State of Florida vs. Casey Marie Anthony

Jury selection began today on schedule for a notorious criminal case originating in my home county, Orange County, Florida. It is alleged that Casey Anthony murdered her two-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony, sometime between June and July 2008. 31 days went by without anyone seeing the little girl or reporting her missing. Casey’s mom Cindy (a registered nurse employed by Gentiva at the time, now out on “disability”) got a whiff of Casey’s car trunk and immediately exclaimed “it smells like there’s been a dead body in the damn car” while calling 911. This is when it all began to spiral downhill for the Anthony family.

Casey (who is facing the death penalty) and her defense team is taking this to trial at taxpayers’ expense despite overwhelming scientific, forensic and circumstantial evidence against her, no alibi, and deliberate misleading and lying to law enforcement by herself and her parents. This young person lied to and stole from family and friends repeatedly without batting an eye. She pretended she was graduating from high school until it was time for her family to go to the graduation, at which time she told them she didn’t finish. Her stealing and lying escalated after this, culminating in her mother’s discovery that Caylee’s whereabouts were unknown for 31 days combined with the death smell in Casey’s car.

Casey responded to these accusations by 1) telling law enforcement officers she had been conducting her own investigation into her daughters’ disappearance during the 31 days; 2) leading them on a wild goose chase during which she claimed she worked at Universal Studios as an “event planner” and led them all the way into the park and to her supposed “office” before finally admitting she didn’t work there and hadn't since Caylee was born; and 3) inventing a “nanny” named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez (the “imaginanny”) that she dropped Caylee off to and who must have taken her.

During those 31 days when she was supposedly conducting her own investigation into Caylee’s disappearance, she was repeatedly photographed and filmed partying and also got a tattoo reading “La Bella Vita” – the beautiful life – which she apparently planned to start living now that Caylee was out of the way.

When Caylee's skeletal remains were found with duct tape over her mouth in woods not far from the Anthony home, Casey reportedly had a breakdown in jail. This also ruined her awful lawyer Jose Baez’s plan of attack. He was not counting on a body being found, and has seemed not to know what to do since. It took him eight tries to pass the Bar exam, and he often seems lost in court, especially during the scientific discussions. He is not a death penalty qualified attorney, so attorney Cheney Mason, who is, is working with him pro bono. Patient Judge Belvin Perry, Jr. has been educating Baez in Law 101 during the lengthy pretrial hearings (again at taxpayer expense).

While wordy, this really is a brief synopsis of the case. I didn’t even get to her father George, a former law enforcement officer who attempted suicide about a year ago and who some think Casey’s defense might hang accusations on in order to create reasonable doubt with one juror (that’s all they need to do), or her brother Lee. Nor did I get to the blogger who inserted himself into the case resulting in the recusal of the original judge, Stan Strickland (and I won’t).

If you enjoy reading about and dissecting family dysfunction, this trial will have it all and more to offer. Jury selection was moved to Pinellas County (Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater area) because of extensive media coverage in Orange County and nationally. The jury that is selected in Pinellas will be moved to Orange County and sequestered for a minimum of 6-8 weeks at a cost to Orange County taxpayers of at least $360,000.00. This is after Casey and her parents collected over $250,000.00 for selling pictures and videos of Caylee to ABC news and others purportedly to pay for Casey’s defense, although she has since been declared indigent and taxpayers have been footing the bill for this farce since then. Where did that blood money go?

Here is Judge Perry reading the charges against Casey Anthony to some of the potential jurors in Pinellas County on Monday, May 9th. Casey manages to turn on some tears here - the few times she's cried before now it appeared to be fake (no tears). Of course she is facing the jury pool head-on here.

 

I do not intend to write about this regularly as there are so many others who already do so. Here are a few good links

The Hinky Meter - maintained by Valhall, an aerospace engineer and passionate advocate for missing and abused children who got sick of the poor scientific discussions on other blogs, so she started her own

THM discovery timeline of the case - exhausting, but it's all there

WFTV.com's Casey Anthony page - all hearings are streamed live with no timeouts and a concomitant moderated chat

Hal Boedeker's blog - this is the TV critic for the Orlando Sentinel newspaper. He also puts up a post every day or two about the case, which is subsequently swarmed by commenters from all spectrums

Investigation Discovery's Casey Anthony page, including daily recaps and a quiz (!)

Richard Hornsby, an Orlando criminal defense attorney (whom Casey should have hired IMO) offers his opinions on the case

Bullstopper - a semanticist brutally dissects the language of (usually) the defense

Egg Tree News provides an unforgiving satirical view of the case

Kids react to Osama bin Laden's killing

Several weeks ago I was listening to the radio while driving to work and a report came on recounting the events leading to the U.S. Federal government shutdown of 1995, led by possible 2012 presidential contender Newt Gingrich. My crotchety, in-a-hurry-to-get-to-work self thought at the moment, "I don't need to listen to this, I lived through it! This is old stuff - give me something new."

Then it hit me - there are many (many!) U.S. citizens younger than me who did not live through this and other fairly recent historic events who need to hear and learn about them outside of a sanitized classroom environment. I realized then that 1) I'm old, and 2) I need to shut up, listen, learn and remember this significant event as well as countless others, both in its context at the time and how it has contributed to governance and politics today.

Coming across this video recently reminded me of my feelings that day, and how important it is in this age of instantaneous communication and exchange of ideas to pay attention to the younger citizens of this world. Here young children discuss their knowledge and feelings regarding the killing of Osama bin Laden. Hearing them state their ages at the time of 9/11 is particularly compelling - they were either toddlers or not yet born. Taking their shoes off at the airport or going through a scanner is normal for them, as is our country being at war in two separate countries. They've never known life any differently. A couple of them express wisdom about the world that belies their young age.

The kids in this show (I guess) are more accustomed to commenting on lighter subjects like Justin Bieber, but they hold their own here. The babyish background music is annoying - the editor(s) should have just let them speak without that. The young man in the green-and-black shirt seems particularly thoughtful for his age.

Our pale blue dot

Our home, this pale blue dot, has a little less evil within it today. Hopefully its populace can move forward and begin healing and coexisting now that this evil has departed.