title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin was founded on 28 November 1905, when, at the first annual Convention of the National Council, Arthur Griffith outlined the Sinn Féin policy, "to establish in Ireland's capital a national legislature endowed with the moral authority of the Irish nation". Its initial political platform was both conservative and monarchist, advocating for an Anglo-Irish dual monarchy unified with the British Crown (inspired by the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867). The party contested the 1908 North Leitrim by-election, where it secured 27% of the vote. Thereafter, both support and membership fell. At the 1910 "Ard Fheis" (party conference) the attendance was poor, and there was difficulty finding members willing to take seats on the executive.


title: Sinn Féin

text: In 1914, Sinn Féin members, including Griffith, joined the anti-Redmond Irish Volunteers, which was referred to by Redmondites and others as the "Sinn Féin Volunteers". Although Griffith himself did not take part in the Easter Rising of 1916, many Sinn Féin members did, as they were also members of both the Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Government and newspapers dubbed the Rising "the Sinn Féin Rising". After the Rising, republicans came together under the banner of Sinn Féin, and at the 1917 "Ard Fheis" the party committed itself for the first time to the establishment of an Irish Republic. In the 1918 general election, Sinn Féin won 73 of Ireland's 105 seats, and in January 1919, its MPs assembled in Dublin and proclaimed themselves Dáil Éireann, the parliament of Ireland. The party supported the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence, and members of the Dáil government negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty with the British government in 1921. In the Dáil debates that followed, the party divided on the Treaty. The pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty components (led by Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera respectively) managed to agree on a "Coalition Panel" of Sinn Féin candidates to stand in the 1922 general election. In the wake of the vote, anti-Treaty members walked out of the Dáil, and pro- and anti-Treaty members took opposite sides in the ensuing Civil War.


title: Sinn Féin

text: In 1918 Sinn Féin member Constance Markievicz became the first woman elected to the United Kingdom House of Commons. However, in line with Sinn Féin abstentionist policy, she did not take her seat in the House of Commons.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Pro-Treaty Dáil deputies and other Treaty supporters formed a new party, Cumann na nGaedheal, on 27 April 1923 at a meeting in Dublin, where delegates agreed on a constitution and political programme. Cumann na nGaedheal went on to govern the new Irish Free State for nine years (it merged with two other organisations to form Fine Gael in 1933). Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin members continued to boycott the Dáil. At a special "Ard Fheis" in March 1926, de Valera proposed that elected members be allowed to take their seats in the Dáil if and when the controversial Oath of Allegiance was removed. When his motion was defeated, de Valera resigned from Sinn Féin; on 16 May 1926, he founded his own party, Fianna Fáil, which was dedicated to republicanising the Free State from within its political structures. He took most Sinn Féin Teachtaí Dála (TDs) with him. De Valera's resignation meant also the loss of financial support from America. The rump Sinn Féin party could field no more than fifteen candidates, and won only five seats in the June 1927 general election, a level of support not seen since before 1916. Vice-president and leader Mary MacSwiney announced that the party simply did not have the funds to contest the second election called that year, declaring "no true Irish citizen can vote for any of the other parties". Fianna Fáil came to power at the 1932 general election (to begin what would be an unbroken 16-year spell in government) and went on to long dominate politics in the independent Irish state.


title: Sinn Féin

text: An attempt in the 1940s to access funds that had been put in the care of the High Court led to the Sinn Féin Funds case, which the party lost and in which the judge ruled that it was not the legal successor to the Sinn Féin of 1917.


title: Sinn Féin

text: By the late 1940s, two decades removed from the Fianna Fáil split and now the Sinn Féin funds lost, the party was little more than a husk. The emergence of a popular new republican party, led by former IRA members, in Clann na Poblachta, threatened to void any remaining purpose Sinn Féin had left. However, it was around this same time that the IRA leadership once again sought to have a political arm (the IRA and Sinn Féin had effectively no formal ties following the civil war). Following an IRA army convention in 1948, IRA members were instructed to join Sinn Féin en masse and by 1950 they had successfully taken total control of the party, with IRA army council member Paddy McLogan named as the new president of the party. As part of this rapprochement, it was later made clear by the army council that the IRA would dictate to Sinn Féin, and not the other way around.


title: Sinn Féin

text: At the 1955 United Kingdom general election, two Sinn Féin candidates were elected to Westminster, and likewise, four members of Sinn Féin were elected to Leinster House in the 1957 Irish general election. In December 1956, at the beginning of the IRA's Border Campaign (Operation Harvest), the Northern Ireland Government banned Sinn Féin under the Special Powers Act; it would remain banned until 1974. By the end of the Border campaign five years later, the party had once again lost all national representation. Through the 1960s, some leading figures in the movement, such as Cathal Goulding, Seán Garland, Billy McMillen, Tomás Mac Giolla, moved steadily to the left, even to Marxism, as a result of their own reading and thinking and contacts with the Irish and international left. This angered more traditional republicans, who wanted to stick to the national question and armed struggle. The Garland Commission was set up in 1967, to investigate the possibility of ending abstentionism. Its report angered the already disaffected traditional republican element within the party, notably Seán Mac Stíofáin and Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, who viewed such a policy as treason against the Irish Republic.


title: Sinn Féin

text: The Sinn Féin party split in two at the beginning of 1970. On 11 January, the proposal to end abstentionism and take seats, if elected, in the Dáil, the Parliament of Northern Ireland and the Parliament of the United Kingdom was put before the members at the party's "Ard Fheis". A similar motion had been adopted at an IRA convention the previous month, leading to the formation of a Provisional Army Council by Mac Stíofáin and other members opposed to the leadership. When the motion was put to the "Ard Fheis", it failed to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority. The Executive attempted to circumvent this by introducing a motion in support of IRA policy, at which point the dissenting delegates walked out of the meeting. These members reconvened at Kevin Barry Hall in Parnell Square, where they appointed a Caretaker Executive with Ruairí Ó Brádaigh as chairman. The Caretaker Executive's first act was to pass a resolution pledging allegiance to the 32-county Irish Republic and the Provisional Army Council. It also declared itself opposed to the ending of abstentionism, the drift towards "extreme forms of socialism", the failure of the leadership to defend the nationalist people of Belfast during the 1969 Northern Ireland riots, and the expulsion of traditional republicans by the leadership during the 1960s.


title: Sinn Féin

text: At its October 1970 "Ard Fheis", delegates were informed that an IRA convention had been held and had regularised its structure, bringing to an end the 'provisional' period. By then, however, the label "Provisional" or "Provo" was already being applied to them by the media. The opposing, anti-abstentionist party became known as "Official Sinn Féin". It changed its name in 1977 to "Sinn Féin—The Workers' Party", and in 1982 to "The Workers' Party".


title: Sinn Féin

text: Because the "Provisionals" were committed to military rather than political action, Sinn Féin's initial membership was largely confined, in Danny Morrison's words, to men "over military age or women". A Sinn Féin organiser of the time in Belfast described the party's role as "agitation and publicity" New "cumainn" (branches) were established in Belfast, and a new newspaper, "Republican News", was published. Sinn Féin took off as a protest movement after the introduction of internment in August 1971, organising marches and pickets. The party launched its platform, "Éire Nua" ("a New Ireland") at the 1971 "Ard Fheis". In general, however, the party lacked a distinct political philosophy. In the words of Brian Feeney, "Ó Brádaigh would use Sinn Féin "ard fheiseanna" (party conferences) to announce republican policy, which was, in effect, IRA policy, namely that Britain should leave the North or the 'war' would continue".


title: Sinn Féin

text: In May 1974, a few months after the Sunningdale Agreement, the ban on Sinn Féin was lifted by the UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin was given a concrete presence in the community when the IRA declared a ceasefire in 1975. 'Incident centres', manned by Sinn Féin members, were set up to communicate potential confrontations to the British authorities.


title: Sinn Féin

text: From 1976, there was a broadcasting ban on Sinn Féin representatives in the Republic of Ireland, after the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, Conor Cruise O'Brien, amended Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act. This prevented RTÉ interviewing Sinn Féin spokespersons under any circumstances, even where the subject was not related to the Northern Ireland conflict. This lasted until 1994.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Political status for prisoners became an issue after the ending of the truce. Rees released the last of the internees, and ended 'Special Category Status' for all prisoners convicted after 1 March 1976. This led first to the blanket protest, and then to the dirty protest. Around the same time, Gerry Adams began writing for "Republican News", calling for Sinn Féin to become more involved politically. Over the next few years, Adams and those aligned with him would extend their influence throughout the republican movement and slowly marginalise Ó Brádaigh, part of a general trend of power in both Sinn Féin and the IRA shifting north. In particular, Ó Brádaigh's part in the 1975 IRA ceasefire had damaged his reputation in the eyes of northern republicans.


title: Sinn Féin

text: The prisoners' protest climaxed with the 1981 hunger strike, during which striker Bobby Sands was elected Member of Parliament for Fermanagh and South Tyrone as an Anti H-Block candidate. After his death on hunger strike, his seat was held, with an increased vote, by his election agent, Owen Carron. Two other Anti H-Block candidates were elected to Dáil Éireann in the general election in the Republic. These successes convinced republicans that they should contest every election. Danny Morrison expressed the mood at the 1981 "Ard Fheis" when he said:


title: Sinn Féin

text: This was the origin of what became known as the Armalite and ballot box strategy. Ó Brádaigh's chief policy, a plan for a federalised Irish state dubbed "Éire Nua", was dropped in 1982, and the following year Ó Brádaigh stepped down as president, and was replaced by Adams.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Under Adams' leadership electoral politics became increasingly important. In 1983 Alex Maskey was elected to Belfast City Council, the first Sinn Féin member to sit on that body. Sinn Féin polled over 100,000 votes in the Westminster elections that year, and Adams won the West Belfast seat that had been held by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). By 1985 it had 59 seats on seventeen of the 26 Northern Ireland councils, including seven on Belfast City Council.


