The Casey Anthony Trial: Final Thoughts

By Dennis Griffin

Slightly over three years after her death, Caylee Anthony had her chance to get justice, to have the person complicit in her death held accountable.

But on July 5, 2011, in a courtroom in Orlando, Florida, the justice system failed Caylee in my opinion.

To be fair, I have to make an admission. After the story of Caylee’s disappearance broke in July 2008, and during the next several months as Casey’s falsehoods and bizarre behavior were exposed night after night on the cable shows, I came to despise her as a person. Her seemingly never ending lies, her failure to cooperate with police by giving them an honest account as to the circumstances under which she had last seen her daughter, and stealing from friends and her own family, were all contributing factors in my anti-Casey attitude.

And during that same time frame I learned a lot about the rest of the Anthonys and developed a dislike for them as well. Cindy was at the top of my list, followed by George and then Lee.

So as the trial began, Casey was guilty in my mind. For me, the burden had shifted from the prosecution proving guilt to the defense proving innocence. And in order for them to convince me, they’d have to address three facts in the case:

• Caylee Anthony was dead;
• Casey Anthony was the last person known to have had custody of Caylee; and
• Casey had refused from July 15, 2008 to the present day to provide an honest explanation as to what happened to her daughter on or about June 16, 2008.

Obviously the fact that Caylee was dead couldn’t be changed. But the other two could. Casey, directly or through her lawyers, could place a live Caylee in someone else’s hands and explain who that person was and why or how he/she gained control of the little girl.

I promised myself that I’d listen as long as the evidence was credible. It couldn’t be another version of the Zanny the Nanny story. And it certainly couldn’t just be Casey’s word or that of her lawyers. That was my mindset as testimony began.

Jose Baez actually addressed those issues in his opening statement when he announced that Caylee had never really been missing. She died as the result of an accidental drowning in the family pool on June 16, 2008, when only Casey and George were present.

He further said that Casey and her father entered into a conspiracy to cover up the accident and that Casey’s ability to act as though nothing was wrong was the result of George having sexually abused her from the time she was eight years old.

And then Baez added yet another villain to the mix in the form of meter reader Roy Kronk, the man who reported finding Caylee’s remains in August and again in December, 2008. According to Baez, Kronk was a morally bankrupt individual who had somehow gained control of Caylee’s remains. He planted them at the location they were found in an attempt to collect reward money.

To me, this was a trial about Caylee’s death and Casey’s involvement in it. In that regard, whether George was an abuser or not didn’t concern me. What George and Kronk did or didn’t do were peripheral issues that could be addressed after the death itself was resolved.

So my focus was on who was with Caylee when she died and under what circumstances. In order for me to change my mind about Casey’s guilt, Baez had to produce credible evidence to support his claim of an accidental drowning. I looked forward to the defense presentation, wondering what proof he’d present, who his witnesses would be, and whether prosecutors would be able to impeach them.   

But the defense’s case came and went without providing any evidence to show there was an accidental drowning. My opinion was unchanged. It was clear to me that Casey Anthony was complicit in her daughter’s death. As the trial wrapped up I had doubts as to whether there would be a finding of guilt on the charge of premeditated first degree murder with a possible sentence of death. However, I felt a conviction of manslaughter was likely and would be appropriate.

On the afternoon of July 5 as I heard the final “Not Guilty” on the death-related charges, I was surprised and disappointed. I hadn’t believed the jury would be able to reach a unanimous decision of not guilty on each and every major charge in so short a time, and without asking a single question of the judge or requesting to have any testimony read back.

Almost immediately analysts and trial followers brought up comparisons between this and the OJ Simpson criminal case. Both had seemingly overwhelming evidence. And yet the prosecutors in each case apparently were unable to convince even a single juror that the defendant was guilty.

So when was the case lost? One possibility is that it happened when Baez made his drowning and sexual abuse claims during his opening. Under this theory, Baez never had any intention of calling Casey to the stand or putting on any other supporting evidence. He simply used his opening to get those ideas into the minds of the jurors. To plant the seed if you will and make the prosecution play defense. If true, what many thought was a major error on his part could actually have been a brilliant strategy.

Or maybe the jurors related better to the defense team than to the prosecutors. Jeff Ashton may have come across to them as a bully during what I thought were his skillful and highly effective cross examinations of defense witnesses. And his laughing during the closing by Baez may have turned some jurors off.

Could it be that when the jurors looked at Casey Anthony sitting only feet from them day after day, they came to see her as an innocent young mother incapable of harming her own daughter?

Or are we now in the CSI era where jurors expect every case to be solved conclusively in 40 minutes plus commercials? And is it now unacceptable for any question to remain unanswered or unproved?

The answer could be one of the above, none of them, or a combination.

The bottom line is that we may never know for sure what happened to Caylee Anthony or what took place in the minds of the jurors. The verdict is in and must be accepted.

During the closing by Jeff Ashton, he said that the defense was asking the jurors to go down a rabbit hole and accept their outrageous theories that had no basis in fact, and made no sense. And Ms. Burdick said her biggest fear was that common sense would become lost during deliberations.

In my opinion, the jury did accept the defense invitation to go down that rabbit hole into Wonderland. And when they did, they in fact left their common sense on the surface, just as Ms. Burdick feared. And in doing so they deprived Caylee Anthony of her one shot at justice.

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.