The Jodi Arias Trial--Fatal Attraction – The Murder of Travis Alexander

[HairOfTheDog]

Her "expert" testimony is rudimentary recovery pablum.

I believe Martinez successfully opened the door (by exposing her lack of academic credentials) that her conclusions are based soley on her interpretation of events without ANY objective, quantifiable or quantitative diagnostics.

I thought he made a good very point too. LaViolette's expert opinions are subjective, not objective. That's important for the jury to understand. To me, years of professional experience can equal or exceed having a PhD (which I was surprised she didn't when first viewing her CV). But, LaViolette is not professional. She doesn't strike me as analytical or clynical in her approach or abilities; her so called expertise all stems from her guts, feelings, and selecting the words and opinions that maximize her personal return on investment (in terms of ego and pocketbook). JMO.

With the tailoring of testimony . . . as Martinez got her to admit she can modify her "chart" on a whim, I hope this is repeated during closing arguments; reiterating the fact that her conclusion is subjective to her personal and NOT clinical, standards.

This was the strongest point that he made in the little time that he had for cross-examination before the long weekend break. It's major; hoping too that it's re-iterated in closing arguments.

And the whole buying Arias a magazine subscription bugs the hell out me, too.
IMO - It's creepy and inappropriate.

I started off being open minded regarding LaViolette. Was a little worried that the jury might find her credible because of her likeable folksy demeanor and years of experience with domestic violence victims and perpetrators. That worry diminished on the third day of testimony, when she started in with the Travis is the Big Bad wolf and Jodi is Goldilocks bullshit. Her true nature and motivations were transparent at the point, to me.

When Martinez started his cross, LaViolette's defensive posturing, jabs, selective dementia and attempts to get the jury on her side with practiced facial expressions creeped me out on her altogether; bettin’ the jury feels the same.

Unless Martinez blows chunks (and I don’t think he will), LaViolette’s toast. He gets way under skin. She handed him a ton of ammo during her direct testimony with which he will blow her expert opinion to smithereens. I'm looking forward to witnessing it.