An Arizona judge ruled the Jodi Arias sentencing retrial will continue, and the convicted murderer will still face the possible punishment of death.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens handed down the ruling late Wednesday afternoon, denying a motion by Arias' defense counsel to take the death penalty off the table in her retrial, reports USA Today. 

Attorneys Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott had repeatedly petitioned the court to dismiss the case, or at least the intent to seek the death penalty, arguing prosecutor Juan Martinez and Mesa police detective Esteban Flores, the case agent, committed misconduct on several different occasions.

Most recently, the Arias' defense team alleged local police mishandled evidence from murder victim Travis Alexander's computer and failed to share thousands of pornographic web files found on the PC with defense attorneys. The defense says the files would have helped prove their argument Alexander was a sexual deviant who emotionally abused Arias. As a result, they asked the judge to dismiss all charges -- or at least remove the death penalty as a sentencing option -- on the grounds of missing evidence.

While giving testimony Monday, Arias' attorney Jennifer Willmott accused Det. Flores of altering the files on Alexander's computer when he took the computer out of sleep mode.

Defense attorney Kirk Nurmi also claimed Arias cannot get a fair trial because over a dozen potential "mitigation" witnesses have refused to testify in open court with the media and public present.

However, in a 16-page ruling, Judge Stephens denied all of the defense motions to remove the death penalty option.

"The court finds no ground for dismissal of the indictment or the Notice of the Intent to Seek the Death Penalty based upon this claim," she wrote in response to 17 different allegations of misconduct or grounds for dismissal that include allegations that Martinez delayed or withheld evidence from the defense and harassed witnesses on the stand, 

"Many of those motions alleged prosecutorial misconduct. The cumulative effect of those allegations does not require dismissal of the charges or the notice of intent to seek the death penalty. There may have been errors made, but those errors were not so egregious that they create concerns about the integrity or fundamental fairness of the trial," Stephens wrote, according to the New York Daily News.

The trial is scheduled to resume next Tuesday.