How The 'Mormon Casey Anthony' Is Different From The Real Casey Anthony

Jodi Arias is on trial for allegedly murdering her Mormon motivational speaker ex-boyfriend, and she keeps getting compared to Casey Anthony.

Both women are young brunettes who got caught lying to prosecutors in high-profile murder cases.

But there's one big difference between the courtroom dramas: Arias is actually taking the stand in her own defense this week.

Arias says she killed her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in self-defense in June 2008, but she initially told investigators she knew absolutely nothing about his death, Fox has reported.

Then, the 32-year-old Mormon convert told authorities masked intruders entered Alexander's house and fatally attacked him.

Alexander was stabbed 27 times, shot twice in the head, and nearly decapitated, according to various news reports.

Like Arias, Casey Anthony also got tripped up in lies. She pretended her daughter Caylee was kidnapped by a nanny before finally telling police the 2-year-old drowned in the family swimming pool.

Anthony decided not to take the stand in her own defense, a decision that paid off. (In a stunning verdict, a jury found Anthony not guilty of killing her daughter.)

Arias, who could be put to death, is taking a gamble by taking the stand in her own defense.

As Christine Pelisek writes in the Daily Beast, "Some court watchers believe Arias had no choice but to roll the dice with the jury and attempt to explain away her lies."

She also has a chance to win some sympathy. In testimony this week, Arias read exerpts from her journal saying that she wanted to kill herself, ABC News reported.

"I just wish I could die. I wish that suicide was a way out but it is no escape. I wouldn't feel any more pain," she wrote, according to ABC.

Like Anthony, Arias has managed to attract some sympathy online through the website jodiariasisinnocent.com.