The Casey Anthony trial: thoughts?

[Flick James]

If you let 10 guilty murderers go free just to keep from putting one innocent person in prison, is that really justice?

Of course not. It's simply a sentiment demonstrating the absoluteness of my resolution, sort of like when Patrick Henry said "give me liberty or give me death." Clearly you see that I don't support the idea of letting bunches of criminals run free. You're just baiting me, aren't you?

 

No, I'm not baiting you at all, as I said, I am list looking for a discussion.

I'm just joking there. I agree with your points, actually. The last one in particular:

One could look at it as if our system victimizes us either way: either imprisoning us for doing nothing, or making us live in a society where criminals run amok.

And just to keep the thread focused on this particular trial so we don't hijack it, I haven't taken the time to study this one intently, but I'm sure I'll get around to it. It obviously evokes memories of the O.J. Simpson trial. I'll admit in that case that I too am still convinced that he committed the crime. The evidence was just so overwhelming that it baffles the mind to imagine that he couldn't be convicted. Vincent Bugliosi wrote a book about it and basically said, that when the suspect's blood is at the scene of the crime, it's about as convincing as it can get short of an firsthand witness of the murder. How those prosecutors were unable to obtain a conviction is just ridiculous. I mean, he convicted the Manson family on far less.

My understanding is that there was nothing so open and shut in this trial, that there simply wasn't strong enough evidence to support a conviction. I don't know. I wasn't there.

[ghouck]

The problem was IIRC that there was some of OJs blood missing, and Mark Furhman gave the defense an easy way to bring up the idea that he was a racist. I do have to say, that although I believe OJ is guilty of those murders, I believe that blood evidence should not be admitted and was suspect to tampering. The worst part imo was that the 'missing' blood was likely a clerical error: the medic drawing something like 9.3cc of blood and calling it 10cc. A small issue perhaps, but there's absolutely no reason for the procedure to be as accurate as possible.

That whole trial, as well as the Casey Anthony trial, the Michelle Linehan trial, the Michael Jackson trial(s) had sooo many people completely out of the loop speaking "factually" about it that it looked like a circus sideshow. The number of a***oles standing outside those courthouses holding signs made me want to puke considering none of those people new anything except what they WANTED to be true.

[WildHoosier09]

I served on a jury once for an attempted murder case. In that case the man charged had lived out the American dream by beating the sh*t out of a lawyer who had just succesfully screwed him out of an insurance settlement on the 4th story of the courthouse. The thing is this happened next to the railing so we had to decide if he was trying to throw her over (40ft drop to cement) or just beat her up. The defense whipped out the insanity plea which we (the jury) didn't buy since he had no history of mental illness. In the end even with video of the attack (where we see him beating her up, but not lifting her) there wasn't really any indication that he was trying to throw her over so we convicted him on class C confinement. If the prosecution had charged him with assault they would have gotten that too but they didn't for some reason.

It's true that unless they have video of you gunning down the person in cold blood, always go to trial and never plea out. From what I can gather they definitely would have easy convictions for Casey on obstruction of justice, lying to police and other related charges but they just didn't have enough evidence to prove that she had killed the child. Proving murder is tough as hell though unless you really have credible evidence and in this case they just didn't have enough to prove it.  The prosecution in this case would have been better off sticking to the charges they could actually prove rather than shooting for the moon.

[ghouck]

If the prosecution had charged him with assault they would have gotten that too but they didn't for some reason.

This is a manipulative and sickening trend in criminal courts these days: Go for the big one leaving nothing or little else on the table, hoping you will get it because people will be reluctant to not convict them on SOMETHING.

I for one have lost quite a bit of faith in our system. I see people getting a bunch of time after fighting what was an obviously impossible battle because their lawyer advised them to looking for the big paycheck. We have some wench that killed someone and crippled another on her 5th DWI and she had never done any significant time before that. Then I heard from two people that had been on jury duty who convicted a guy for DWI and it was NEVER established solidly that he had been drinking OR driving. Often the old saying "If you take your case to trial, you're leaving your life in the hands of 13 people that weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty" rings true.

[OmegaGeek]

I personally think that she's guilty as sin, but I'm not a juror so my vote doesn't count.

What DID really annoy me right after the verdict came out was not everyone discussing it, reactions, etc, but the people who went NUCLEAR that people were talking about it. I was smugly lectured via posts on every social media I participate in, that talking about or thinking about the verdict was just making it into a 'media circus'.

[Vik]

If there's not enough evidence, she shouldn't be convicted. Innocent until proven guilty, is important. The media or the public shouldn't play any part in convicting or not convicting anyone. I'm also wondering how this is a priority at all? Sure, it's very sad and horrific thing, but it doesn't deserve this amount of attention, there's stuff that's a lot more important going on.

[Mr. DS]

I saw an interview with a juror who held up to questioning very nicely.  Prosecution, as stated on here by a few people, ultimately failed to prove murder.  Was the death an accident, maybe.  Is Anthony a nutjob that is a horrible mother, definitely.  However, and I see the point now, there was hardly a thing linking her to the charge of actual murder.  

