Who messed up in regard to the Casy Anthony fiasco?

Great Debates
1

I am struggling with what I view as a courtroom fiasco in the CA trial. In my opinion she was guilty of, at least, child abuse. This was reflected in the lesser charges advanced to the jury for deliberation.

The jury failed to even address any other penalties/charges, except for the death sentence penalty.

I believe that CA was guilty of Manslaughter with a heightened charge of “involving the death of a minor”. CA was the parental/guardian for her minor daughter. The child has no culpability, under the law, so CA is guilty of extreme negligence, and should have been charged accordingly.

What do you think happened to negate the other charges in this case? I don’t think law enforcement, or the prosecution botched anything. I believe the problem goes back to the initial charge by the DA. Without evidence (material), Casey still should be sitting in jail, or 25 years (depending on adjudication of the court).

CA is far from not guilty!

2

I think it was reasonable for the jury to find that the state hadn’t sufficiently proved its case, whether I agree with their decision or not. It was haphazardly presented, and there was a lot of conjecture, very little credible physical evidence, and there were only circumstantial eyewitnesses, nobody testified that they saw here do anything to her child.

I’d agree that the DA was at fault in the charging, because they didn’t have enough evidence to convict, but she shouldn’t have been arrested until they had that evidence. Where did they think she would go?

3

Yeah, the DA over charged and the prosecution presented an all or nothing case for felony murder. Their whole argument, and all of the evidence they presented, was geared to trying to show that Casey Anthony intentionally killed her daughter. If they had presented a more realistic case of neglect/negligence/abuse leading to an accidental death, they would have had a pretty much open and shut case that would have led to CA spending a long time in prison, IMO.

Also, other than the DA/prosecution’s missteps, the bungling by the police/CSI/medical-examiner didn’t help matters, either.

4

Ok, so you are saying that Casey did nothing wrong? You are also implying that Caley was at fault for her death! Caley was a minor, and in the care and physical custody of her mother, Casey Anthony. How do you not see that Caley was entitled, under the law, and morally, to a heightened degree of care by her mother?

Did Caley know what death is? No. Did she know that putting her hand in hot water would burn her? No. Did she know that playing on a highway would kill her? No. Would a two year old even understand the implications of these actions? NO.

Hence, Casey Anthony is culpable under the law. She was the legal guardian/parent and owed the child heightened degree of care. No matter what anybody says, the law states that the onus for the child’s demise is with the caregiver (Casey).

So, why were the other charges, completely ignored by the jury. I agree that the death penalty charge condition in the DA’s initial charge, was not appropriate, however, why did the jury completely ignore the law and fail to deliberate the child abuse/neglect? Casey is guilty of Manslaughter, resulting in the death of a minor child. She should be in jail for life, or 25 years…

I do not want to see more children being treated as an aside, to sex. That little girl deserved a lot better than what she got. Casey is NOT innocent, nor is she not-guilty. She let her daughter place herself in a life-threatening situation, if you buy that she drowned. If not, she contributed to her daughter’s death. The manslaughter charge still holds…was the jury that unintelligent that they could not see this? Remember, Casey was the last guardian/parent seen with Caley. She is the culpable party here, not George, Lee, Cindy or even poor Caley.

The jury erred, not the prosecution, or law enforcement. Nobody that I know has ever video-tapped a murder, unless they are stupid. We are suffering from the “CSI” effect, and the jury was asking for something that could never have been supplied to them,…video. Occam’s razor people. Google it…

5

The prosecution never charged her with manslaughter. The jury cannot convict her if she is not charged. The prosecution failed to properly charge her. She is free because the prosecution dropped the ball.

6

Nancy Grace

7

http://www.cfnews13.com/article/news/2011/july/273571/Casey-Anthony:-The-charges-against-her

She was charged with manslaughter. Jury aquitted her.

8

Uh, who said anything remotely like that? :confused: Who are you talking to?

9

Yes, manslaughter was a lesser included offense. But the prosecution presented no evidence or argument to support that charge. They went full-bore for premeditated murder and didn’t want to detract from that charge by supporting anything less. The high-profile nature of the case caused them to get greedy for a high-profile conviction of the highest magnitude. Instead, they got a high-profile FAIL. (High-profail?)

10

The prosecution also did very little to discredit the defensive’s story of Caley’s death: accidental drowning only the grandfather was at fault for neglect in their version, which unfortunately had such a run-of-the-mill reality for dysfunctional families it was probably harder to dismiss in the jurors’ minds than something outlandish.