title: Sinn Féin

text: The party began a reappraisal of the policy of abstention from the Dáil. At the 1983 "Ard Fheis" the constitution was amended to remove the ban on the discussion of abstentionism to allow Sinn Féin to run a candidate in the forthcoming European elections. However, in his address, Adams said, "We are an abstentionist party. It is not my intention to advocate change in this situation." A motion to permit entry into the Dáil was allowed at the 1985 "Ard Fheis", but did not have the active support of the leadership, and it failed narrowly. By October of the following year an IRA Convention had indicated its support for elected Sinn Féin TDs taking their seats. Thus, when the motion to end abstention was put to the "Ard Fheis" on 1 November 1986, it was clear that there would not be a split in the IRA as there had been in 1970. The motion was passed with a two-thirds majority. Ó Brádaigh and about twenty other delegates walked out, and met in a Dublin hotel with hundreds of supporters to re-organise as Republican Sinn Féin.


title: Sinn Féin

text: In October 1988, the British Conservative government followed the Republic in banning broadcasts of Sinn Féin representatives. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said it would "deny terrorists the oxygen of publicity". Broadcasters quickly found ways around the ban, mainly by using actors to dub the voices of banned speakers. The legislation did not apply during election campaigns and under certain other circumstances. The ban lasted until 1994.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Tentative negotiations between Sinn Féin and the British government led to more substantive discussions with the SDLP in the 1990s. Multi-party negotiations began in 1994 in Northern Ireland, without Sinn Féin. The Provisional IRA declared a ceasefire in August 1994. Sinn Féin then joined the talks, but the Conservative government under John Major soon came to depend on unionist votes to remain in power. It suspended Sinn Féin from the talks, and began to insist that the IRA decommission all of their weapons before Sinn Féin be re-admitted to the talks; this led to the IRA calling off its ceasefire. The new Labour government of Tony Blair was not reliant on unionist votes and re-admitted Sinn Féin, leading to another, permanent, ceasefire.


title: Sinn Féin

text: The talks led to the Good Friday Agreement of 10 April 1998, which set up an inclusive devolved government in Northern Ireland, and altered the Dublin government's constitutional claim to the whole island in Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland. Republicans opposed to the direction taken by Sinn Féin in the peace process formed the 32 County Sovereignty Movement in the late 1990s.


title: Sinn Féin

text: At the 1997 Irish general election, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin was elected to the Dáil. In doing so, he became the first person under the "Sinn Féin" banner to be elected to Leinster House since 1957, and the first since 1922 to take their seat. Ó Caoláin's entry to the Dáil marked the beginning of a continuous Sinn Féin presence in the Republic of Ireland's national political bodies.


title: Sinn Féin

text: The party expelled Denis Donaldson, a party official, in December 2005, with him stating publicly that he had been in the employ of the British government as an agent since the 1980s. Donaldson told reporters that the British security agencies who employed him were behind the collapse of the Assembly and set up Sinn Féin to take the blame for it, a claim disputed by the British government. Donaldson was found fatally shot in his home in County Donegal on 4 April 2006, and a murder inquiry was launched. In April 2009, the Real IRA released a statement taking responsibility for the killing.


title: Sinn Féin

text: When Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) became the largest parties, by the terms of the Good Friday Agreement no deal could be made without the support of both parties. They nearly reached a deal in November 2004, but the DUP insisted on photographic and/or video evidence that decommissioning of IRA weapons had been carried out, which was unacceptable to Sinn Féin.


title: Sinn Féin

text: In April 2006 a number of members of Sinn Féin who believed the party was not committed enough to socialism split from the party and formed a new group called Éirígí, which later became a (minor) political party in its own right.


title: Sinn Féin

text: On 2 September 2006, Martin McGuinness publicly stated that Sinn Féin would refuse to participate in a shadow assembly at Stormont, asserting that his party would only take part in negotiations that were aimed at restoring a power-sharing government. This development followed a decision on the part of members of Sinn Féin to refrain from participating in debates since the Assembly's recall the previous May. The relevant parties to these talks were given a deadline of 24 November 2006 to decide upon whether or not they would ultimately form the executive.


title: Sinn Féin

text: The 86-year Sinn Féin boycott of policing in Northern Ireland ended on 28 January 2007, when the "Ard Fheis" voted overwhelmingly to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). Sinn Féin members began to sit on Policing Boards and join District Policing Partnerships. There was opposition to this decision within Sinn Féin, and some members left, including elected representatives. The most well-known opponent was former IRA prisoner Gerry McGeough, who stood in the 2007 Assembly election against Sinn Féin in the constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, as an Independent Republican. He polled 1.8% of the vote. Others who opposed this development left to found the Republican Network for Unity.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin supported a no vote in the referendum on the Twenty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2008.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Immediately after the June 2017 UK general election, where the Conservatives won 49% of seats but not an overall majority, so that non-mainstream parties could have significant influence, Gerry Adams announced for Sinn Féin that their elected MPs would continue the policy of not swearing allegiance to the Queen, as would be required for them to take their seats in the Westminster Parliament.


title: Sinn Féin

text: In 2017 and 2018 there were allegations of bullying within the party, leading to a number of resignations and expulsions of elected members.


title: Sinn Féin

text: At the "Ard Fheis" on 18 November 2017, Gerry Adams announced he would stand down as president of Sinn Féin in 2018, and would not stand for re-election as TD for Louth.


title: Sinn Féin

text: On 10 February 2018, Mary Lou McDonald was announced as the new president of Sinn Féin at a special Ard Fheis in Dublin. Michelle O'Neill was also elected as vice president of the party.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin were opposed to Northern Ireland leaving the European Union together with the rest of the United Kingdom, with Martin McGuinness suggesting a referendum on the reunification of Ireland immediately after the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum results were announced, a stance later reiterated by McDonald as a way of resolving the border issues raised by Brexit.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin's first elections under McDonald resulted in the party performing well under its own expectations during the 2018 Irish presidential election that October, and similarly, the party's performance was labelled "disastrous" during the concurrent May 2019 European Parliament election in Ireland and 2019 Irish local elections. In the European elections, Sinn Féin lost 2 MEPs and dropped their vote share by 7.8%, while in the local elections the party lost 78 (almost half) of their local councillors and dropped their vote share by 5.7%. McDonald stated "It was a really bad day out for us. But sometimes that happens in politics, and it’s a test for you. I mean it’s a test for me personally, obviously, as the leader".


title: Sinn Féin

text: However, in the 2020 Irish general election Sinn Féin received the greatest number of first preference votes nationally, making it the best result for any incarnation of Sinn Féin since the 1922 election; Nonetheless, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party formed a coalition government in June 2020. Although second on seats won at the election, Sinn Féin became the largest party in the Dáil when Marc MacSharry resigned from Fianna Fáil in September 2021, which, with Seán Ó Fearghaíl sitting as Ceann Comhairle, left Sinn Féin the largest party by one seat. Sinn Féin lost their numerical advantage in February 2022 following the resignation of Violet-Anne Wynne.


title: Sinn Féin

text: In November 2020 the national chairman of Sinn Féin Declan Kearney contacted several dissident republican political parties such as Saoradh, Republican Network for Unity and the Irish Republican Socialist Party about creating a united republican campaign to call for a referendum on Irish unification. This information did not become publicly known until 2022 and the move was criticised in some quarters on the basis that it would be wrong for Sinn Féin to work with dissident republican groups which do not repudiate violence by paramilitaries. Sinn Féin retorted that engaging with dissident republicans draws them into the democratic process and political solutions instead of violent ones.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin won 29% of the first-preference votes in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, the highest share of any party. With 27 out of 90 seats, they became the largest party in Stormont for the first time ever. "Today ushers in a new era", O'Neill said shortly before the final results were announced. "Irrespective of religious, political or social backgrounds, my commitment is to make politics work."


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin is the largest Irish republican political party, and was historically associated with the IRA, while also having been associated with the Provisional IRA in the party's modern incarnation. The Irish government alleged that senior members of Sinn Féin have held posts on the IRA Army Council. However, the SF leadership has denied these claims.


title: Sinn Féin

text: A republican document of the early 1980s stated: "Both Sinn Féin and the IRA play different but converging roles in the war of national liberation. The Irish Republican Army wages an armed campaign... Sinn Féin maintains the propaganda war and is the public and political voice of the movement". Robert White states at that time Sinn Féin was the junior partner in the relationship with the IRA, and they were separate organisations despite there being some overlapping membership.


title: Sinn Féin

text: The British government stated in 2005 that "we had always said all the way through we believed that Sinn Féin and the IRA were inextricably linked and that had obvious implications at leadership level".


title: Sinn Féin

text: The Northern Bank robbery of £26.5 million in Belfast in December 2004 further delayed a political deal in Northern Ireland. The IRA were widely blamed for the robbery although Sinn Féin denied this and stated that party officials had not known of the robbery nor sanctioned it. Because of the timing of the robbery, it is considered that the plans for the robbery must have been laid whilst Sinn Féin was engaged in talks about a possible peace settlement. This undermined confidence among unionists about the sincerity of republicans towards reaching agreement. In the aftermath of the row over the robbery, a further controversy erupted when, on RTÉ's "Questions and Answers" programme, the chairman of Sinn Féin, Mitchel McLaughlin, insisted that the IRA's controversial killing of a mother of ten young children, Jean McConville, in the early 1970s though "wrong", was not a crime, as it had taken place in the context of the political conflict. Politicians from the Republic, along with the Irish media, strongly attacked McLaughlin's comments.


