So if she didn't fucking do it, who the fuck killed the child???
A Florida jury has cleared Casey Anthony of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, bringing to a close a case that has captivated the American public for more than three years.
Anthony, 25, wept after the clerk read the verdict, which jurors reached after less than 11 hours of deliberation over two days.
She was charged with first-degree murder, which could have brought the death penalty if she had been convicted, but the jury, after a trial lasting more than a month, found her not guilty on all charges related to Caylee's death, including aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter. She was convicted of four counts of lying to investigators and could receive up to a year in jail for each count when Judge Belvin Perry sentences her Thursday.
She likely will get credit for spending much of the past three years in jail waiting for trial, so it's possible she could be released as soon as later this week.
After the verdict was read, Anthony hugged her attorney Jose Baez and later mouthed the words "thank you" to him.
Prosecutors sat solemnly in their seats, looking stunned. Prosecutor Jeff Ashton shook his head slightly from side to side in apparent disbelief. Across the room, Anthony's father wiped tears from his eyes. Without speaking to Casey, he and his wife left the courtroom escorted by police as the judge thanked the jury.
"We felt very strongly about our case. We always felt that (the prosecution's) case was built on nothing," defense attorney Jose Baez told Fox News' Geraldo Rivera. "The jury saw through all of the fantasy and forensics and saw through a lot of the lies presented before them."
"While we're happy for Casey, there are no winners in this case," Baez told reporters shortly after the verdict was read. "Caylee has passed on far, far too soon. And what my driving force has been for the last three years has been always to make sure that there has been justice for Caylee and Casey, because Casey did not murder Caylee. It's that simple."
"Our system of justice has not dishonored her memory by a false conviction," he said.
State Attorney Lamar Lawson, meanwhile, called the verdict disappointing.
"We’re disappointed with the verdict today and surprised because we know the facts," Lawson told reporters.
Lawson, who praised the prosecution's efforts, called the trial a "dry bones" case that was "very difficult to prove" because it relied largely on circumstantial evidence.
Caylee's remains were found six months after she was reported missing, and no cause of death was ever determined -- a fact Lawson said "worked to our considerable disadvantage."
Prosecutor Jeffrey Ashton has reportedly retired, effective Thursday. He notified State Attorney Lawson of his decision prior to the verdict being read.
George and Cindy Anthony, Casey's parent's, left the courtroom shortly after the verdict was read.
"While the family may never know what has happened to Caylee Marie Anthony, they now have closure for this chapter of their life," the Anthony family said in a statement.
Anthony's attorneys claimed during the trial that the toddler drowned accidentally in the family swimming pool, and that her seemingly carefree mother in fact was hiding emotional distress caused by sexual abuse from her father.
Prosecutors contended that Caylee was suffocated with duct tape by a mother who loved to party, tattooed herself with the Italian words for "beautiful life" in the month her daughter was missing and crafted elaborate lies to mislead everyone, from investigators to her own parents.
Captivated observers camped outside the courthouse to jockey for coveted seats in the courtroom gallery, which occasionally led to fights among those desperate to watch the drama unfold.
Prior to the verdict on Tuesday, the judge said: "To those in the gallery, please do not express any signs of approval or disapproval upon the reading of the verdict."
Anthony did not take the stand during the trial, which started in mid-May. Because the case got so much media attention in Orlando, jurors were brought in from the Tampa Bay area and sequestered for the entire trial.
Baez conceded that his client had told elaborate lies and invented imaginary friends and even a fake father for Caylee, but he said that doesn't mean she killed her daughter.
"They throw enough against the wall and see what sticks," Baez said of prosecutors during closing arguments. "That is what they're doing ... right down to the cause of death."
He tried to convince jurors that the toddler accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool and that when Anthony panicked, her father, a former police officer, decided to make the death look like a murder by putting duct tape on the girl's mouth and dumping the body in woods about a quarter-mile away.