Personally I heard a theory that I agree with.  She probably got mad back home because her parents put their foot when it came to watching the baby.  Hence her setting out on a life of her own with her daughter.  Once on her own she ultimately realized a kid is a lot of work.  She easily could have chloroformed the baby into sleeping and kept her in the trunk.  Then one day she got so sh!t faced she forgot to get her out the next morning.  Seems probable to me but it is just a theory no one can prove.  Just as the prosecution couldn't prove it here either.

All I can say is she definitely has screws loose and sadly there are more people out there just like her.  Lesson, birth control, birth control, birth control...thats all I can say.

[Flick James]

I saw an interview with a juror who held up to questioning very nicely.  Prosecution, as stated on here by a few people, ultimately failed to prove murder.  Was the death an accident, maybe.  Is Anthony a nutjob that is a horrible mother, definitely.  However, and I see the point now, there was hardly a thing linking her to the charge of actual murder.  

Personally I heard a theory that I agree with.  She probably got mad back home because her parents put their foot when it came to watching the baby.  Hence her setting out on a life of her own with her daughter.  Once on her own she ultimately realized a kid is a lot of work.  She easily could have chloroformed the baby into sleeping and kept her in the trunk.  Then one day she got so sh!t faced she forgot to get her out the next morning.  Seems probable to me but it is just a theory no one can prove.  Just as the prosecution couldn't prove it here either.

All I can say is she definitely has screws loose and sadly there are more people out there just like her.  Lesson, birth control, birth control, birth control...thats all I can say.

A fine post. The public tends to get very emotional, especially when the death of an innocent child is involved. It makes my blood boil as well. As understandable as it is, it's still mob thinking. Just using the word "mob" carries with it a very nasty connotation, not one that I'm trying to attribute to people are disgusted with the outcome, because that reaction is natural and right in my opinion.

The courtroom, and due process, is a completely different ballpark. The prosecution simply was unable to establish guilt. That's the way of things. Ultimately, if due process was properly used, then it is a win for society in general, but it sucks like hell for the family.

[Skull]

My wife told me about that and I'm like "Huh?"   

Funny, I never heard of it until after the announcement.

Not to make a joke out of the case but the more I hear about it the more it sounds like an epsode on South Park (the one where one of the kids get stab in the eye with a throwing star and instead of telling their parents they made the kid look like a dog and sent him to the vets)

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

As mentioned in the the "random thoughts" thread, if she wasn't white and somewhat attractive no one would hardly care sadly.

Hmm.."white and somewhat attractive".  We knew race would enter this sooner or later.

With all due respect to this statement, I guess being "black and somewhat attractive" worked for O.J. though. Oh, and being a former NFL superstar helped, as well as the usual loud minority who saw any effort to prosecute him as racism. 

Not to mention those now who see his current jail time for his criminal follies as as "revenge" for his first escape from justice.

All I can say about this trial, opinions on race aside, is that we tend to forget one big thing when it comes to cases like this, and that is, that "not guilty" does NOT come to mean "innocent."  Let's just leave it at that...

 

[Flick James]

All I can say about this trial, opinions on race aside, is that we tend to forget one big thing when it comes to cases like this, and that is, that "not guilty" does NOT come to mean "innocent."

Very true. We can expound upon innocence or lack of it to our hearts content. Hell, look at how much of that happened after O.J.

[Mr. DS]

As mentioned in the the "random thoughts" thread, if she wasn't white and somewhat attractive no one would hardly care sadly.

Hmm.."white and somewhat attractive".  We knew race would enter this sooner or later.

With all due respect to this statement, I guess being "black and somewhat attractive" worked for O.J. though. Oh, and being a former NFL superstar helped, as well as the usual loud minority who saw any effort to prosecute him as racism. 

Not to mention those now who see his current jail time for his criminal follies as as "revenge" for his first escape from justice.

All I can say about this trial, opinions on race aside, is that we tend to forget one big thing when it comes to cases like this, and that is, that "not guilty" does NOT come to mean "innocent."  Let's just leave it at that...

 

I'm confused, should I form a rebuttal to this statement or are you somewhat agreeing with me. 

[Olivia Bauer]

Didn't pay attention to a second of it. Though if you want to hear what I think of kiddy killers I can go on a ten paragraph rant for you. But I'm a lazy bastard.

[ghouck]

Hadn't heard of it before someone asked me what I thought of the verdict.  Looking back over the trial, the prosecution didn't have much of a case.  In fact, I'm surprised they even bothered to go to trial on the case they had.

Once the pictures of Caylee hit the news, they had no choice. It's an unfortunate truth that the people care more if the victim is adorable.

[AndyC]

Once the pictures of Caylee hit the news, they had no choice. It's an unfortunate truth that the people care more if the victim is adorable.

I'm reminded of how much mileage the tabloids got out of Jonbenet, and for how many years. From what I see in the grocery checkout, that case still keeps popping up from time to time.