title: Sinn Féin

text: On 10 February 2005, the government-appointed Independent Monitoring Commission reported that it firmly supported the PSNI and Garda Síochána assessments that the IRA was responsible for the Northern Bank robbery and that certain senior members of Sinn Féin were also senior members of the IRA and would have had knowledge of and given approval to the carrying out of the robbery. Sinn Féin has argued that the IMC is not independent, and that the inclusion of former Alliance Party leader John Alderdice and a British security head was proof of this. The IMC recommended further financial sanctions against Sinn Féin members of the Northern Ireland Assembly. The British government responded by saying it would ask MPs to vote to withdraw the parliamentary allowances of the four Sinn Féin MPs elected in 2001.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Gerry Adams responded to the IMC report by challenging the Irish government to have him arrested for IRA membership—a crime in both jurisdictions—and for conspiracy.


title: Sinn Féin

text: On 20 February 2005, Irish Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell publicly accused three of the Sinn Féin leadership, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris (TD for Kerry North) of being on the seven-man IRA Army Council; they later denied this.


title: Sinn Féin

text: On 27 February 2005, a demonstration against the murder of Robert McCartney on 30 January 2005 was held in east Belfast. Alex Maskey, a former Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Belfast, was told by relatives of McCartney to "hand over the 12" IRA members involved. The McCartney family, although formerly Sinn Féin voters themselves, urged witnesses to the crime to contact the PSNI. Three IRA men were expelled from the organisation, and a man was charged with McCartney's murder.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern subsequently called Sinn Féin and the IRA "both sides of the same coin". In February 2005 Dáil Éireann passed a motion condemning the party's alleged involvement in illegal activity. The Bush Administration did not invite Sinn Féin or any other Northern Irish political party to the annual St Patrick’s Day celebrations at the White House, choosing instead to invite the family of Robert McCartney. Senator Ted Kennedy, a regular sponsor of Gerry Adams' visits to the US during the peace process, also refused to meet Adams and hosted the McCartney family instead.


title: Sinn Féin

text: On 10 March 2005, the House of Commons in London passed without significant opposition a motion, introduced by the British government, to withdraw the allowances of the four Sinn Féin MPs for one year, in response to the Northern Bank Robbery. This measure cost the party approximately £400,000. However, the debate prior to the vote mainly surrounded the more recent events connected with the murder of Robert McCartney. Conservatives and unionists put down amendments to have the Sinn Féin MPs evicted from their offices at the House of Commons but these were defeated.


title: Sinn Féin

text: In March 2005, Mitchell Reiss, the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, condemned the party's links to the IRA, saying "it is hard to understand how a European country in the year 2005 can have a private army associated with a political party".


title: Sinn Féin

text: The October 2015 Assessment on Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland concluded that the Provisional IRA still existed "in a much reduced form", and that some IRA members believed its Army Council oversaw both the IRA and Sinn Féin, although it believed that the leadership "remains committed to the peace process and its aim of achieving a united Ireland by political means".


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin is an Irish republican, democratic socialist and left-wing party. In the European Parliament, the party aligns itself with the European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) parliamentary group. Categorised as "populist socialist" in literature, in 2014 leading party strategist and ideologue Eoin Ó Broin described Sinn Féin's entire political project as unashamedly populist. The party has been classed as left-wing nationalist and left-wing populist in academia, noting that while Sinn Féin engages in the "us vs them" dynamic of populism, it does so by engaging in the language of "the people vs elites" without resorting to using anti-immigrant rhetoric.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin's main political goal is a united Ireland. Other key policies from their most recent election manifesto are listed below:


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin believes in immigration, both to fill up vacancies in employment, if the system can properly integrate new immigrants and has the resources to do so, and also to "protect people fleeing persecution and war", but not in "open borders". The party also believes in faster application processing times for refugees, and in abolishing the Direct Provision system.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Until at least 2007, the party was not in favour of the extension of legalised abortion (British 1967 Act) to Northern Ireland; Assembly member John O'Dowd said that they were "opposed to the attitudes and forces in society, which pressurise women to have abortions, and criminalise those who make this decision", adding that "in cases of rape, incest or sexual abuse, or where a woman's life and health is at risk or in grave danger, we accept that the final decision must rest with the woman." It voted for the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, which allowed for termination in cases where a pregnancy endangered a woman's life. It voted to support termination, in those limited circumstances, at the 2015 , but stopped short of supporting abortion on demand. In the 2018 Irish abortion referendum, the party campaigned for a "Yes" vote, while remaining opposed to abortion without restriction up to 12 weeks. At its in June 2018, the month after the "yes" vote in the abortion referendum, the party committed itself to supporting abortion, including without restriction up to 12 weeks. This allowed it not only to support abortion legislation in the Republic, but also to campaign for provision of abortion in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín, who was suspended from the party for voting against abortion legislation, left to form a new party: Aontú.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin have been accused of hypocrisy over their positions on abortion in Northern Ireland. In 2021, Sinn Féin abstained on a Stormont vote on restricting abortion access in the case of fetal abnormalities or disabilities, attracting criticism from both anti-abortion and pro-choice groups, with the Abortion Rights Campaign saying they "let down abortion seekers" and Eamonn McCann accusing them of being "impaled on the fence on the issue", but with anti-abortion politicians such as Peadar Tóibín accusing them of "speaking out of both sides of their mouth" on the issue. Later in the year, Amnesty International made a public statement calling on the party to "support full abortion rights across the island of Ireland".


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin has longstanding fraternal ties with the African National Congress and was described by Nelson Mandela as an 'old friend and ally in the anti-apartheid struggle'. Sinn Féin supports the independence of Catalonia from Spain, Palestine in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and the right to self-determination regarding independence of the Basque Country from Spain and France. Sinn Féin opposes the United States embargo against Cuba and has called for a normalization of relations between the two countries. In 2016, the Sinn Féin party president, Gerry Adams was invited by the Cuban government to attend the state funeral of Fidel Castro whom Adams described as a 'freedom fighter' and a 'friend of Ireland's struggle'. Sinn Féin is opposed to NATO membership.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Historically, Sinn Féin has been considered to be Eurosceptic. The party campaigned for a "No" vote in the Irish referendum on joining the European Economic Community in 1972. Sinn Féin was on the same side of the debate as the DUP and most of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in that they wanted to pull out when UK had its referendum in 1975. The party was critical of the supposed need for an EU constitution as proposed in 2002, and urged a "No" vote in the 2008 referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, although Mary Lou McDonald said that there was "no contradiction in being pro-Europe, but anti-treaty". In its manifesto for the 2015 UK general election, Sinn Féin pledged that the party would campaign for the UK to stay within the European Union (EU), with Martin McGuinness saying that an exit "would be absolutely economically disastrous". Gerry Adams said that, if there were to be a referendum on the question, there ought to be a separate and binding referendum for Northern Ireland. Its policy of a "Europe of Equals", and its critical engagement after 2001, together with its engagement with the European Parliament, marks a change from the party's previous opposition to the EU. The party expresses, on one hand, "support for Europe-wide measures that promote and enhance human rights, equality and the all-Ireland agenda", and on the other a "principled opposition" to a European superstate. This has led political commentators to define the party as soft Eurosceptic since the 21st century.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Since moving to this "soft Euroscepticism" position, Sinn Féin support a policy of "critical engagement with the EU", and have a "principled opposition" to a European superstate. It opposes an EU constitution because it would reduce the sovereignty of the member-states. It also critiques the EU on grounds of neoliberalism. Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy says that the "European Union must become a cooperative union of nation states committed to working together on issues such as climate change, migration, trade, and using our common strengths to improve the lives of citizens. If it does not, EU disintegration becomes a real possibility." The party supported continued UK membership of the European Union in the UK's 2016 EU referendum and in April 2022, Mary Lou McDonald said in the Dáil that "We strongly support the Ukrainian people's stated desire to join the European Union".


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin returned to Northern Ireland elections at the 1982 Assembly elections, winning five seats with 64,191 votes (10.1%). The party narrowly missed winning additional seats in Belfast North and Fermanagh and South Tyrone. In the 1983 UK general election eight months later, Sinn Féin increased its support, breaking the six-figure vote barrier in Northern Ireland for the first time by polling 102,701 votes (13.4%). Gerry Adams won the Belfast West constituency, and Danny Morrison fell only 78 votes short of victory in Mid Ulster.


title: Sinn Féin

text: The 1984 European elections proved to be a disappointment, with Sinn Féin's candidate Danny Morrison polling 91,476 (13.3%) and falling well behind the SDLP candidate John Hume.


title: Sinn Féin

text: By the beginning of 1985, Sinn Féin had won its first representation on local councils, owing to three by-election wins in Omagh (Seamus Kerr, May 1983) and Belfast (Alex Maskey in June 1983 and Sean McKnight in March 1984). Three sitting councillors also defected to Sinn Féin in Dungannon, Fermanagh and Derry (the last defecting from the SDLP). Sinn Féin succeeded in winning 59 seats in the 1985 local government elections, after it had predicted winning only 40 seats. However, the results continued to show a decline from the peak of 1983, as the party won 75,686 votes (11.8%). The party failed to gain any seats in the 1986 by-elections caused by the resignation of unionist MPs in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement. While this was partly due to an electoral pact between unionist candidates, the SF vote fell in the four constituencies they contested.


title: Sinn Féin

text: In the 1987 general election, Gerry Adams held his Belfast West seat, but the party failed to make breakthroughs elsewhere and overall polled 83,389 votes (11.4%). The same year saw the party contest the Dáil election in the Republic of Ireland; however, it failed to win any seats and polled less than 2%.


