Casey Anthony Found Not Guilty of 1st-Degree Murder, Acquitted of Manslaughter in Daughter's Death

FOX ^ | July 5, 2011 | Staff

[freebird5850]

Morning all, didn't see a thread for today so I created one.

[tioga]

Just saw a bit of Geraldo w/O’Reilly from last night....all anyone here has to know about this is that Geraldo sees it as just.....that right there ought to give pause to anyone willing to see this travesty of justice as ok. If you want to justify Casey walking go stand with Geraldo the nutjob.

[Vermont Lt]

I don’t think it is a death of common sense.

I look at it this way: The entire, randomly selected group of 12 people on that jury could not ALL be idiots. And they came to the conclusion pretty damned quickly.

That tells me that if you filter out all of the crap that you and I heard on the TV, radio and newspapers, then the prosecution did not present enough evidence to tie her directly to the crime.

I’ve sat on a couple of juries (criminal not civil) I was really surprised at the amount of stuff that we did not hear. And, I was kind of surprised at the deliberations: The people on the jury were smart and did not buy into a lot of garbage that was thrown at us.

I had done a lot of work in organizational behavior and I was looking at the process with a “professional” interest as well. I did not see “groupthink”, nor did anyone try to bully anyone else.

In fact, we had one woman that was not “sure” at the start. In the end, several of us stopped the process to really make sure she was OK with the guilty verdict. We all said, at different times, that we had all the time in the world, and WE wanted to make sure she did not feel like she was pushed into the verdict.

Using that as a background, I feel pretty comfortable that the jury did their job as they saw it.

Do I think she killed the kid? Yeah, probably. BUT I think it was probably more akin to manslaughter and not first degree murder. And I think she freaked. And I think her Dad helped with the disposal.

Is she a weirdo? Yes. Is her family dysfunctional? Yes.

The search teams screwed up when they did not want to get their feet wet when that guy called in August and said he thought he saw the body. If you want to think about devine providence, that was it. And it moment passed without the police seeing it for what it was. Because no one wanted to get their feet wet.

But I think if there was a lesser charge, below aggravated manslaughter, they would have gotten a conviction. My guess is eventually, after the jury signs the book deal, that they will say just that.

And yes, I think the jury was together so long as a group, they developed the same camaraderie that you would get in any closed group: Military, Fraternity, etc. They will act as a group for a while. And I bet they will sign a book deal.

Finally, I think we will see Casey on the cover of some magazines. I think she will be on Oprah’s new channel sometime this fall. I predict she will pose naked. She will be a celebrity of the sorts of Loraina Bobbit (sic), Tanya Harding, and the Long Island Lolita Amy Fisher. And even in the sense of Lizzie Borden.

In the end here are the lessons I think we should all learn: When the notice for jury duty comes in the mail, embrace it. Be involved, and use YOUR common sense (not yours specifically-—but the generic, third person YOUR). And, attention to detail and being willing to get your feet wet are essential to solving problems.

Casey Anthony, or Tot Mom, is now part of American Pop/Crime Culture. And she will be richer than you and I for making a horrible mistake in her life. I hope she has gotten some smarts and keeps herself clean and quiet for the next fifty years.

[Girlene]

Wow. Did they go over any actual transcripts or testimony?

Don't know, SE Mom. More info re. alternate juror and the court room from Analysts: Anthony jury troubled by no cause of death, other factors

........."Huekler said he had a difficult time accepting that Caylee's body had been in the car trunk."..........

Now that is the most stunning part for me. The decomp in the trunk "seemed" to be slam dunk. Could the prosecution have screwed this up that much?

An intersting observation from "an observer" on this case:

............"Poston said jurors appeared to take a liking during the trial to Baez, who greeted them each day.

"It got to be where all 12 would in unison say 'good morning' " in return, Poston said.

Although Baez was constantly challenged by prosecutors and lost many rulings, jurors saw none of those exchanges, observers said."................

[truthkeeper]

Good points all but the key to the defense’s case was finding 12 morons in Fla. Not too hard, really.

I needed to laugh...really.

[miss marmelstein]

Yes, I do. Baez accused the state of being emotional and then related emotionally nutty charges of incest and drowning while the state gave solid, unemotional evidence of a cold-hearted, brutal murder.

Someone just told me Cheney Mason (the Foster Brooks of this case) gave the finger at the media during their big party last night. Do you know some idiots have compared this buffoon to Atticus Finch?

[DrewsMum]

I despised the state’s investigation, prosecution tactics & the judge way before the verdict came in. I despise when people do a crappy job & have a poor ethic, especially when they are in our criminal justice system. I despise the fact the jury had no choice, if they were honest, but come up with any verdict other than the one they did. Circustantial evidence is fine, but, like I said, when the circumstantial creates more questions than answers, THEN there is a problem.

