I think Casey Anthony probably is guilty. I also think the verdict was the right one...

Let's face things don't look good for her innocence. I think it's quite likely that she is guilty. But thank god we don't convict people based on "things don't look good". I haven't paid really close attention to the case but what little I do know of the hard evidence, what there is, doesn't make it look like a strong case. Yes there is plenty of circumstantial evidence and evidence that she may be a horrible person and or mentally ill. But circumstantial evidence is, thankfully, not good enough. Those who are screaming that this was a failure of the judicial system are asking, whether they know it or not, to live in a totalitarian society. If anything I take this case with a small sense of relief, as well as disappointment, that at least some parts of our 'democracy' still works.

It's also yet another reason why I'm against the death penalty. With the possibility of the death penalty out there as a possible sentence it puts the burden of proof in murder 1 cases so extremely high that people sometimes go free instead. Not that I think this was such a case, I think the evidence they presented wasn't good enough to convict here for even life in prison.

Guilty or innocent, the Death Penalty is there for idiots to make decisions based on their human emotions.

We may have seen a different outcome if they didn't.

the trial but did follow it through television and newspapers. I saw the videos of her and her child seeming to have a very good time together. She looked as if she really loved that child. I also got the impression the family is very disfunctional. Looking at Casey during the long long trial I also felt she is a woman who never developed mentally after the age of 13 or 14. Playing with Caylee, videos of her out dancing and seemingly having a good time while the child was missing seemed to me to be part of that mentality. I don't think she is mentally ill, just not equipped to face reality. I'm sorry the crowds that stood in line to get in the courtroom all seemed to be wanting her to be found guilty--and wanting the death penalty. I agree the jury did its duty. There was more than a reasonable doubt in the case. The crowds at times reminded me of an old Dracla movie where the townspeople charged up the hill to the castle with torchs and pitchforks to get rid of a monster. I do not know whether Casey did kill the child. If she did she is in for a lifetime of misery. I get the feeling it was an accidental death and no one was on watch when the child went swimming alone.

on both counts.

with "I haven't paid close attention" and "what little I do know," but you are aware that innocent people are still going to jail just about every day, right? That not every defendant gets a team of lawyers with a combined century of legal experience; that this case proves nothing of the sort that 'our system' works?

Additionally, the "how" or the motive of a death doesn't have to be proved anyhow. Caylee was obviously dead. 'How' would have been nice, but was not needed.
There have been convictions with no body (hence no physical evidence, much less means of death) at all.

There is ALWAYS circumstantial evidence in every trial. One, two, a few are circumstance; when you get piece upon piece of circumstantial evidence that point in a certain direction, it adds up to more than Reasonable Doubt.

Jeebus, with this jury you'd need Kodak film stock -- videotape of her murder wouldn't have been good enough for them.


I think the prosecution did a fine job.

The jury didn't go through the mountain of evidence it was given. Heck, if they were in the least bit conscientious, it would have taken them hours to go through the jury instructions alone.

It was Jury Nullification all the way.


Instead of trying Casey Anthony, they tried George who didn't happen to be on trial
--and even though they were given explicit instructions, they ignored them:

1) Opening statements are NOT evidence. They SAID Baez's opening statement convinced them.

2) Krystal Holloway/"River Cruz"'s testimony could not be considered as any type of evidence of Caylee's mode of death.
Classic Jury Nullification.

3) They didn't believe George (probably right on that) but they DID believe him only when his testimony helped poor, poor, abused, Casey The Pathological Liar. --and--

4) Along with ignoring the jury instructions,the jury didn't even comprehend what "Reasonable Doubt" actually meant.
It DOESN'T mean 'oh, I have a doubt'.
--We bitch about Creationists thinking a mere 'theory' that flits through their heads is the same as a Scientific Theory -- but don't question deliberate ignorance of the legal principle of Reasonable Doubt?!

--Casey, mind you, who never spilt a tear until first when Caylee's body was found
(just down the street -- would a former Homicide Detective dump a body on the surface mere yards from the road and barely a quarter mile from his house? Or bury it deeply in a lonely field?)
and whose waterworks REALLY opened ONLY in front of the jury.
Watch her other court appearances. Cool as a cucumber.

She just didn't care.
Not enough that she could always pop another out -- just a replacement when the timing is better, no biggie.


Well, I'm now 'out of it' being an old-school Democrat caring about such quaint things as principles over personhood;

and I'm also old-fashioned in that you can't just replace an individual like you would replace a used pair of shoes.

--and replacing a pair you didn't especially like, to boot.
(no pun intended -- this is not a laughing matter)

I can't believe what is written here about this case. What more do they need. The mother is a liar, and there's the smell of death in Casey's car. Oh and 2 year old 31 days missing. LOL! During the investigation, she took the cops to Universal Studio's or some place like that. She told them she was taking them to places her and Caylee used to go. LOL! Maybe she said she will see Caylee there. Just unbelievable. How did we convict people before DNA. Fingerprints, and your actions put you in the slammer, less a witness or 2. These "jurors" IMO are idiots.

And I'm pretty sure that if it had been on videotape, the jury would think it had been tampered with by George.