title: Sinn Féin

text: The 1989 local government elections saw a drop in support for Sinn Féin. Defending 58 seats (the 59 won in 1985, plus two 1987 by-election gains in West Belfast, minus three councillors who had defected to Republican Sinn Féin in 1986), the party lost 15 seats. In the aftermath of the election, Mitchell McLaughlin admitted that recent IRA activity had affected the Sinn Féin vote.


title: Sinn Féin

text: In the 1989 European election, Danny Morrison again failed to win a seat, polling at 48,914 votes (9%).


title: Sinn Féin

text: The nadir for SF in this period came in 1992, with Gerry Adams losing his Belfast West seat to the SDLP, and the SF vote falling in the other constituencies that they had contested relative to 1987.


title: Sinn Féin

text: In the 1997 UK general election, Adams regained Belfast West. Martin McGuinness also won a seat in Mid Ulster. In the Irish general election the same year the party won its first seat since 1957, with Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin gaining a seat in the Cavan–Monaghan constituency. In the Irish local elections of 1999 the party increased its number of councillors from 7 to 23.


title: Sinn Féin

text: The party overtook its nationalist rival, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, as the largest nationalist party in the local elections and UK general election of 2001, winning four Westminster seats to the SDLP's three. The party continues to subscribe, however, to an abstentionist policy towards the Westminster British parliament, on account of opposing that parliament's jurisdiction in Northern Ireland, as well as its oath to the King.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin increased its share of the nationalist vote in the 2003, 2007, and 2011 Assembly elections, with Martin McGuinness, former Minister for Education, taking the post of deputy First Minister in the Northern Ireland power-sharing Executive Committee. The party has three ministers in the Executive.


title: Sinn Féin

text: In the 2010 general election, the party retained its five seats, and for the first time topped the poll at a Westminster election in Northern Ireland, winning 25.5% of the vote. All Sinn Féin MPs increased their share of the vote and with the exception of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, increased their majorities. In Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Unionist parties agreed a joint candidate, this resulted in the closest contest of the election, with Sinn Féin MP Michelle Gildernew holding her seat by 4 votes after 3 recounts and an election petition challenging the result.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin lost some ground in the 2016 Assembly election, dropping one seat to finish with 28, ten behind the DUP. In the snap election eight months later caused by the resignation of McGuinness as deputy First Minister, however, the party surged, winning 27.9% of the popular vote to 28.1% for the DUP, and 27 seats to the DUP's 28 in an Assembly reduced by 18 seats. The withdrawal of the DUP party whip from Jim Wells in May 2018 meant that Sinn Féin became the joint-largest party in the Assembly alongside the DUP, with 27 seats each.


title: Sinn Féin

text: The party had five TDs elected in the 2002 Irish general election, an increase of four from the previous election. At the general election in 2007 the party had expectations of substantial gains, with poll predictions that they would gain five to ten seats. However, the party lost one of its seats to Fine Gael. Seán Crowe, who had topped the poll in Dublin South-West fell to fifth place, with his first preference vote reduced from 20.28% to 12.16%.


title: Sinn Féin

text: On 26 November 2010, Pearse Doherty won a seat in the Donegal South-West by-election. It was the party's first by-election victory in the Republic of Ireland since 1925. After negotiations with the left-wing Independent TDs Finian McGrath and Maureen O'Sullivan, a Technical Group was formed in the Dáil to give its members more speaking time.


title: Sinn Féin

text: In the 2011 Irish general election the party made significant gains. All its sitting TDs were returned, with Seán Crowe regaining the seat he had lost in 2007 in Dublin South-West. In addition to winning long-targeted seats such as Dublin Central and Dublin North-West, the party gained unexpected seats in Cork East and Sligo–North Leitrim. It ultimately won 14 seats, the best performance at the time for the party's current incarnation. The party went on to win three seats in the Seanad election which followed their success at the general election. In the 2016 election it made further gains, finishing with 23 seats and overtaking the Labour Party as the third-largest party in the Dáil It ran seven candidates in the Seanad election, all of whom were successful.


title: Sinn Féin

text: The party achieved their greatest contemporary result in the 2020 Irish general election, topping the first-preference votes with 24.5% and winning 37 seats. Due to poor results in the 2019 local elections and elections to the European Parliament, the party ran only 42 candidates and did not compete in Cork North-West. The party achieved unexpected success in the early counting, with 27 candidates being elected on the first count. Party leader Mary Lou McDonald called the result a "revolution" and announced she would pursue the formation of a government including Sinn Féin. Ultimately negotiations to form a new government led to Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party agreeing to enter a majority coalition government in June. Sinn Féin pledged to be a strong opposition to the new coalition.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin is represented on most county and city councils. It made large gains in the local elections of 2004, increasing its number of councillors from 21 to 54, and replacing the Progressive Democrats as the fourth-largest party in local government. At the local elections of June 2009, the party's vote fell by 0.95% to 7.34%, with no change in the number of seats. Losses in Dublin and urban areas were balanced by gains in areas such as Limerick, Wicklow, Cork, Tipperary and Kilkenny and the border counties . However, three of Sinn Féin's seven representatives on Dublin City Council resigned within six months of the June 2009 elections, one of them defecting to the Labour Party.


title: Sinn Féin

text: In the 2004 European Parliament election, Bairbre de Brún won Sinn Féin's first seat in the European Parliament, at the expense of the SDLP. She came in second behind Jim Allister of the DUP. In the 2009 election, de Brún was re-elected with 126,184 first preference votes, the only candidate to reach the quota on the first count. This was the first time since elections began in 1979 that the DUP failed to take the first seat, and was the first occasion Sinn Féin topped a poll in any Northern Ireland election.


title: Sinn Féin

text: Sinn Féin made a breakthrough in the Dublin constituency in 2004. The party's candidate, Mary Lou McDonald, was elected on the sixth count as one of four MEPs for Dublin. In the 2009 election, when Dublin's representation was reduced to three MEPs, she failed to hold her seat. In the South constituency their candidate, Councillor Toiréasa Ferris, managed to nearly double the number of first preference votes, lying third after the first count, but failed to get enough transfers to win a seat. In the 2014 election, Martina Anderson topped the poll in Northern Ireland, as did Lynn Boylan in Dublin. Liadh Ní Riada was elected in the South constituency, and Matt Carthy in Midlands–North-West. In the 2019 election, Carthy was re-elected, but Boylan and Ní Riada lost their seats. Anderson also held her Northern Ireland seat until early 2020 when her term was cut short by Brexit.


title: Keri Russell

text: Keri Lynn Russell (born March 23, 1976) is an American actress. She portrayed the titular character on the drama series "Felicity" (1998–2002), which won her a Golden Globe Award, and Elizabeth Jennings on the FX spy thriller series "The Americans" (2013–2018), which earned her nominations for several Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe Awards.


title: Keri Russell

text: Russell appeared in the films "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid" (1992), "We Were Soldiers" (2002), "" (2006), "Waitress" (2007), "August Rush" (2007), "Extraordinary Measures" (2010), "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" (2014), "Free State of Jones" (2016), "" (2019), "Antlers" (2021), and the upcoming "Cocaine Bear" (2023). In 2017, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


title: Keri Russell

text: Keri Lynn Russell was born on March 23, 1976, in Fountain Valley, California, the daughter of Stephanie Stephens, a homemaker, and David Russell, a Nissan Motors executive. She has an older brother, Todd, and a younger sister, Julie. The family lived in Coppell, Texas; Mesa, Arizona; and Highlands Ranch, Colorado, moving frequently due to her father's work. Russell's dancing earned her a spot on "The Mickey Mouse Club."


title: Keri Russell

text: Russell first appeared on television at age 15 as a cast member of the "All-New Mickey Mouse Club" variety show on the Disney Channel. She was on the show from 1991 to 1994, encompassing seasons four to six.


title: Keri Russell

text: In 1992, Russell appeared in "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid" and in 1993, she had a role on the sitcom "Boy Meets World" as character Mr. Feeny's niece. Russell appeared on "Married... with Children" in a 1995 episode ("Radio Free Trumaine", production 9.24). She subsequently starred in several film and television roles, including the 1996 made-for-television film "The Babysitter's Seduction." That year she also had a role on the short-lived soap opera series "Malibu Shores."


title: Keri Russell

text: In 1994, Russell appeared as the "other woman" in Bon Jovi's music video "Always". In 1997, she appeared in two episodes of "Roar".


title: Keri Russell

text: From 1998 to 2002, Russell starred as the title character on the successful WB Network series "Felicity". In 1999, she won a Golden Globe for the role. Russell's long, curly hair was one of her character's defining characteristics and her hairstyle change at the beginning of the show's second season was speculated by some to have caused a significant drop in the show's ratings.


title: Keri Russell

text: During the show's run, Russell appeared in the films "Eight Days a Week", "The Curve" and "Mad About Mambo", all of which received only limited releases in North America. Her next role was in the film "We Were Soldiers" (2002), playing the wife of a United States serviceman during the Vietnam War. The film was released two months before the end of "Felicity"s run.


title: Keri Russell

text: When "Felicity" ended, Russell moved to New York City and made her off-Broadway stage debut in 2004 in Neil LaBute's "Fat Pig". In 2005, she returned to television and film, beginning with an appearance in the Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie "The Magic of Ordinary Days", theatrical film "The Upside of Anger" and the television miniseries "Into the West". Directing "" in 2005, J. J. Abrams asked Russell to join the cast and she accepted. She was screen tested for the role of Lois Lane in "Superman Returns", but lost the role to Kate Bosworth.


title: Keri Russell

text: In mid-2006, Russell was chosen to be a celebrity spokeswoman for CoverGirl cosmetics. In the summer of 2007, Russell appeared in "The Keri Kronicles", a reality show sitcom sponsored by CoverGirl and airing on MySpace; the show was filmed at Russell's home in Manhattan and spotlighted her life. Also in 2007, she played Melody on the NBC show "Scrubs".


