The Great Debate: Casey Anonthy

When we turn the justice system into a daytime television soap opera, complete with wall-to-wall coverage by screaming, indignant, over-the-top sports broadcasting type pundit commentary, we end up with another OJ Simpson trial and outcome.

The goal of those involved is no longer exclusively about determining guilt, but also making good television while teeing up future book deals. It vastly alters the stakes and internal thought processes of the prosecution, defense, judge, and jury, and in my opinion, corrupts the process to the point it no longer serves the interests of justice.

Gahhhhhh I'll have to look for Cream soda and stuff, on it!

more than anything just sick of the human addiction to voyeurism that elevates these people to celebrity status.

whether she's innocent or guilty wtf can't the trial process just be kept out of the public eye with some semblance of dignity.

its none of the public's business.

i just found out about this casey girl today and i could care less to be honest....but i did look into it at first and i was confused for a brief period of time

As much as I'd like to agree with this, I'd of liked more pressure on my brother's killer's trial.. There are people caught on simple misdemeanor possession charges that spend more time in jail than he did.. I feel as if his trial just got swept under the rug and no one even gives a ***and it still bugs me..

But I bet if I went and killed that *** myself that I'd end up spending most of the rest of my life in prison.

Same with my father-in-law's murderers.

There's far too many *** Casey Anthony pages x.x

I still agree to an extent that it shouldn't be made as much of a public spectacle (to the point that Jaerik was pointing out) but they definitely should not just be none of the public's business.. Keeping it all in the dark and unknown is exactly what lets people off with such light sentencing in the first place. The only people left to speak out against the light sentencing is the family of the victims, and I think it's safe to say that no one would ever consider asking a victim's family what would be appropriate justice.. We're just kinda written off as un-objective due to being so involved in the entire thing.

Now that that's out of the way she can get back to her party life she's missed for the last 3 years and then start selling books deals. I bet within the week there'll be pics of her dancing it up at clubs and throwing back Jager bombs. In about a year she'll have forgotten that she ever had a daughter.

Innocent? You mean lack of evidence in general?

Law is a joke

double jeopardy is so bull

I live about 3 blocks from the Anthony home, and I am glad the circus is ending. I didn't follow the trial enough to be able to say if there was absolute evidence that went (I have a real disdain for the media) "beyond reasonable doubt", but from what I saw there seemed like there was compelling evidence that she at least knew something happened (what kind of mother goes out partying when their 2 year old is missing) and took steps to cover it up. I was a juror on a murder trial once, and there was no smoking gun with even less circumstantial evidence in that case and they still convicted the guy of 2nd degree. What is even worse now is the she will probably go make a profit from all of this.

Never thought about it that way...

I'm all for justice being served for those wronged and victims of terrible crimes not being left voiceless, I just can't stand that nancy graceless and her kind get to make their whole careers chasing one tragedy after another - the entertainment equivilent of an ambulance chaser. :/

true that

No concrete evidence? Then even if she was guilty then it is better to let her go free lest we set a precedent we don't want to set.

The Anthony case broke new ground regarding scientific evidence.

University of Tennessee's "Body farm" discovered "hair banding", a phenomenon in which hair roots can form a dark band after death. A hair found in the trunk of the Anthony car exhibited this pattern.[51] Air samples were to sent to University of Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.[51]

On Friday, October 24, 2008, a forensic report by Dr. Arpad Vass of the Oak Ridge Laboratory in Tennessee stated that results from an air sampling procedure (called LIBS) performed in the trunk of Casey Anthony's car showed chemical compounds "consistent with a decompositional event" based on the presence of five key chemical compounds out of over 400 possible chemical compounds that Dr. Vass's research group considers typical of decomposition (human decomposition was not specified). Whether or not the decomposition was human is still unknown, but was indicated as a possibility. The process has not been affirmed by a Daubert Test in the courts.[54] Dr. Vass's group also stated there was the presence of chloroform in the car trunk. In evidence hearings in March and April 2011, Dr. Ken Furton, a biochemist and nuclear chemist, pointed out with examples from various studies that there is no consensus in the field on what chemicals are typical of human decomposition.[citation needed]

DNA samples could not confirm whether the source was alive or dead. The only DNA testing by the FBI was limited to 752 base pairs out of 16,569 base pairs (less than 5% of the mitochondrial genome sequence). Traces of chloroform were also found in Casey Anthony's car trunk, and evidence was found that someone had searched the Internet on her computer for the use of the chemical and how to make it.[55] 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.[56]

Investigators also entered into the body of evidence a photo from the computer of Ricardo Morales, an ex-boyfriend of Casey Anthony, which depicts a joke in which a man is using a chloroform-soaked rag to drug a woman. Casey and Caylee Anthony had stayed with Morales on several occasions until June 9, 2008.[citation needed]

On February 18, 2009, documents released by the State Attorney's Office in Florida indicated that the same type of laundry bag, duct tape, and plastic bags discovered at the crime scene were found in the house where Casey and Caylee resided. Heart-shaped stickers were also recovered by investigators. According to an FBI laboratory email, a heart-shaped outline was originally seen on the duct tape that was recovered from the mouth area of Caylee's skull, but the laboratory was not able to capture the heart shape photographically and could no longer see it after the duct tape was dusted for fingerprint processing. The documents also indicate that Cindy Anthony stated to them that a Winnie the Pooh blanket was missing from Caylee's bed. This type of blanket was found at the crime scene. An entry from Casey Anthony's diary was also released.[57]

The following diary entry by Casey Anthony is dated "June 21" and reads:

