Casey Anthony is Free While Another Mom Serves Jail Time For Her Child’s Death Because She Did Not Use A Crosswalk

By Cynthia Caron

Amid security, Casey Anthony is a free woman. She was escorted into a black SUV by her lawyer Jose Baez and an armed guard and driven away from waiting reporters early this morning. I don’t believe I really have to go into details as to who Casey Anthony is because I believe the entire northern universe is aware that she is the young mom who did not report her daughter, Caylee, age 2 ½, as missing for 31 days back in 2008. However, for those who have been out of touch with the mass media news reporting, I will explain. Yes, a beautiful child is missing for 31 days and her mother was fully aware. Did she report her missing? No. Instead she partied with men, seductively danced the nights away, lied to her family, treated herself to a tattoo with stolen money from her best friends checkbook. Ironically her tattoo were the words “Bella Vita” which means “beautiful life” in Italian. Yes, I believe Casey felt she had a beautiful life now that she no longer had the responsibilities of being a mother and could party the nights away. Somewhere in her warped mind that was a “beautiful life.”
Lying, stealing money to make purchases of clothing, lingerie and grocery items to take to her overnight trysts with her “boyfriend” is what was utmost on Casey’s mind those 31 days and not reporting her daughter as “missing.” She will go down in history as the most “hated mother” in America. She makes “Mommy Dearest” look good.

During the 31 days Casey continually lied to her family and made excuses that Caylee was with her “nanny” at Disney World and other places, or she was sleeping. Whatever excuses she could think to “put off” her family in thinking Caylee was alive and well and that she and Caylee were having a “wonderful time” and would be home to visit soon. Meanwhile, her daughter lay in the hot Florida heat double bagged in rubbish liners with duct tape on her face and securely fastened into her families laundry bag tossed into the hot watery swamp. A beautiful child was dead and nothing remained on her little body except tattered moldy clothing and skeletal remains when she was found 6 months later. Anthony’s defense in court was that her daughter drowned, her father molested her, her brother groped her under the covers at night and the jury found her not guilty of Murder in the 1st degree, which could have brought her to the death chambers, but instead found her guilty of lying to police.

Somewhere in this mess I cannot get past the fact that the jury’s reasoning was because the prosecution couldn’t prove HOW little Caylee died. Doesn’t matter that she was dead and that lies and partying covered up her death, but because the prosecution couldn’t say exactly HOW Caylee died they set her mother free. Apparently the prosecution didn’t explain clearly enough that complete decomposition of a human body, with all tissues and organs gone, and just the mere framework of a beautiful child left wasn’t good enough for the jury. They wanted specifics from a body that could never show exactly what happened. Just too many long hot days went by and any physical evidence was gone. I guess it never occurred to the jury that between the hot Florida sun that little Caylee’s earthly body basically cooked away any evidence as she lay dead and decomposing in her coffin of garbage bags. I guess that was not good enough to charge her mother with manslaughter or even child abuse. Nope. She was found guilty only of lying to the police.

Meanwhile, in Marietta, GA, another young mother named Raquel Nelson, aged 30, busy with trying to keep control of her three children, decided to cross the middle of a street when her four year old son was struck and killed by an under-the-influence driver when he darted out into the traffic. Raquel along with another of her children were also injured and the third child escaped physical injury. Raquel was charged, and convicted, of “homicide by vehicle” in the second degree, “crossing roadway elsewhere than at crosswalk “ and “reckless conduct” for making the choice to not use a crosswalk to get to their bus stop.

Photo courtesy of 11 Alive News

Ironically, Jerry L. Guy, the driver who admitted hitting and killing the child, leaving the scene and hitting two more people, pled guilty to hit-and-run and served only a 6-month sentence. He was released Oct. 29, 2010, and will serve the remainder of a 5-year sentence on probation, according to Cobb court records. He will essentially serve less time than the mother whose child was killed because she did not utilize a crosswalk. Oh, and Casey Anthony is free. A scary judicial system, isn’t it?

Cynthia Caron is Founder of LostNMissing, Inc

In The Court of Public Opinion, The Verdict is.........

By Susan Murphy Milano

Three long years of listening to one sided opinions from talking heads were finally silenced today after a 6 plus week jury trial rendered a verdict of not guilty. The Casey Anthony trial is likely the most viewed trial thus far in our history. Millions tuned in by radio, cell phones, television and the Internet on the edge of their seats as each count of the indictment was read.

The Internet comments and posters slammed anyone who commented on the fact that the prosecution had a circumstantial case and was not able to convince a jury that Casey Anthony was guilty of murdering her daughter, Caylee. 

James Copenhaver, principal in the firm Orlando Private Investigation commented on his private facebook page " Way to go Justice System,,,Thank God it still works for the common people of this great land...I think the State's case was not up to par, and they should have kept it simple, not throwing a ton of suspects evidence at them. I just feel the Sheriff's Office rushed to charge her. Keep in mind they charged her with 1st Degree murder before even having the body..~OPI"

For Copenhaver's comment and others who voiced the same opinion, people slammed them on the Internet for not sharing their outrage by the jury's verdict.

In the three years of finger pointing and barking on the big screen, many children have gone missing or tragically have been discovered murdered, but where is there media coverage for those cases? Why did the media “select” a beautiful doe eyed angel as their public billboard spewing venom at anyone who did not agree with them? The answer: ratings, ratings, ratings!

When True Crime Author Diane Fanning wrote “Mommy’s Little Girl,” she did so with the facts in the case. She was contracted by the publisher to write this book. What Fanning does as an author, in my opinion, is preserve the life of a child silenced, discarded in a way that frankly is difficult to fathom. She provides an insight to the reader few writers have been able to achieve. As a homicide survivor, I appreciate anyone that can remain on track with the facts, regardless of outside pressures in the court of public opinion.

In this court of public opinion, jumping up and down will not bring an innocent child the justice she deserves. And it will not reverse a legal system in place that affords all citizens in this country; the right to a fair trial. That a person is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If all those who voiced their outrage today, could be just as passionate and concerned about the other children or missing adults who do not make national headlines, because for these families who require the public's help in finding a child or getting out information that could lead to an arrest, the media coverage is more like a selective lottery drawing.

Today, is new day. Sadly another child will likely be reported missing or a mother will be discovered murdered in her own home. Do we wait for the media to dictate what new case will be covered and discussed?

In the court of public opinion, we have silenced our own individual voices by allowing the media to spend three long years on a single case that should have only been tried in a courtroom!


Susan Murphy Milano is with the Institute for Relational Harm Reduction and Public Pathology Education. She is an expert on intimate partner violence and homicide crimes. For more information visit http://www.saferelationshipsmagazine.com/

Susan is the author of "Time's Up A Guide on How to Leave and Survive Abusive and Stalking Relationships," available for purchase at the Institute, Amazon.com and wherever books are sold. Susan is the host of The Susan Murphy Milano Show, "Time's Up!" on Here Women Talk http://www.herewomentalk.com/ and is a regular contributor to the nationally syndicated The Roth Show with Dr Laurie Roth. Susan is a survivor- the daughter of a police officer family intimate partner homicide by her father who murdered her mother before committing suicide.