title: Keri Russell

text: Russell next starred in the film "Waitress", which marked the fourth time she played a pregnant woman. Her performance was positively received by critics, with Michael Sragow of "The Baltimore Sun" writing that Russell's performance had "aesthetic character" and "wields tenderness and fierceness with quiet heat". In 2007, Russell also completed roles in "Grimm Love" (titled "Rohtenburg" for its German release), in which she played Katie Armstrong, a graduate student who writes her thesis on an infamous cannibal murder case and the thriller "The Girl in the Park".


title: Keri Russell

text: Russell next appeared in "August Rush", released in November 2007. She also appeared on the cover of the "New York Post"s "Page Six" magazine on November 11, 2007. Russell later appeared in "Bedtime Stories". In an appearance on "The View" on December 15, 2008, Russell said she got the part because Adam Sandler's wife Jackie had seen her in "Waitress" and suggested her for the movie. Russell voiced Wonder Woman in a direct-to-video animated feature released on March 3, 2009.


title: Keri Russell

text: Russell starred in the Tom Vaughan-helmed "Extraordinary Measures" for CBS Films. The drama, which started filming on April 6, 2009, and was released on January 22, 2010, was the first film to go into production for the new company. Russell played Aileen Crowley, a mother who tries to build a normal home life for her sick children while her husband and an unconventional scientist race against time to find a cure.


title: Keri Russell

text: From 2013 to 2018, she starred in the FX drama series "The Americans", playing Elizabeth Jennings, a deep-undercover Russian KGB spy living as an American in the 1980s Cold War era. She appeared opposite Matthew Rhys, who portrays her character's husband and spy partner. Russell and Rhys became partners in real life during this time. The series ended after six seasons.


title: Keri Russell

text: In 2013, Russell starred in the science-fiction horror film "Dark Skies" and the romantic comedy film "Austenland". In 2014, Russell starred in the science fiction action film "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," a sequel to the 2011 film "Rise of the Planet of the Apes". She later starred as Serena Knight in the 2016 historical war film "Free State of Jones".


title: Keri Russell

text: In July 2018, Russell was announced to have joined the cast of the film "", which was released on December 20, 2019. The film reunited her with J.J. Abrams, with whom she had worked on "Felicity" and "Mission: Impossible III". In August 2018, Russell was announced to star as Anna in the first Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson's play "Burn This". Performances began in March 2019 at the Hudson Theatre.


title: Keri Russell

text: In 2006, Russell became engaged to Shane Deary, a Brooklyn-based contractor she met through mutual friends. The couple married in New York on February 14, 2007. They have two children together, a son born in 2007 and a daughter born in 2011. Russell and Deary separated in early 2013 and divorced in mid-2014. Since 2014, Russell has been in a relationship with her co-star in "The Americans", Matthew Rhys. They have a son, born in 2016. In interviews conducted in 2021, Russell and Rhys referred to each other as wife and husband.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Travis Victor Alexander (July 28, 1977 – June 4, 2008) was an American salesman who was murdered by his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Ann Arias (born July 9, 1980), in his house in Mesa, Arizona. Arias was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8, 2013, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on April 13, 2015.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: At the time of the murder, Alexander suffered 27 knife wounds and a gunshot to the head. Arias testified that she killed him in self-defense, but she was convicted by the jury and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The murder and trial received widespread media attention in the United States.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Travis Victor Alexander was born on July 28, 1977, in Riverside, California, to Gary David Alexander (1948–1997) and Pamela Elizabeth Morgan Alexander (1953–2005). At the age of 11, Travis moved in with his paternal grandparents. After his father's death in July 1997, his seven siblings were also taken in by their paternal grandmother. Alexander was a salesman and motivational speaker for Pre-Paid Legal Services (PPL).


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Jodi Ann Arias was born on July 9, 1980, in Salinas, California, to William and Sandra (née Allen) Arias.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Arias and Alexander met in September 2006 at a PPL conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Arias converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which Alexander was a member, and was baptized by him on November 26, 2006 in a ceremony in Southern California. Alexander and Arias began dating in February 2007. Arias moved to Mesa to live closer to Alexander. In April 2008, she moved to Yreka, California, and lived there with her grandparents.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Alexander and Arias dated intermittently for a year and a half, often in a long-distance relationship, taking turns traveling between their respective Arizona and California homes. Alexander's friends who knew Arias and observed them together tended to have a negative opinion of her, stating that the relationship was unusually tumultuous and that Arias' behavior was worrying.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Alexander was murdered on Wednesday, June 4, 2008. He suffered 27 stab wounds, a slit throat, and a gunshot wound to the head. Medical examiner Kevin Horn would later testify that Alexander's jugular vein, common carotid artery, and trachea had been slashed and that he had defensive wounds on his hands. Horn further testified that Alexander may have been dead at the time the gunshot was inflicted, and that the back wounds were shallow. Alexander's death was ruled a homicide. He was buried at Riverside's Olivewood Memorial Park cemetery.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: In early 2008, Alexander told acquaintances that Arias would join him for a work-related trip to Cancún, Mexico scheduled for June 15. In April, Alexander asked to change his travel companion to another female friend, Marie Hall. On May 28, a burglary occurred at the residence of Arias' grandparents, with whom Arias was living. Among the missing objects was a handgun chambered in .25 caliber, which was never recovered. This later became significant as a shell case from a spent .25 caliber round was found near Alexander's body at the murder scene.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On June 2 between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m., Arias called Alexander four times but did not appear to reach him, as the longest of the calls' durations was 17 seconds. After 3:00 a.m., Alexander called Arias twice, the first time for 18 minutes, the second time for 41 minutes. At 4:03 a.m., Arias called Alexander again, and the call lasted two minutes, 48 seconds. Neither these calls nor their transcripts were presented in Arias' trial. At 5:39 a.m., Arias drove south to rent a car for a long trip to Utah, as evidenced by a gasoline purchase in Yreka. On June 2 at 8:04 a.m., Arias rented a car in Redding, California and indicated that she would return the car to the same location. Arias visited friends in southern California on her way to Utah for a PPL work conference and to meet with Ryan Burns, a PPL co-worker. By late evening on June 3, Arias had apparently set out for Salt Lake City.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Alexander missed an important conference call on the evening of June 4. The following day, Arias met Burns in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan and attended business meetings for the conference. Burns later said that he noticed that Arias' formerly blond hair was now dark brown and that she had cuts on her hands. On June 6, she left Salt Lake City and drove west toward California. She called Alexander several times and left several voicemail messages for him. She also accessed his cell-phone voicemail system. When Arias returned the car on June 7, it had been driven about . The rental clerk testified that the car was missing its floor mats and had red stains on its front and rear seats. However, it could not be verified that the car had floor mats when Arias had picked it up, and the red stains could not be analyzed as the car was cleaned before police could examine it.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On June 9, having been unable to reach Alexander, a concerned group of friends went to his home. His roommates had not seen him for several days, but they believed that he was out of town and thus did not suspect that anything was amiss. After finding a key to Alexander's bedroom, the group entered and found large pools of blood in the hallway to the master bathroom and Alexander's body in the shower. In the 9-1-1 call (not heard by the jury), the dispatcher asked whether Alexander had been suicidal or if anyone was angry enough to hurt him. Alexander's friends mentioned Arias by name as a possible suspect, stating that Alexander had told them that she had been stalking him, accessing his Facebook account and slashing his car's tires.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: While searching Alexander's home, police found his recently purchased digital camera damaged in the washing machine. Police were able to recover deleted images showing Arias and Alexander in sexually suggestive poses taken at approximately 1:40 p.m. on June 4. The final photograph of Alexander alive, showing him in the shower, was taken at 5:29 p.m. that day. Photos taken moments later show an individual believed to be Alexander "profusely bleeding" on the bathroom floor. A bloody palm print was discovered along the wall in the bathroom hallway; it contained DNA from both Arias and Alexander.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On July 9, 2008, Arias was indicted by a grand jury in Maricopa County, Arizona for the first-degree murder of Alexander. She was arrested at her home six days later and was extradited to Arizona on September 5. Arias pleaded not guilty on September 11. During this time, she provided several different accounts about her involvement in Alexander's death. She first told police that she had not been in Mesa on the day of the murder and had last seen Alexander in March 2008. Arias later told police that two intruders had broken into Alexander's home, murdering him and attacking her. Two years after her arrest, Arias told police that she killed Alexander in self-defense, claiming that she had been a victim of domestic violence.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On April 6, 2009, a motion to reconsider the defendant's motion to disqualify the Maricopa County District Attorney's office was denied. On May 18, the court ordered Arias to submit to IQ and competency testing. In January 2011, a defense filing detailed Arias' attorneys' efforts to obtain text messages and emails. The prosecution initially told defense attorneys that no text messages that had been sent or received by Alexander were available, but the prosecution was then ordered to turn over several hundred such messages. Mesa police detective Esteban Flores told defense attorneys that there was nothing "out of the ordinary" among Alexander's emails; about 8,000 were turned over to the defense in June 2009.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: The trial commenced in Maricopa County Superior Court before judge Sherry K. Stephens. The "voir dire" proceedings began on December 10, 2012. On December 20, Arias' attorneys argued that the prosecution was "systematically excluding" women and Black people; prosecutor Juan Martinez said that race and sex were irrelevant to his decisions to strike certain jurors. Stephens ruled that the prosecution had shown no bias in the jury selection.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: In opening arguments on January 2, 2013, Martinez sought the death penalty. Arias was represented by appointed counsel L. Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott, who argued that Alexander's death was a justifiable homicide committed in self-defense.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Ryan Burns testified that when Arias visited him in Utah, the two spent several hours hugging and kissing on a large bean-bag chair. She told him that she had cut her hands on broken glass while working at a restaurant called Margaritaville. A detective testified that no restaurant by that name had ever existed in the Yreka area; at the time, Arias was working at a restaurant called Casa Ramos. Arias later testified that after she cut her finger, "I had a bazillion margaritas to make." Later, the prosecution argued that the presence of a .25 caliber round found near Alexander's body and the theft of a handgun of the same caliber from Arias' residence in Yreka the previous week proved that she had staged the burglary and used the gun to kill Alexander. Martinez claimed that Arias had stalked Alexander and had slashed his tires twice. In the final days before his death, Alexander called her a "sociopath" and "the worst thing that ever happened to me," and stated that he was afraid of her.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Arias took the stand in her own defense on February 4, 2013, testifying for a total of 18 days, a duration described by criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos as "unprecedented." On the first day of her testimony, Arias told of being violently abused by her parents from the age of seven. She testified that she had rented a car in Redding because Budget's website provided two options, one to the north and one to the south, and her brother lived in Redding. On her second day on the stand, Arias said that her relationship with Alexander included oral sex and sodomy; she said that the sodomy was painful the first time she experienced it and that Alexander believed that such activities would not contravene Mormon rules concerning vaginal intercourse. Arias said that she and Alexander eventually had intercourse, but less often. A phone sex tape was played in court that Arias had recorded without Alexander's knowledge, apparently hoping to use it to embarrass him to his Mormon peers. Arias also testified that Alexander secretly harbored pedophilic desires for both male and female children, and that she tried to help him with these urges. Forensic experts testified that an examination of Alexander's computer found no evidence of pornographic material.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Arias testified that her relationship with Alexander became increasingly physically and emotionally abusive. She said that Alexander shook her while saying, "I'm fucking sick of you," then began "screaming at me," after which he "body slammed me on the floor at the foot of his bed" and taunted her, saying, "don't act like that hurts" before he called her a "bitch" and kicked her in the ribs. Arias said that "he went to kick me again, and I put my hand out." She held up her left hand in the courtroom, showing that her ring finger was crooked. Arias claimed that she killed Alexander in self-defense after he had attacked her when she dropped his camera, forcing her to fight for her life. This was Arias' third different account of the events leading to Alexander's death, which prosecutors, courtroom observers and jurors felt severely damaged her credibility. Rebuttal witnesses called by the prosecution included several of Alexander's other girlfriends, who stated that he never exhibited any problems with anger or violence.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: During the trial, videotape of a September 2008 "Inside Edition" interview was played in which Arias had said: "No jury is going to convict me ... because I am innocent. You can mark my words on that." Discussing the statement during her testimony, Arias said, "At the time [of the interview], I had plans to commit suicide. So I was extremely confident that no jury would convict me, because I didn't expect any of you to be here." At the close of his cross-examination of Arias, Martinez replayed the video and prompted Arias to affirm that she had said during the interview that she would not be convicted because she was innocent. When being questioned by Martinez, Arias was initially combative and flippant, but after several days, Martinez highlighted the possible lies and inconsistencies in her testimony, and she admitted to stabbing and shooting Alexander despite her earlier claims of a memory lapse. Jury foreman William Zervakos later expressed an opinion common to jurors and observers when he told ABC's "Good Morning America": "I think eighteen days hurt her. I think she was not a good witness."