Her father firmly denied both the cover-up and abuse claims. The prosecution called those claims "absurd," saying that no one makes an accident look like a murder.
Lead prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick concluded the state's case by showing the jury two side-by-side images. One showed Casey Anthony smiling and partying in a nightclub during the month Caylee was missing.
The other was the tattoo she got a day before her family and law enforcement first learned of the child's disappearance.
"At the end of this case, all you have to ask yourself is whose life was better without Caylee?" Burdick asked. "This is your answer."
Prosecutors hammered on the lies Anthony, then 22, told from June 16, 2008, when her daughter was last seen to a month later when sheriff's investigators were notified. Those include the single mother telling her parents she couldn't produce Caylee because the girl was with a nanny named Zanny -- a woman who doesn't exist. She also said she and her daughter were spending time in Jacksonville, Fla., with a rich boyfriend who didn't exist, and she claimed that Zanny had been hospitalized after an out-of-town traffic crash and that they were spending time with her.
EXACTLY. what a crock. Is America getting so bad that even screened jurors are too stupid to make educated decisions.
One of the worst parts is that the Police were called months before the remains were finally "discovered" and did nothing, never even went to check out the body someone had reported seeing, multiple times at that.
If they had actually checked and found it earlier there may have been enough evidence to prove what had happened.
So thank Police incompetence.
Now I didn't follow it closely, But was it one of those guilty and she gets the death penalty, not guilty and your free type of cases? If it were that way then I can see why they would choose the way they did, their scared of killing because unlike Anthony they don't like the thought of killing someone else.
Now, we all know she had something to do with killing and dumping that poor kid, but they really honestly had no evidence what so ever. It sucks, but the prosecutors had no concrete evidence. Fuck her, I hope she has to go to prison for a year and gets shanked the first day.
I'm know a lot of people look at me like I'm crazy for saying shit like this.. but there wasnt enough evidence she did it and so the jury decided she was not guilty. I do not understand why everyone else says she killed her child. Everyone seems to assume she did it, yet none of us where there or know anything other than what the media tells us.
i think that bitch should be dragged through town. she is going to jail for lieing to the court or something, so she will get killed in there i'm sure.
the only thing she was found guilty of was giving false information to police. i watched a lot of the trial, and have been following the case a pretty good amount. although there wasn't a lot (or any, really) evidence that does show she killed Caylee, part of me feels like she did it, and she had some pretty ridiculous lies to the police during and after the time of her daughter's death
mrs. heavymetal from jeepforum 2022 JL Rubicon
Originally posted by hoggie101
and everyone qute dis because its the best grammer im going to have all year
you guys are absolutely right. there is no concrete evidence that she did kill her. But the overwhelming amount of lies and evidence is just hard to ignore.
And cherokee-at-16 hit the nail on the head I think. People are so scared of their decision that they dont do what truely believe.
The other disturbing thing is how the girl went missing for over a month before anything was officially reported. Come on, your kids missing and your out getting tattoo'd. BS
Just throwing this out there too, with the amount of people out there that want to cause her physical harm for getting off 'scott free' she is almost better off staying in jail...
sigpic Official Space Shuttle Door Gunner of the Chechnyan Space Program
Just throwing this out there too, with the amount of people out there that want to cause her physical harm for getting off 'scott free' she is almost better off staying in jail...
you guys are absolutely right. there is no concrete evidence that she did kill her. But the overwhelming amount of lies and evidence is just hard to ignore.
And cherokee-at-16 hit the nail on the head I think. People are so scared of their decision that they dont do what truely believe.
The other disturbing thing is how the girl went missing for over a month before anything was officially reported. Come on, your kids missing and your out getting tattoo'd. BS
ughhh...the amount of lies/the details in her lies just kill me. even if she didn't do it, she went to some great lengths to hide Caylee's disappearance
mrs. heavymetal from jeepforum 2022 JL Rubicon
Originally posted by hoggie101
and everyone qute dis because its the best grammer im going to have all year
Comment