I have no regrets, just a bit worried. I just want for everything to work out OK. I completely trust my own judgment and know that I made the right decision. I just hope that the end justifies the means. I just want to know what the future will hold for me. I guess I will soon see – This is the happiest that I have been in a very long time. I hope that my happiness will continue to grow– I've made new friends that I really like. I've surrounded myself with good people – I am finally happy. Let's just hope that it doesn't change.[58]

Transfer writing (imprints of writing) from other pages of the diary revealed the mention of a person named Kenneth, whom Casey had dated in 2003. A member of Casey Anthony's defense team, spokeswoman Marti MacKenzie, contends that this entry was written in 2003 prior to Caylee's birth. The defense contends that the opposite page has "'03" written in one of the corners as the date, and the handwriting on the two pages matches. However, there was no authentication that the "'03" signified a date, or when it was entered in the diary or by whom. The prosecution acknowledged that it did not know when the entry was made.[59] In January 2010, however, an FBI report released in the media stated that the diary in question was not on the market until 2004.[citation needed]

From wiki (shush) for those who haven't followed this. I don't see any smoking gun there.

She's already guilty in the court of public opinion but as much as things (circumstance) leaned towards her being guilty, the evidence just wasn't there.

Im pretty comfortable saying that eventually the truth will come out.

I didn't follow this trial because I don't particularly care. It does bother me to see people missing two points:

1) Trials are supposed to be public; it reduces the ability of the government to screw people over marginally.

2) People aren't supposed to be convicted unless they're guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. There apparently was reasonable doubt in this case, so the mother won't be in jail much longer. Guilty people who are arrested getting away with it sometimes is the price we pay to avoid destroying the lives of innocent people.

Also, I don't see why this is national news. An adorable little white kid was killed. Possibly by her sexy looking mom. In a botched robbery attempt this weeked a guy shot five people, killing two of them (last I heard), including a toddler that he coup de graced. Unless you also happen to live in Pennsylvannia this is the first you heard of it. I haven't seen pictures, but I assume the toddler was probably also adorable.

Personally I'm trying to buy vita bella com before she does or whatever that latin tattoo thing was she got

I live and work in the orlando area, this happened in the neighborhood next to my granparents', not to say that ive got "inside info" but ive most definetly heard more about it than most people. While they couldnt prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she KILLED caylee, they did aquit her of everything except for lying to investigators. The opening defense argument claimed that caylee drowned in the family pool, which is all too common in florida. Nevertheless, there was more than enough evidence for anyone with good judge of character to know her whole defense was a complete crock. They had jail video/audio or her talking to her parents about a reporter saying something Long the lines of "caylee might have drowned", to which she replied "figures theyd make stuff up". That evidence alone along with her conceiling a body and the mounds of evidence showing she was involved with her death, would have been enough to pin her with at least a manslaughter or neglegence charge.

From all ive seen, about the only thing i can figure is the jury didnt want her blood on their hands. Another fault with the case was the jury selection. I listened to it on the radio and when the judge asked most of them if they had herd of the case, a lot of them claimed theyd never heard what happened or who casey / caylee were. If youve so much as stayed a week in florida since 2008, unless you were a complete recluse, rubbing yourself down with lotion while commentating it in the 3rd person, you would have heard about it on the tv, radio, or while you ate in a resturaunt, waited in line at a theme park, or on print.

She may or may not have gotten away woth murder, but she damn sure enough got away with being a sack of ***.

Lastly, the double jeopardy clause, for now, only protects her from the STATE of florida. If the federal courts wanted to prosecute, they could do it, although they would most likely want to add to the current mound of evidence to better the odds of prosecution.

A lot of people only know double jeopardy from the movie, which in that case, the guy did the time, then was released and found the person he "killed" and was prosecuted for, then, if i remember correctly, killed him for real, but because he already did the time, he was protected from doing the time again.

This. Why is everyone so quick to pin blame on the Mom?

It was worth seeing Casey Anthony walk (more or less) just to see the look on Nancy Grace's pigface. I can't stand that ***.

That whole month partying not giving a damn then making up stories is why I pin the blame on the mom.

I didn't see any of this. But to be fair, I also didn't follow the case very closely. I oughta go look up the details.

**edit** Yeah, I can see why they'd blame the mom. That's horrible. :/

Because of the partying and general lack of emotion shown up until this verdict.

Your kid is dead, the least you'd expect is some sadness over the issue. Her parents seemed more distraught than she ever was.

The jury handed down the proper verdict based on the evidence given but Casey did nothing to help her case.

Well I'll admit, I first brought this up in the random thoughts thread, and I just assumed she was guilty (I dunno why people still say innocent until proven guilty, it's more like guilty until proven innocent) but the verdict is in, and nothing I can do or say would change that, no matter how strongly I felt about it (which I don't really feel anything strong beyond how *** up a situation it is, for everyone involved) that verdict will remain.. Time to accept it and move on. As I stated in my first post, if she's not guilty, she'll pay for it the rest of her life anyways, and if she is, she'll most likely end up doing something as bad and will most likely be caught up in it.

She wasn't on trial for being a terrible person, she was on trial for the murder of her daughter. Even if she was glad her daughter was dead and/or gone, it doesn't prove guilt of the crime, just that she's a huge *** (Which she is).

Ugh, Not guilty does not mean innocent.
Not guilty, aquittal... Yes, legally identical terms. Neither means "innocent". Both mean that the DA has failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. (This leaves open the possiblity that the Defednant was almost certainly guilty, but there was a reasonable doubt. It also covers situations where someone was factually innocent. Not guilty, or an aquital, covers a really broad range of "relative guiltiness".
States have a way to be declared "factually innocent". That's where the evidence, in the light most favorable to the prosecution, could not possibly have supported a conviction. Such a finding is very rare.