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Beginning on March 14, psychologist Richard Samuels testified for the defense for nearly six days. He said that Arias had likely been suffering from acute stress at the time of the murder, sending her body into a "fight or flight" mode to defend herself, which caused her brain to stop retaining memory. In response to a juror's question asking whether this scenario could occur even if this was a premeditated murder, as the prosecution contended, he responded: "Is it possible? Yes. Is it probable? No." Samuels also diagnosed Arias with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Martinez attacked Samuels' credibility, accusing him of bias and of having formed a relationship with Arias; Samuels had previously testified that he had compassion for Arias. Beginning on March 26, Alyce LaViolette, a psychotherapist who specializes in domestic violence, testified that Arias was a victim of domestic abuse, and that most victims do not tell anyone because they feel ashamed and humiliated. LaViolette summarized emails from Alexander's close friends: "They have basically advised Ms. Arias to move on from the relationship ... that Mr. Alexander has been abusive to women." The jury posed nearly 160 questions to LaViolette, many of them focusing on Arias' credibility.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Clinical psychologist Janeen DeMarte testified for the prosecution, stating that she found no evidence that Alexander had abused Arias, and no evidence of PTSD or amnesia in Arias. Furthermore, the total memory loss for long stretches of time that Arias claimed to have experienced is inconsistent with traumatic amnesia associated with PTSD, which manifests as much shorter gaps in memory. Instead, DeMarte said that Arias suffered from borderline personality disorder, showing signs of immaturity and an "unstable sense of identity." People who suffer from such a disorder "have a terrified feeling of being abandoned by others," DeMarte told jurors. The final defense witness was psychologist Robert Geffner, who said that DeMarte's borderline diagnosis was "not appropriate" and that all tests taken by Arias since her arrest pointed toward an anxiety disorder stemming from trauma. He also said that the tests indicated that she had answered questions honestly. The state recalled Horn, who testified further on the gunshot wound, and called forensic neuropsychologist Jill Hayes, who disputed Geffner's testimony that the MMPI test was not geared toward diagnosing borderline personality disorder.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Responding to Arias' testimony about buying a five-gallon gas can at a Walmart store in Salinas on June 3, 2008 that she returned on the same day, on April 24 the prosecution called Amanda Webb, a Salinas Walmart store employee, to the stand. Webb said that, according to Walmart's records, no one had returned a five-gallon gas can on that date, and that Arias returned the gas can one week after having purchased it. The gas-can evidence was seen as important in establishing premeditation, as the prosecutor argued that Arias was trying to avoid being recorded on gas-station security cameras as she drove to Mesa.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: In closing arguments on May 4, Arias' defense argued that the premeditation theory did not make sense. "What happened in that moment in time? The relationship, the relationship of chaos, that ended in chaos as well. There is nothing about what happened on June 4th in that bathroom that looks planned ... Couldn't it also be that after everything they went through in that relationship, that she simply snapped? ... Ultimately, if Miss Arias is guilty of any crime at all, it is the crime of manslaughter and nothing more." In rebuttal, Martinez described the extent and variety of Alexander's wounds: "There is no evidence that he ever laid a hand on her, ever. Nothing indicates that this is anything less than a slaughter. There was no way to appease this woman who just wouldn't leave him alone."


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Arias' testimony added to a very long defense portion of the guilt phase of the trial, which led to problems with retention of jury members. On April 3, a jury member was dismissed for "misconduct." The defense asked for a mistrial, which the judge denied. On April 12, another juror was excused for health reasons. A third juror was dismissed on April 25 after being arrested for a DUI offense. By April 25, defense costs had reached almost $1.7 million.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On May 7, 2013, after 15 hours of deliberation, Arias was found guilty of first-degree murder. All twelve jurors found her guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, of which seven additionally found her guilty of felony murder. As the verdict was read, Alexander's family smiled and hugged one another. Crowds outside the courtroom began cheering and chanting.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Following the conviction, the prosecution was required to convince the jury that the murder was "cruel, heinous, or depraved" for them to determine that Arias was eligible for the death penalty. The aggravation phase of the trial started on May 15, 2013. The only witness was the medical examiner who had performed Alexander's autopsy. Arias' attorneys, who had repeatedly asked to step down from the case, provided only brief opening statements and closing arguments in which they said that the adrenaline rushing through Alexander's body may have prevented him from feeling much pain during his death. Prosecutor Martinez showed photos of the corpse and crime scene to the jury, then paused for two minutes of silence to illustrate how long he claimed that it took for Alexander to die. After less than three hours of consideration, the jury determined that Arias was eligible for the death penalty.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: The penalty phase began on May 16, 2013, when prosecutors called Alexander's family members to offer victim impact statements in an effort to convince the jury that Arias' crime merited a death sentence.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On May 21, Arias offered an allocution, during which she pleaded for a life sentence. Arias acknowledged that her plea for life was a reversal of remarks that she made to a television reporter shortly after her conviction in which she had said that she preferred the death penalty. "Each time I said that, I meant it, but I lacked perspective," she said. "Until very recently, I could not imagine standing before you and asking you to give me life." She said that she changed her mind to avoid bringing more pain to members of her family, who were in the courtroom. At one point, Arias held up a white T-shirt with the word "Survivor" written across it, telling the jurors that she would sell the clothing and donate all proceeds to victims of domestic abuse. She also said that she would donate her hair to Locks of Love while in prison, and had already done so three times while in jail.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: That evening, in a joint jailhouse interview with "The Arizona Republic", KPNX-TV and NBC's "Today," Arias said that she did not know whether the jury would decide on life or death. "Whatever they come back with I will have to deal with it, I have no other choice." Regarding the verdict, she said, "It felt like a huge sense of unreality. I felt betrayed, actually, by the jury. I was hoping they would see things for what they are. I felt really awful for my family and what they were thinking."


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On May 23, the sentencing phase of Arias' trial resulted in a hung jury, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial for that phase. The jury had reached an 8–4 decision in favor of the death penalty. After the jury was discharged, jury foreman Zervakos stated that the jury found the responsibility of weighing the death sentence overwhelming, but were horrified when their efforts ended in a mistrial. "By the end of it, we were mentally and emotionally exhausted," he said. "I think we were horrified when we found out that they had actually called a mistrial, and we felt like we had failed."


