Jurors can rule out the death penalty while still finding the defendant guilty, so I don’t really see why fear of having Anthony executed would stop them from delivering a guilty verdict.
Dershowitz is wrong. In Florida, there are only two homicide charges: 1st degree murder and manslaughter*. Everything else is a lesser included version of one or the other, so even if the prosecution is only seeking, say, 2nd degree murder, the charge will still be listed as first degree murder.
It’s arguable that the style of the prosecution- arguing only the elements of first degree murder- had the same effect. But they really had little to say about the charges.
My criminal law professor (who was an Orange County prosecutor for 9 years, and public defender for 7) was of the opinion that they should have cut her a plea deal simply because they had no means of tying Casey to the homicide itself.
And that’s all well and good, except that anyone who knows anything at all about Casey Anthony knows that she would not have copped to anything. Not even jaywalking.
I agree. Why not charges for abuse/neglect in not reporting that child missing for 31 days.
YEAH! She ought to owe the taxpayers of Fl a ton of money for what all her lies have cost in manpower alone let alone the trial.
IIRC, they can’t try her for neglect because the kid was dead during the period in question, and you can’t abuse/neglect a dead child.
According to Casey, she didn’t know that Caylee was dead, just “missing”. And she must’ve had personal knowledge to the fact that she was just “missing”, therefore she before the cops questioned her, she made no attempt with authorities to find Caylee.
If she knew Caylee was already dead, and if they proved that, whole new set of charges.
No. According to Casey, Caylee drowned and she knew she was dead throughout the investigation.
So therefore, even though she knew she was dead, threatened and frightened by her molesting and controlling dad, she’s just guilty of lying to the police??
Florida law sucks.
If she knew she was dead, and really drowned in the pool, her lies led cops away from the body’s location, and who exactly put it there?
Still looks like child abuse since she lied about the nanny, her employment, etc.
Lying to cops is basically expected. She also led cops away from the real cause, deflecting the search for a body to the search of a fictional nanny. All of these lies led to a faulty, or impossible explanation of death.
While it’s probably unlikely, it’s not impossible that she be charged with other related crimes. If she does end up making considerable money off book deals and the like, I wouldn’t be surprised to see new charges seeking hefty fines to cover the costs of the search and investigation.
But regardless of that, if you’re upset about her being found not guilty and being released into society, think it through a bit. She’s been tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion. It could very well be that being released into that public will be a harsher punishment than life in prison or even death-row for a few decades before lethal injection. And I’m not endorsing or even speculating about ultimate vigilante justice.
It’s a very hard thing to do, but if I try to imagine myself in her place, I think there’s a good chance I would prefer to remain in jail than to be released into the sort of public environment that awaits her right now. Say what you will about her being found not guilty, but she is hardly going to get away with no punishment. She’s going to have to live with this now, and the more I think about it, the more likely an ultimate suicide becomes.
You make some very good points, V. And her punishment is really just getting started. She seems to like pictures being taken at inappropriate times, so maybe she’ll make some friends with the paparazzi quite soon. (New boyfriend?? 
)
I can’t even tell if Caylee was murdered, so I’m not upset with her “not guilty” verdict regarding murder or manslaughter. But with the constant lies and outlandish allegations about sexual abuse that allegedly led to her lying, I can’t believe she’s entirely “not guilty”. With her inaction about reporting Caylee being missing, her behavior, the outlandish alleged outcomes (by both prosecution and defense), she is still responsible for the child abuse crimes.
It’s easy to ask if she did or didn’t kill Caylee, or who else did, but we DO NOT EVEN KNOW Caylee was murdered. That’s the biggest problem.
I’m glad she’s not on death row, because what was presented surely didn’t prove that she is guilty of first degree murder. And I can see why the jury didn’t go for the manslaughter charges for the same reasons.
But Caylee ended up in a garbage bag in a shallow grave that was quite lucky for the guilty that she wasn’t found earlier.
My problem is simply this: Casey is entirely responsible for her child’s well being. She failed with following through on her responsibility regardless of her upbringing, lies, motive, whatever it was. Therefore, guilty of aggravated child abuse. She was zero help in finding her daughter from the get go.
Like you say, I’ll imagine herself in my shoes. I’ve stolen from friends, family, my daughter went missing, but I’m innocent, I’ve proven it in court, but aren’t I still responsible for not reporting any of this to the authorities? Should I wait for my mom to do it for me? I’m stressed, so I couldn’t handle it? Doubt it.
I think that Baez actually did a great job in showing just how many possibilities there were even though Casey looked guilty during those 30 or 31 days of not reporting it. I also think that no one had motive to kill Caylee, but since she died, Casey, family members, someone had to know what went wrong.
I don’t think it matters. You can’t neglect a dead child. It doesn’t matter if you think the kid is alive.
I guess you could say she’s guilty of “attempted child neglect”, but I don’t think such a crime exists.
Is there an obstruction of justice charge in the US? If she knew the child was dead was she not under an obligation to come forward and say so?
I also have to admit the prosecution probably made a (huge) mistake in the charges it filed. Getting M1 was always a bit of a stretch. I’m a bit perplexed as to why they didn’t include charges of improper disposal of a human body - a felony, I believe - and obstruction of justice (could be serious in a federal case, which I’m pretty sure this was since the lying skank originally cried ‘kidnapping’)
Either way, there was more than sufficient evidence of aggravated child abuse and/or manslaughter. How the morons on the jury managed to get sidetracked thinking about motive or cause of death is beyond me - neither were important or needed for those charges.
It’s got nothing to do with Florida law. The legal principles at play are pretty basic common law concepts, and largely shared throughout the US and common-law world. You can’t be convicted of an attempt when the crime wasn’t physically possible.
Yes, but obstruction of justice doesn’t work the way CSI et al make it sound. It covers things like escaping, resisting arrest, failing to appear on bond or impersonating a police officer. The stuff people think of as “obstruction of justice”, (say, refusing to tell the cops where a suspect is) is generally not actually criminal or covered under perjury (such as the charges of lying to a police officer she was actually convicted of).
The problem with the improper disposal charge is the same one as with the homicide charge: there was no evidence tying her to the body.
2010 Florida Statutes - The Florida Senate is the link to Florida’s criminal statutes. If you’re faced with a case where you can’t establish the circumstances of death, what else was left to charge Casey with? The best I could come up with was criminal negligence.
Interestingly enough, the charge of “Accessory after the fact” has an exception for family members, so nobody in the house could be charged with the crime that results from the defense theory of a “cover up”.
Aggravated manslaughter and/or aggravated manslaughter of a child, defined as ‘the killing of a human being by the act, procurement, or culpable negligence’ (bolding mine). She was in fact specifically charged with aggravated manslaughter. It’s the very same charge that Billy Bob Thorton’s daughter was convicted of after her best friend’s baby died in her care. In irony of ironies, it was in the very same courtroom where Casey was tried.
You mean, besides the Winnie the Pooh blanket, clothes, and duct tape - all from the house - plus her admission that the child died in her care? Is she suggesting the body got to the swamp - with duct tape - on its own?
But how do you prove it was her as opposed to George or Cindy?
I know it seems obvious that she’s guilty of sin but everything came together perfectly for her.
I think the whole complaint that the prosecution “overcharged” is unfounded. They went all or nothing because if you can’t prove murder in this case, then you can’t prove child abuse or aggravated manslaughter or anything else either.
:dubious:
You’re not implying that Casey admitted she was present at Caylee’s death. Can’t be. You’re speaking more generally about the overall timeline, right?