Jodi Arias, who was convicted in the brutal 2008 killing of her former boyfriend Travis Alexander in 2013, will avoid the death penalty.

Jodi Arias Sentencing

On Thursday, the 12-man jury revealed that it was unable to reach a unanimous decision to sentence Arias to the death penalty – making it the second jury unable to do so. The jury, which consisted of eight women and four men, had deliberated for 26 hours. Since they were unable to reach a unanimous decision, the death penalty is off the table and the judge will now determine whether to sentence Arias to life behind bars without the possibility or parole, or to make her eligible for parole in 25 years.

While in the first sentencing trial the jury was spilt 8-4 in favor of the death penalty, this time around it was even more lopsided, with only one juror deciding that Arias did not deserve death as punishment. The jurors who had voted for the death penalty have since spoken out against the holdout juror, accusing her of having an anti-death penalty agenda and of having watched the Lifetime TV movie Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret.

“I think she [the holdout juror] came in and expected to see a monster in there because of what she saw on TV and the news and when she came in she saw it wasn’t,” a juror told ABC News.

Another juror said, “The 11 of us strived for justice but to no avail. We absolutely feel the penalty should have been death.”

The holdout juror has not yet commented on her decision.

Throughout Arias’ lengthy trial, she maintained that she acted in self-defense when she killed Alexander back in 2008, stabbing him nearly 30 times, slitting his throat and shooting him in the head. Arias was ultimately found guilty of first-degree, premeditated murder. Initially Arias hoped that the sentencing jury would deliver a death penalty sentence, though quickly changed her mind and fought for life in prison.

“I felt like by asking for death, it’s like asking for assisted suicide and I didn’t want to do that to my family,” she told KSAZ-TV

Arias will appear back in court April 13 to hear the judge’s sentencing decision about whether or not she’ll be eligible for parole in 25 years.

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