[freekitty]

The police theory is Casey came home after her father had left for work. Promised Caylee she could swim; but Casey had to go inside to get swimming suits. While she was inside she took the bag containing the needle and bottle with the chloroform brought it outside and injected Caylee with it. Caylee died and Casey went to neighbors to borrow a shovel. Returned shovel and put Caylee in bags and big laundry bag and put her in car. They believe she murdered Caylee where the dogs hit. The first question is what is Casey doing with chloroform and a needle? Not once did those dogs hit around the pool.

I can’t imagine what is going to happen if Casey is turned loose and PR people get a hold of her. The jury made a bad call.

[freekitty]

They need jurors that can think. I will never buy a thing from Verizon. If they are dumb enough to hire people so stupid; I don’t want to shop there. There were I believe two people on the jury who work for Verizon.

[xsmommy]

i would’ve hung it also. no matter what.

[DrewsMum]

Well, I never mentioned a “lynch mob”.... but keep trying to justify the rudeness....maybe you’ll come up with something....

[freekitty]

Sad, isn’t it?

[LibertyJihad]

As a prosecutor, I used to remind every jury that “reasonable doubt” does not require that common sense be left outside the jury room. The defense attorneys hated my repititon of the phrase, but it was necessary because the defense constantly tried to imply that “reasonable doubt” required every detail of a crime be fully revealed.

For example, the defense would hammer home the fact that one witness said the defendant was driving a green car and another witness said it was a blue car - thus, we have “reasonable doubt”. Of course, the color of the car had nothing to do with the fact that the car was used to run over an ex-spouse.

In this case, the remaining questions or doubts surround issues that do not pertain to the elements of the crime. For example, how exactly did Casey kill her daughter ... what time did the murder occur ... what good reason did Casey have to kill her daughter. These questions were smoke and mirrors used by the defense to cloud the normal judgement of jurors. Unfortunately, these jurors were easily fooled.

[truthkeeper]

And some FReepers have had the nerve to attack my parenting because I don’t agree with them that we should attack the jury. It’s amazing to me. I debate liberals ALL THE TIME so I am used to the mud they sling, but was rather shocked at how FReepers have lowered themselves to some of the liberal tactics of name calling, mocking, ignoring facts, misquoting me & personal attacks. Thank you for being willing to engage in intelligent & honest debate.

You and I have not interacted in any posts before. Pleased to meet you, DrewsMum. Now, if I may, here is the problem.

I've read a number of your posts. You have REPEATEDLY stated you didn't follow the trial much and you asked for a lot of clarification of very basic facts and evidence. There is nothing at all wrong with that and it seems to me that trial-watching FReepers were happy to oblige.

HOWEVER, when you go on and on about how you think the prosecution did not prove its case, in light of the above facts, it grates on the nerves of FReepers who have given this case a tremendous amount of their time and paid very, very close attention to the facts and evidence, and who are heartsick at what they consider a true miscarriage of justice. Personally, I consider this verdict a travesty, and I work in the legal field. (Not an attorney.)

With all due respect, would you not concede that perhaps your evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the state's case might not be quite as accurate as that of persons who have watched and listened far more closely than you?

[freekitty]

Gee, I always thought when people lie big time; they are covering up something.

[gopheraj]

Thanks. I still think it all stinks but, like you said, what else is there.

[truthkeeper]

Poston said jurors appeared to take a liking during the trial to Baez, who greeted them each day.
"It got to be where all 12 would in unison say 'good morning' " in return, Poston said.

So that's all it takes.

Shallow. Deeply shallow.

[truthkeeper]

Do you know some idiots have compared this buffoon to Atticus Finch?

Good God...make it stop.

[nina0113]

The first question is what is Casey doing with chloroform and a needle?

Is Casey really smart enough to make chloroform? How hard is it? I wonder if THAT got presented as evidence.

[truthkeeper]

Very interesting and thanks for passing it along. However, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me for a few reasons but I’m glad I have the info. I am going to read more to educate myself.

[Girlene]

More info from the alternate juror. I am posting this stuff, not to call him stupid, or impugn the jury's decision.....but to shed light on what they saw, how they viewed this case.

From, Russ, Alternate juror speaks out

........."Russ felt it was an accident that was covered up by a dysfunctional family.

He connected the duct tape because that is how the Anthonys buried their pets. George couldn’t remember how they buried them. Cindy said they used packing tape but Lee said they used duct tape.

The jurors felt George was too combative on the stand and felt he was not being truthful.

Russ did not believe that a body was ever in the trunk because they only had one strand of hair. He did not see a stain in the trunk that would be decomposition.

Russ could not comment about George sexually abusing Casey as there was not enough evidence.

One important thing that we all questioned months ago and Russ made note of it. “When George picked the car up at the tow yard, why didn’t he call 911 when he smelled the decomposition.”