Hi, My name is Chow.

I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome myself to the Cultural Hall. I’ve been here before, but on the ‘other side’ as a listening participant.

I was raised in the Salt Lake Valley and Canada; spending my school days in Utah with my mom and my summer vacations in Canada with my dad. My parents are divorced, obviously.

After high school, I went to college where I met my little-while-later to be (as opposed to soon-to-be) husband, Russ.

After dating for a little over a year, I was called to serve in Hawaii.

As I stepped off the escalator returning from my mission, I saw my family, my best friends, and Russ. It made for an awkward day that neither of us will ever forget, but 5 months later we were married, sealed, and stuck together forever in the Cardston, Canada Temple.

To add to the adventure of being newlyweds, Russ took on a new job in Austin and we relocated to Central Texas. The last 6 years have been a whirlwind of finishing up my undergrad degree, going through law school, having a baby, passing the bar exam, and starting my career as a prosecutor.

I am sure as time goes on I will share more personal experiences, but this should suffice now to briefly summarize who I am.

I’ll bring my point of view to current issues.

Consider my posts a conversation starter, not a reason to put your CAPS LOCK on.

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Arias Trial in Arizona

If you haven’t been following this case you can get the details here.

For our purposes here is a brief summation:

Returned missionary guy (Travis Alexander) meets girl (Jodi Arias). Girl gets baptized. Girl and guy date. At some point they fall off the law of chastity wagon. They break up. They keep hooking up.

The guy ends up dead with a gunshot wound to the head, 27 stab wounds, and throat slit from ear to ear.
Girl is charged with his murder.

That summation is very simplified summary of what is going on in this trial-which started in January.
Here’s my takeaway from this case… at least so far:

• I think this case shows that no one is immune from Satan.

It is a slippery path to his grasp. I say this because I honestly think these two people were good people. They knew how to make right choices. But overtime, little by little, they have been led down this destructive path to the events that ended with Alexander’s murder. It is the heartbreaking result of slowly violating promises and continuing to violate promises until a former missionary is dead in a shower.

• Phone sex is Pornography

During part of the trial, the jury listened to a tapped phone sex conversation between Arias and Alexander. Read about it here.

I found myself pondering about the sex phone call between Jodi Arias and Travis Alexander, after I read that it had been played for the jury. I didn’t quite know how describe my feelings about it until my Stake Conference on Sunday. We were part of a multi-stake broadcast in which Elder Scott spoke about the sanctity of womanhood. At one point he talked about the evils of pornography in its “many forms”.

I would categorized this sex phone call as just that; a form of pornography. If it were written in a book, it would be a pornographic book. If it were in a movie, it would be a pornographic movie. Just because the form is changed, does not change the nature of what it is; pornographic.

I also have a few thoughts as to the criminal justice side of things, since I am a prosecutor (yes, just like Jack McCoy. Dun-dun):

• Justice can be slow

This murder happened in 2008, nearly 5 years ago.
I wonder if the founding fathers would pull their hair out about if they knew their “right to a speedy trial” meant 5 years.
The reason for this delay is because there are a number of pretrial hearings that must take place before a trial can. On top of that, a court can have upwards of 4,000 new cases a year. So while justice appears to be delayed, it isn’t. It is just stuck in the process of preserving individual rights.
• Whatever the verdict, trust the jury.
Ask any lawyer or judge, there is something sort of sacred about a jury verdict. The jury listened to everything. On February 20th, this jury listened to Ms. Arias explain the gunshot and the stab wounds inflicted upon Travis Alexander. Whatever their verdict may be, we must trust that they evaluated the evidence and did what they thought right for justice to be done.
In past highly-publicized media cases, society tends to either acknowledge the verdict without much thought (like the Sandusky verdict) and at other times berate the jury for injustice (like Casey Anthony). To stand in judgment of your fellow man is a heavy task. Please, trust their verdict, whatever it may be.