Jodi Arias Trial Update Today HLN:  Judge Sherry Stephens set March 17 as the trial date to decide whether Jodi Arias should be sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty. The sentencing phase of the Jodi Arias trial is set to start in March. The Jodi Arias trial will have a new jury. There were previous reports of possible plea-deal negotiations in the Jodi Arias trial. Jodi Arias faces a new hearing in the sentencing phase.

The new Jodi Arias jury will have a hard time deciding whether to sentence Arias to life in jail or death because they will have to sift through mitigating factors. Jodi Arias' defense team presented 8 mitigating factors that they hope would convince the jury to sentence her to life in prison, rather than giving her a death sentence.  

A Phoenix judge set March 17 as the date for the new penalty phase for the trial Jodi Arias. Arias was convicted of murdering her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander. The Jodi Arias trial began more than a year ago, ending four months later with the conviction of Arias on first-degree murder.

The mitigating factors, in the state of Arizona, include "any aspect of the defendant's character, propensities or record and any of the circumstances of the offense." In an attempt to save Jodi from the death penalty, lawyers for Arias introduced eight "mitigating circumstances" in the trial. The circumstances included Arias' age, her troubled upbringing and her artistic talent. Juan Martinez, the prosecuting attorney, dismissed the factors against the brutal killing.

Arias juror, Marilou Allen-Coogan, told Crimesider "I think it's going to be extremely difficult to seat a jury that is impartial. However, I think it's absolutely a possibility that Arias could receive the death penalty depending on what's presented."  

Marilou Allen-Coogan, who was part of the first Jodi Arias trial jury, told CBS "Individual choice is what it comes down to and the makeup of the jury. It will be very hard. They won't have all of the emotional ties that we had. They won't have the four-and-a-half months of testimony. They will be given a capsulated version.."

Jodi Arias' lawyers asked judge Sherry Stephens to vacate the jury's ruling that the murder was "especially cruel." This is the classification that allowed the prosecution to argue for the death penalty. Jodi Arias' lawyers argued that "especially cruel" is too broad of a term for jurors who aren't legal experts to fairly judge what makes one killing more cruel than another. Arizona law defines "cruel manner" in terms of the victim's pain and suffering. It didn't take into the mitigating factors of the crime, like Arias' age or the "unusual and substantial duress" she was suffering. The filing challenged a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled defendants have the right for jurors to determine the aggravating factors that qualify them for the death penalty.

The new Jodi Arias jury will decide whether convicted killer gets life in prison or the death penalty.  The judge set the date after a closed-door meeting between prosecutors and Arias' defense attorneys.

The first Jodi Arias trial ended in a murder conviction but the verdict for sentencing was declared a hung jury. If the jury of the second Jodi Arias penalty phase is deadlocked on the death penalty again, it would be up to the judge to sentence Arias to life in prison or life with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

Jodi Arias was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8, 2013 in the June 2008 death of Travis Alexander, but the jury couldn't reach a unanimous decision on whether to sentence the former waitress to death or life in prison.

Jodi Arias claimed she killed Alexander in self-defense after he attacked her after a day of raunchy sex. The police said that Arias planned the killing in a jealous rage.