American Justice (Part 1)

 Unless you were away visiting another planet these past couple of months or you are totally oblivious to current affairs, the TV networks had been giving extensive live coverage to the criminal trial of Casey Anthony accused of killing her two year old daughter Caylee. On July 5, 2011 she was found not guilty of first degree murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and aggravated child abuse.

 She was found guilty of four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer. On July 7, 2011 she was sentenced to one year in jail and $1,000 in fines for each count. With credit for time served and good behavior her release date was set for July 17, 2011. So a jury of her peers found her not guilty of murder, but guilty of being a pathological liar. For my benefit I’m recalling the facts that led up to the trial, so if you like you may skip Part 1 and leap to Part 2.

The trial became a media circus created primarily by Nancy Grace, a TV Cable legal analyst who pursued Casey Anthony for three years. Throughout the six week trial, she derisorily called the defendant a “tot mom.” I’m not quite sure what that means but it’s not intended to be complimentary. But why did this case attract so much attention, when countless other children disappear or die under mysterious circumstances without becoming widely known?

The decision by cable outlets to focus on the trial is one part of the answer. The case also had elements of a soap opera: a young woman whose daughter is dead, photos of her partying lifestyle, suggestions that Casey Anthony was sexually abused by her father and the emotions of Caylee’s grandparents, who lost a grandchild and were openly critical of their daughter as she faced charges that could have led to her execution.

According to Casey Anthony’s father, George Anthony, Casey left the family’s home on June 16, 2008, taking Caylee (who was almost 3) with her and did not return for 31 days. Casey’s mother Cindy asked repeatedly during the month to see Caylee, but Casey claimed that she was too busy with a work assignment in Tampa, Florida.

 At other times, she said Caylee was with a nanny, later identified by Casey as Zenaida “Zanny” Fernandez-Gonzalez, or at theme parks or the beach. It was eventually determined that although Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez did in fact exist, she had never met Casey nor Caylee Anthony, any member of the Anthony family, or any of Casey’s friends.

Caylee Anthony was reported missing to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office on July 15, 2008 by her grandmother, Cindy. During the same call, Casey Anthony acknowledged to the 911 operator that Caylee had been missing “for 31 days”. A distraught Cindy also told the 911 operator “There is something wrong. I found my daughter’s car today and it smells like there’s been a dead body in the damn car.”

On October 14, 2008, Casey Anthony was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and four counts of providing false information to police. She entered a plea of not-guilty to all charges, and Judge John Jordan ordered that she be held without bond. On October 21, 2008, an original charge of child neglect was dropped against Casey.

 In a statement that morning, the State Attorney’s Office explained: “The neglect charges were premised on the theory that Caylee was still alive. As the investigation progressed and it became clear that the evidence proved that the child was deceased, the State sought an indictment on the legally appropriate charges.”

Evidence was found that someone had searched the Internet on Casey Anthony’s computer for the use of the chloroform and how to make it. On November 26, 2008, officials released 700 pages of documents related to the Anthony investigation, which included evidence of Google searches of the terms “neck breaking”, “how to make chloroform”, and “death” on Casey Anthony’s home computer. The documents also indicated that Cindy Anthony stated to the State Attorney’s office that a Winnie the Pooh blanket was missing from Caylee’s bed. This type of blanket was found at the crime scene.

There was outrage from all quarters when the verdicts were announced not least from the media who effectively had assumed the role of 13th juror. During the six week trial of Casey Anthony, various TV Channels were awarding points to the Prosecution and Defense teams depending on their performance on a daily basis. Questions were raised about the validity of the jurors, but also ignoring the fact that the prosecution and defense teams had agreed on Casey Anthony’s jury of peers. Selecting members of the jury is a skill in itself and apparently the defense performed a better job than the prosecution.

The key arguments of the case were as follows:

Prosecutors said: Anthony suffocated Caylee with duct tape on her mouth and nose.

But: There was no DNA from Anthony on the tape found on Caylee’s remains.

Prosecutors said: Anthony wrapped the child’s body in a blanket.

But: No fluid from decomposition was found on the blanket, which was with the child’s remains.

Prosecutors said: Anthony kept the girl’s body in the trunk until it smelled.

But: The defense said the smell came from rotten food in the trunk.

 Legal analysts and court watchers said that despite the seemingly endless hype surrounding the investigation and trial, the prosecution’s case simply didn’t hold up. There was no forensic evidence — such as DNA or fingerprints — directly linking Anthony to her daughter’s death. In fact, the precise cause of the girl’s death was unclear.

The prosecution put out a lot of dots, but they couldn’t connect them,” commented Lawrence Kobilinsky, chairman of the Department of Sciences at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Kobilinsky had advised Anthony’s attorneys on the forensic case against her but was not involved in the trial.

After a trial of a month and a half, jurors took less than 11 hours to find Anthony not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse. Surprisingly, the jurors did not ask the judge any questions during their deliberations; neither did they request to review any of the exhibits submitted as evidence during the trial. To be continued:

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