Your 2 year old daughter is missing for 31 days. You don't call the police, and you're out partying and getting tattoo's. Your mother who is a nurse calls 911 and says she smells the smell of a dead body in Casey's car. She's a nurse, and she knows that smell. 2 Cadaver dogs hit the same places at different times. Caylee's sandbox, playhouse, and Casey's car. But still you go on partying and living it up. Lying about how the "nanny" stole your child from you at another time. But her original story about leaving Caylee on the second story nanny apartment, near concrete stairs is a good place to leave your 2 year old. But still not concerned to call police. And then I guess putting your child in the car trunk so you can go partying is also the right choice I suppose. It was not the right verdict. This jury didn't look over all the evidence.

The defense lied to the court throughout the whole case. I guess there are more people than I thought who need a video of the crime, or the CSI Perry Mason moment. I just can't believe what I am reading here about this case. More people here are happy that a cold blooded murderer got away with this. I knew she was guilty the day I heard the 911 tape in July of 2008. The smell of death in the mothers car, and the child is missing for 31 days, to me says everything I need to know. The cadaver dogs was just the icing on the cake. Children don't belong in the trunk of the fucking car. The trunk was the weapon. That is how she died, and she was in the "care" of her mother. How hard is that to believe? There was NO nanny. She lied about her non job. She is a pathological liar, and if it were me in her place, if I were truly innocent, I shouldn't have to fear for my life from strangers. Even in this circus environment.

After ALL the lies shown to this jury time after time with the jail tapes and the poor poor Casey's in jail while Caylee is getting ALL the attention AGAIN!.
Maybe Scott Peterson is innocent. Hell there was less evidence there. I just hope karma gets the best of Casey, and fast.

My guess is she tried to shut the child up with duct tape and the child suffocated when their nose became stopped up with snot.

not much, but I do have some.
Especially when the prosecution was going after the Death Penalty.

However, looking at the letter of the law, I think Second Degree Murder fits much better.

Definition for Second Degree Murder:

a non-premeditated killing, resulting from an assault in which death of the victim was a distinct possibility. Second degree murder is different from First Degree Murder which is a premeditated, intentional killing, or results from a vicious crime such as arson, rape, or armed robbery. Exact distinctions on degree vary by state.

(emphasis mine)

Putting Caylee 'to sleep' with 'Zanny the Nanny' (Xanax) or, when she ran out of that, with chloroform
--the ingredients for which were ALL in the Anthony house: Pool shock, acetone (nail polish remover), ice and water
nor do you have to be a degreed chemist with any kind of lab to make it.
Especially after looking up the instructions/recipe 84 times!
Or perhaps the duct tape alone caused suffocation, perhaps it was a combination of the trunk and the tape.

We'll never know until Casey tells the truth, so I'm not holding MY breath!
To hell with "little snotnose" -- it's CASEY who is the 'victim in this case',
according to Casey. Feel sorry for HER;
and oh, send money to her account, but if you're thinking of donating to the "Poor, Abused Casey Anthony Fund", if I were you I'd try to make my check as kite-proof as possible.

I'd most definitely characterize any of those as Assault; occluding a person's airway or medicating a child with adult-strength drugs &/or using chloroform on a person (an extremely dangerous chemical, even for adults!) would make death "a distinct possibility"

OR (and I was surprised this wasn't brought up at trial)
and beyond the use of duct tape,
Caylee could have suffocated in the trunk of that car.
Where Caylee was during all those months Casey "went to work" or where she was the times Casey went out partying with her friends

I'm obviously talking prior to Caylee's death: once-friends of Caylee testified that Casey would "knock her (Caylee) out" when going out partying
--and I'm sure Casey just didn't leave the girl in the back seat, it was too dangerous if on the off chance Caylee were to wake up and draw passerby's attention!

If the Anthony's had gotten a hatchback for Casey, maybe this never would have happened.
Sad. :(


I served on two juries dealing with homicide.
On both I held out for lesser charges than the ones the State alleged --IMO in the first. they didn't prove intent, I went so far as to threaten those jurors with hanging the verdict;
so it's passing strange to me that I'm going 2nd Degree instead of Manslaughter or Not Guilty here...
but, as in the trials I served on, I have to go on what I feel fits the evidence. :shrug:


And BTW, I watched the entire case and read both the news and blogs
--both pro & con regarding Casey Anthony--
about it.



One more thing... one of the strangest things of a very strange case:

Do you realize that the defense, after their "bombshell" opening: Casey accusing both Lee and George of the crimes of incest and sexual abuse and her mother of negligence since, allegedly, she knew and never put a stop to it

they never asked George or Lee or Cindy about it?
They each were on the stand, under oath; they each were called multiple times

yet the defense never asked neither George nor Lee nor Cindy Anthony ONCE!


Yet it is this defense's story that the juror's decided to believe...

evidence they did. She probably was guilty as you say but we have a judicial system & I get tired of the Nancy Grace's convicting people before they have had a trial or she has her own trial & then when a verdict comes down she and the people don't like they still want to convict the person. I thought once you had your trial & found not guilty, that was it but unfortunately now in our country the beat goes on with the TV, etc.

Our Judicial system may not be perfect but it is what we have.