The verdict is in

Wow, what a day. Casey Anthony was acquitted. Still stunned by the verdict, but here are a few initial thoughts…

Thinking back on the last three years and the trial, I guess it’s true that the prosecution didn’t do their job, as many are saying. I thought they proved their case (perhaps not beyond ANY doubt, but yes, beyond a reasonable doubt, but that’s another discussion). I did wonder from time to time, though, if they over-sanitized their case to keep it simple for the jurors. A lot was left out, including a big fight that Cindy and Casey had the night before the first 911 call (Fathers’ Day – Cindy had taken Caylee to the nursing home where Cindy's father resided for a visit, and unknowingly took the last photos and video of Caylee alive that day). Cindy allegedly choked Casey that evening, and brother Lee witnessed this and broke it up. Cindy actually testified about this evening in court and described it as a lovely evening where she and Casey shared bonding time while looking at the photos and video. The jurors never heard about this fight. Did the prosecution think it was too difficult to explain and leave it out for this reason? Maybe. Did they think that would feed directly into the defense’s reliance on the “dysfunctional family” approach? Maybe. Maybe it’s neither here nor there. I don’t know.

More egregious, though, is how the Anthony family (specifically Cindy Anthony) not only tried to connect Casey’s friends to Caylee’s disappearance and drag them through the mud by name in the media, but attempted to defame Texas EquuSearch and its founder and leader, Tim Miller, a passionate advocate for missing and exploited children who came here and organized multiple searches for Caylee which he was subsequently vilified by the family for. (Tim Miller interview prior to the verdict.) Many Central Floridians and others hiked for hours and days through muck, thorns and storms participating in these searches because they cared about this little girl and wanted to by some slim chance find her either alive or allow her to rest in peace, and for what? To help these liars perpetuate this lie, this fallacious reality? It makes me ill to recall. A slow, collective devastation was felt by many here as it gradually seemed to be the case that Caylee died at her mother’s hand and desire, accidentally or not (not). We believed them all initially, and wanted to help, but things gradually began to smell, kind of like the trunk of that Pontiac Sunfire.

To me, this is the most painful aspect of this whole thing. As a community, we opened our hearts to this family, as well as our wallets and other resources to help them find their “kidnapped” daughter/granddaughter and hopefully catch the perpetrator. We hung their flyers, passed out their buttons, wore their T-shirts and wrote our checks. It is true that they are dysfunctional, but isn’t every family at times? However, Jose Baez hammered the jury with this perception repeatedly in his opening statement and revisited it throughout the trial, and judging from an interview with an alternate given to CNN today (one of only two, and the actual jurors who deliberated haven’t spoken at all), they bought into this argument from the get-go, and it was effective.



It is repulsive to me that Jose Baez actually “won” this thing, although it may have been different if the prosecution had not overreached and put the death penalty on the table. I’m sure if I were a juror here I would not have voted for death. Caylee most likely did not suffer, and was not tortured or dismembered (until after death, by wildlife), and Casey has not killed anyone else. Premeditation? Possibly, but not conclusive. By overreaching and not accurately reading how well slimy Jose Baez was leading the jury down his yellow brick road, the State of Florida lost their case, and Caylee did not receive justice.

This is hard to swallow.

Here is Jose Baez at the courthouse today just before the verdict came in

 

Good Lord, I hate this guy. He just won the lottery today, though.