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On May 30, Maricopa County attorney Bill Montgomery discussed the next steps at a news conference. He said that he was confident that an impartial jury could be seated, but that it was possible that lawyers and the victim's family could agree to scrap the trial in favor of a life sentence with no parole. Arias had said: "I don't think there is an untainted jury pool anywhere in the world right now. That's what it feels like. But I still believe in the system to a degree, so we'll just go through that if that happens." Defense attorneys responded: "If the diagnosis made by the State's psychologist is correct, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office is seeking to impose the death penalty upon a mentally ill woman who has no prior criminal history. It is not incumbent upon Ms. Arias' defense counsel to resolve this case."


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: During the trial, defense attorneys filed for mistrial in January, April and May 2013. Arias' lawyers argued in January that Esteban Flores, the lead Mesa police detective on the case, perjured himself during a 2009 pretrial hearing aimed at determining whether the death penalty should be considered an option for jurors. Flores testified at the 2009 hearing that based on his own review of the scene and a discussion with the medical examiner, it was apparent that Alexander had been shot in the forehead first. Contrary to Flores' testimony at the 2009 hearing, the medical examiner told jurors the gunshot probably would have incapacitated Alexander. Given his extensive defense wounds, including stab marks and slashes to his hands, arms and legs, it was not likely the shot came first. Flores denied perjury and said during his trial testimony that he just misunderstood what the medical examiner told him.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: In April, the defense claimed the prosecutor had acted inappropriately and said the case resembled a modern-day equivalent to the Salem witch trials. In the motion the defense team contended "the prosecutorial misconduct has infested these proceedings with a level of unfairness that cannot be cured by any other means." The motion also stated there is a "circus-like atmosphere inside the courtroom" and that Martinez had yelled at witnesses, attacked witnesses on a personal level, and had thrown evidence. The motion also alleged that Martinez chose to release evidence and to pose for pictures with his fans on the steps of the courthouse. The attorneys claimed Arias was in a position in which she could not present a complete defense and that the only constitutional course was to declare a mistrial.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On May 20, 2013, defense attorneys filed motion which alleged that a defense witness who had been due to testify the preceding Friday, the 17th, began receiving death threats for her scheduled testimony on Arias' behalf. The day before the filing, the witness contacted counsel for Arias, stating that she was no longer willing to testify because of the threats. The motion continued, "It should also be noted that these threats follow those made to Alyce LaViolette, a record of which was made ex-parte and under seal." The motion was denied, as was a motion for a stay in the proceedings that had been sought to give time to appeal the decisions to the Arizona Supreme Court.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On May 29, 2013, the Arizona Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal filed three months earlier, which was also refused by the mid-level Arizona Court of Appeals. Nurmi had asked the high court to throw out the aggravating factor of cruelty because the judge had allowed it to go forward based on a different theory of how the murder occurred. The lead detective originally claimed that the gunshot occurred first, followed by the stabbing and slitting of the throat. Based on that theory, Stephens ruled there was probable cause to find the crime had been committed in an especially cruel manner, an aggravating factor under state law. Subsequent to this initial hearing, the medical examiner testified that the gunshot occurred postmortem.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On July 6, 2018, Arias' current attorneys, Margaret M. Green (a.k.a. Peg Green) and Corey Engle, filed a 324-page appeal seeking her murder conviction be overturned to the Court of Appeals.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On October 17, 2019, Arias' attorneys argued to the Court of Appeals that her sentence should be overturned on the basis that Martinez acted inappropriately throughout the trial, resulting in a media frenzy and affecting the outcome of the trial. On March 24, 2020, the court held that notwithstanding "egregious" and "self-promoting" misconduct by the prosecutor, Arias had been convicted "based upon the overwhelming evidence of her guilt," and upheld the conviction.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On October 21, 2014, Arias' sentencing retrial began. Opening statements were given, and a hearing on evidence was held. Prosecution witness Amanda Webb, called in the first trial to rebut Arias' testimony that she returned a gas can to Walmart on May 8, 2007, admitted she did not know if all records were transferred after the store relocated. After a holiday break, the retrial resumed in January, 2015. Mesa police experts admitted that Alexander's laptop had viruses and pornography, contrary to testimony in the first trial in 2013. Jury deliberations began on February 12, 2015. On March 2, 2015, the jury informed Judge Stephens that they were deadlocked. Arias' attorneys requested a mistrial. Stephens denied the request, read additional instructions to the jury, and ordered them to resume deliberations. On March 5, 2015, Stephens declared a mistrial because the jurors, who deliberated for about 26 hours over five days, deadlocked at 11–1 vote in favor of the death penalty. The 11 jurors in favor of the death penalty indicated that the sole holdout juror was sympathetic to Arias and had an agenda.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Sentencing was scheduled for April 7, 2015, with Stephens having the option to sentence Arias to either life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, or with the possibility of parole after 25 years. On April 13, Stephens sentenced Arias to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. By March 5, 2015, Arias' trials cost an estimated $3 million.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: In an interview on April 8, 2015, Arias' attorney Jennifer Willmott discussed the social media furor, death threats she received, Arias' statements at the sentencing, the holdout juror, and stated that she believed that Arias testified truthfully.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: In June 2015, following a restitution hearing, Arias was ordered to pay more than $32,000 to Alexander's siblings. Her attorney stated this was about one third of the amount requested.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: , Arias is housed at the Arizona Department of Corrections #281129, which is located at Arizona State Prison Complex - Perryville. She started her sentence in the complex's maximum security Lumley Unit, but has since been downgraded to the medium security level.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: The Associated Press reported that the public would be able to watch testimony in the Jodi Arias trial. This decision, made by a three-judge panel of the Arizona Court of Appeals, overruled Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens' original decision, which would "allow a witness to testify in private, as jurors [weighed] whether to give [Arias] the death penalty." Judge Stephens held secret (non-public) hearings. As a result of the move for secrecy, an unidentified defense witness was permitted to testify in private. Though Judge Stephens' decision had been overruled by the Arizona Court of Appeals, "the mystery witness who testified...at the start of the defense case" was not revealed to the public.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: The case, featured on an episode of "48 Hours Mystery: Picture Perfect" in 2008, included an interview which, for the first time in the history of "48 Hours," was used as evidence in a death penalty trial. On September 24, 2008, "Inside Edition" interviewed Arias at the Maricopa County Jail where she stated, "No jury is going to convict me...because I am innocent and you can mark my words on that. No jury is going to convict me."


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: The Associated Press said the case was a "circus," a "runaway train" and said the case "grew into a worldwide sensation as thousands followed the trial via a live, unedited Web feed." They added that the trial garnered "daily coverage from cable news networks and spawned a virtual cottage industry for talk shows" and at the courthouse, "the entire case devolved into a circus-like spectacle attracting dozens of enthusiasts each day to the courthouse as they lined up for a chance to score just a few open public seats in the gallery;" "For its fans, the Arias trial became a live daytime soap opera." The "Toronto Star" stated, "With its mix of jealousy, religion, murder, and sex, the Jodi Arias case shows what happens when the justice system becomes entertainment."


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: During the trial, public figures freely expressed their opinions. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer told reporters after an unrelated press event that she believed Arias to be guilty. She sidestepped a question about whether she believed Arias was guilty of manslaughter, second-degree murder or first-degree murder, but said "I don't have all the information, but I think she's guilty."


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: HLN staff and their commentators compared the case to the Casey Anthony case for the perceived similarities between Anthony and Arias and the emotions that the cases incited in the general public. Additionally, HLN aired a daily show covering the trial called "HLN After Dark: The Jodi Arias Trial." The cable network sent out a press release titled "HLN No. 1 Among Ad-Supported Cable as Arias Pleads for Her Life," bragging that they led in the ratings. The release stated: "HLN continues to be the ratings leader and complete source for coverage of the Jodi Arias Trial. On May 21, HLN ranked No.1 among ad-supported cable networks from 1:56p to 2:15p (ET) as Arias took the stand to plead for her life in front of the jury that found her guilty of Alexander's murder. During that time period, HLN out-delivered the competition among both total viewers (2,540,000) and 25–54 demo viewers (691,000). HLN also ranked No.1 among ad-supported cable networks for the 2p hour delivering 2,227,000 total viewers and 620,000 25–54 viewers."


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: "," a made-for-television movie, stars "Lost" actress Tania Raymonde as Arias and Jesse Lee Soffer, of "The Mob Doctor" and "Chicago P.D.," as Alexander. Prosecutor Juan Martinez was played by "Ugly Betty" actor Tony Plana and David Zayas, of "Dexter," portrays detective Esteban Flores. Created for and distributed by the Lifetime Network, the film premiered June 22, 2013.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Investigation Discovery aired in January 2018 a short television series titled "Jodi Arias: An American Murder Mystery." The special explores the death of Alexander and the subsequent legal circus as Arias was tried.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: Arias' case was discussed in the July 19, 2018, episode of "Stuff You Should Know" as an example of the violation of attorney-client privilege. The episode discussed former attorney Kirk Nurmi's tell-all book, which contained information Nurmi acquired during his representation of Arias.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: NBC broadcast a story of the murder on 6 October 2019 in an episode of "Dateline" titled "Along Came Jodi."


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: The site of the homicide was featured on Season 2, Episode 1 of Murder House Flip which aired on 12 August 2022 on The Roku Channel. The house received a remodeled bathroom, bedroom and hallway, switching out fixtures that were unchanged from the time of the homicide. During the renovations, the cast of the show found blood residue in the flooring.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: In late January 2013, artwork drawn by Arias began selling on eBay. The seller was her brother; he claimed that the profits went towards covering the family's travel expenses to the trial and "better food" for Arias while she was in jail.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On April 11, "USA Today" reported that during the testimony of defense witness Alyce LaViolette, public outrage was extreme concerning her assertions that Arias was a victim of domestic violence. Tweets and other social media posts attacked LaViolette's reputation. More than 500 negative reviews of LaViolette's yet-to-be-released book appeared on Amazon.com calling LaViolette a fraud and a disgrace. "It's the electronic version of a lynch mob," said retired Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fields. Attorney Anne Bremner, who said she received death threats after she provided legal counsel in the Amanda Knox case, told "The Huffington Post" that the kind of online ridicule and threats LaViolette received could affect attorneys and witnesses in high-profile trials. "It's something to take into account," Bremner said. "If I had kids I would consider it even more so."


