

The Arias sentencing trial resumes Wednesday morning.