After thirty-three days of testimony, two days of closing arguments and only 10 hours of deliberation, the jury in the Casey Anthony trial has acquitted the 25-year-old Florida mother accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee in 2008.
The defense claimed Caylee accidentally drowned and that Casey’s father, George, helped Casey cover up the death to make it look like a homicide.
The prosecution said Anthony suffocated her daughter with duct tape and presented evidence showing suspicious internet searches for words like “chloroform” and “neck breaking.” Anthony didn’t report her daughter missing for a month, leading many to believe she must have had something to do with the killing since, you know, grieving mothers do not party and shop and have the Italian words for “beautiful life” tattooed on themselves when their young daughters are missing.
The seven women and five men that comprised the Orlando jury did find Anthony guilty of giving false information to law enforcement in connection with the case.
And truth be told, the prosecution’s case for murder was VERY weak. When Caylee’s skeletal remains were found, medical examiners were unable to determine an exact cause of death — so the state’s case hinged on things like a so-called “smell of death” in Anthony’s car trunk, the aforementioned Google searches, and her seemingly carefree behavior after her kid vanished.
The defense’s case seemed sloppy as well, like it was simply throwing everything it could think of at the wall and seeing what would stick. Apparently all those “maybe THIS happened” theories were enough for the jury to find reasonable doubt and acquit the young mother of the most horrific of crimes.
Never one to let a story cool, the CBS ’48 Hours Mystery’ special on the verdict, ‘Casey Anthony: Judgment Day,’ will air tonight at 10/9 c. I’m sure it won’t be sensationalistic at all.