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On May 9, "The Republic" commented: "The Jodi Arias trial has been a social-media magnet. And when Arias was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder, Twitter and Facebook exploded with reaction. Much of it was aimed at Arias, though plenty of people tweeted at the media coverage, such as the antics of HLN host Nancy Grace. During the trial, hardcore followers of the proceedings were accused of trying to use social media to intimidate witnesses, or otherwise influence the outcome. Whether it had any effect is questionable, but it's a notable development."


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On May 24, Victoria Washington, who was one of Arias' attorneys until she had to resign in 2011 because of a conflict, said "Arias' lead attorney, Nurmi, was pilloried in social media. At one point, an Internet denizen digitally superimposed his face onto a crime-scene photo of Alexander dead in the shower of his Mesa home. I know people were aggravated with him constantly filing for mistrial, but you have to make and preserve the record for federal review (on appeal). If you don't file for mistrial, the appeals courts will say you waived it."


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On May 28, "Radar Online" reported the jury foreman had been receiving threats ever since the panel deadlocked on the sentencing phase, and now his son was claiming he's receiving death threats. "Today I read hate mail my dad had gotten. Some person had sent him a threatening message complete with his email address, full name, and phone number (which at the very least means that this guy should retake Hate Mail 101). I also read some comments on an article online about my dad. Surreal. They say my dad was fooled by the defendant, that he was taken with her, that he hated the prosecutor," his son wrote on his public blog.


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: The Twitter account in Arias' name is operated by Arias' friends on her behalf. On June 22, from that account, Arias tweeted, "Just don't know yet if I will plea or appeal."


title: Murder of Travis Alexander

text: On March 6, 2015, after the retrial of the penalty phase concluded, it was reported that juror #17, the sole holdout, received death threats and police were posted at her house. Dennis Elias, a jury consultant, said "The very fact that people are making death threats and trying to out her, it is not a proud day for any single one of those people and they should be ashamed."


title: Multiple myeloma

text: Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone pain, anemia, kidney dysfunction, and infections may occur. Complications may include amyloidosis.


title: Multiple myeloma

text: The cause of multiple myeloma is unknown. Risk factors include obesity, radiation exposure, family history, and certain chemicals. There is an increased risk of multiple myeloma in certain occupations. This is due to the occupational exposure to aromatic hydrocarbon solvents having a role in causation of multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma may develop from monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance that progresses to smoldering myeloma. The abnormal plasma cells produce abnormal antibodies, which can cause kidney problems and overly thick blood. The plasma cells can also form a mass in the bone marrow or soft tissue. When one tumor is present, it is called a plasmacytoma; more than one is called multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma is diagnosed based on blood or urine tests finding abnormal antibodies, bone marrow biopsy finding cancerous plasma cells, and medical imaging finding bone lesions. Another common finding is high blood calcium levels.


title: Multiple myeloma

text: Multiple myeloma is considered treatable, but generally incurable. Remissions may be brought about with steroids, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and stem cell transplant. Bisphosphonates and radiation therapy are sometimes used to reduce pain from bone lesions.


title: Multiple myeloma

text: Globally, multiple myeloma affected 488,000 people and resulted in 101,100 deaths in 2015. In the United States, it develops in 6.5 per 100,000 people per year and 0.7% of people are affected at some point in their lives. It usually occurs around the age of 60 and is more common in men than women. It is uncommon before the age of 40. Without treatment, the median survival in the prechemotherapy era was about 7 months. After the introduction of chemotherapy, prognosis improved significantly with a median survival of 24 to 30 months and a 10-year survival rate of 3%. Even further improvements in prognosis have occurred because of the introduction of newer biologic therapies and better salvage options, with median survivals now exceeding 60 to 90 months. With current treatments, survival is usually 4–5 years. The five-year survival rate is about 54%. The word myeloma is from the Greek "myelo-" meaning "marrow" and "-oma" meaning "tumor".


title: Multiple myeloma

text: Because many organs can be affected by myeloma, the symptoms and signs vary greatly. Fatigue and bone pain are the most common symptoms at presentation. The CRAB criteria encompass the most common signs of multiple myeloma:


title: Multiple myeloma

text: Bone pain affects almost 70% of people with multiple myeloma and is one of the most common symptoms. Myeloma bone pain usually involves the spine and ribs, and worsens with activity. Persistent, localized pain may indicate a pathological bone fracture. Involvement of the vertebrae may lead to spinal cord compression or kyphosis. Myeloma bone disease is due to the overexpression of receptor activator for nuclear factor κ B ligand (RANKL) by bone marrow stroma. RANKL activates osteoclasts, which resorb bone. The resultant bone lesions are lytic (cause breakdown) in nature, and are best seen in plain radiographs, which may show "punched-out" resorptive lesions (including the "raindrop" appearance of the skull on radiography). The breakdown of bone also leads to the release of calcium ions into the blood, leading to hypercalcemia and its associated symptoms.


title: Multiple myeloma

text: The anemia found in myeloma is usually normocytic and normochromic. It results from the replacement of normal bone marrow by infiltrating tumor cells and inhibition of normal red blood cell production (hematopoiesis) by cytokines.


title: Multiple myeloma

text: Impaired kidney function may develop, either acutely or chronically, and with any degree of severity.


title: Multiple myeloma

text: The most common cause of kidney failure in multiple myeloma is due to proteins secreted by the malignant cells. Myeloma cells produce monoclonal proteins of varying types, most commonly immunoglobulins (antibodies) and free light chains, resulting in abnormally high levels of these proteins in the blood. Depending on the size of these proteins, they may be excreted through the kidneys. Kidneys can be damaged by the effects of proteins or light chains. Increased bone resorption leads to hypercalcemia and causes nephrocalcinosis, thereby contributing to kidney failure. Amyloidosis is a distant third in the causation. People with amyloidosis have high levels of amyloid protein that can be excreted through the kidneys and cause damage to the kidneys and other organs.


title: Multiple myeloma

text: Light chains produce myriad effects that can manifest as the Fanconi syndrome (type II kidney tubular acidosis).


title: Multiple myeloma

text: The most common infections are pneumonias and pyelonephritis. Common pneumonia pathogens include "S. pneumoniae", "S. aureus", and "K. pneumoniae", while common pathogens causing pyelonephritis include "E. coli" and other Gram-negative organisms. The greatest risk period for the occurrence of infection is in the initial few months after the start of chemotherapy. The increased risk of infection is due to immune deficiency. Although the total immunoglobulin level is typically elevated in multiple myeloma, the majority of the antibodies are ineffective monoclonal antibodies from the clonal plasma cell. A selected group of people with documented hypogammaglobulinemia may benefit from replacement immunoglobulin therapy to reduce the risk of infection.


title: Multiple myeloma

text: Some symptoms (e.g., weakness, confusion, and fatigue) may be due to anemia or hypercalcemia. Headache, visual changes, and retinopathy may be the result of hyperviscosity of the blood depending on the properties of the paraprotein. Finally, radicular pain, loss of bowel or bladder control (due to involvement of spinal cord leading to cord compression) or carpal tunnel syndrome, and other neuropathies (due to infiltration of peripheral nerves by amyloid) may occur. It may give rise to paraplegia in late-presenting cases.


title: Multiple myeloma

text: When the disease is well-controlled, neurological symptoms may result from current treatments, some of which may cause peripheral neuropathy, manifesting itself as numbness or pain in the hands, feet, and lower legs.


title: Multiple myeloma

text: The initial symptoms may involve pain, numbness, swelling, expansion of the jaw, tooth mobility, and radiolucency. Multiple myeloma in the mouth can mimic common tooth problems such as periapical abscess or periodontal abscess, gingivitis, periodontitis, or other gingival enlargement or masses.


title: Multiple myeloma

text: Studies have reported a familial predisposition to myeloma. Hyperphosphorylation of a number of proteins—the paratarg proteins—a tendency that is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner, appears a common mechanism in these families. This tendency is more common in African-American with myeloma and may contribute to the higher rates of myeloma in this group.


title: Multiple myeloma

text: In a study to investigate the association between occupational exposure to aromatic hydrocarbon solvents, evidence has shown that these solvents have a role in causation of multiple myeloma. The occurrence of multiple myeloma may occur more in certain occupations. The risk of multiple myeloma occurring is greater in occupations as a firefighter, as a hairdresser, and in agricultural and industrial occupations. The risk in certain occupations is due to the exposure of different chemicals. Repeated exposure to chemicals increases risk of multiple myeloma. The use of pesticides and hazardous chemicals in occupations, like firefighting and agriculture have been seen to cause an increase of risk for multiple myeloma. Other occupations, such as the industrial occupations, are also at increased risk for multiple myeloma. Industrial workers are exposed to chemicals that have aromatic hydrocarbon solvents in them.


title: Multiple myeloma

text: Exposure to aromatic hydrocarbon solvents, benzene, toluene, and xylene, can increase risk of multiple myeloma. Increased duration, high intensity of exposure, or repeated exposure was associated with an increased risk of multiple myeloma by up to 63%. The time from exposure to diagnosis was studied, and diagnosis after exposure lagged at least 20 years. When exposure to one chemical was identified, there was usually exposure to another hydrocarbon solvent identified. Multiple myeloma affects more men, older adults, and African Americans. These populations also have higher exposure frequencies than their counterparts.