The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : A Thought for Caylee Anthony

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Although I tried not to pay attention to the trial of Casey Anthony, I did see the verdict read live on CNN. As you probably know by now, Anthony was acquitted on first and second degree murder charges of her two-year old daughter, Caylee. Prosecutors in Florida had sought the death penalty. She was convicted on lesser charges of lying to law enforcement officials and is due to be sentenced on Thursday for those charges. I imagine the judge will sentence Anthony to four years (a year on each count) in prison and that she will be out of jail within 18 months.

I can accept that the prosecution didn't meet its burden. It couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Caylee Anthony died at the hands of her mother. The medical examiner could not determine how she died. But what's hard to accept is that she did not report her daughter missing and that her remains were found in a plastic bag six months after her disappearance was reported by her grandmother. If Casey Anthony didn't kill her daughter then who did?

Or was just a terrible accident after all? If it was, you would think she would have been forthcoming with the police. When I worked for the Massachusetts Child-At-Risk Hotline, I once had to write a child neglect report of an accidental death of a young child during a snowstorm. The mother of the child immediately notified the local police who then called in the report. Any woman with an ounce of maternal instinct would be overwhelmed with guilt and scarred for life. But not Casey Anthony. There's something very disturbing about woman who gives birth to a child who then cannot be bothered to report that child missing.

It's hard to fathom what life must have been like for Caylee Anthony. I can only imagine how confusing, lonely and sad it must have been to live in a world in which her mother did not want her.

View all comments (32) | Leave a comment

MM| 7.5.11 @ 4:14PM

The whole family are hiding facts. All liars. And there is no one paying for the life of this small child.

Aaron, why are you watching CNN?

Alan Brooks| 7.5.11 @ 5:26PM

Now that the glove dooesn't fit, Anthony will search for the Real Killer.

Alan Brooks| 7.5.11 @ 5:42PM

and btw, since today you are rwarded for doing wrong, Anthony will get her own TV show eventually-- plus a magazine such as Oprah has.

Keir| 7.5.11 @ 4:15PM

There is obviously something seriously wrong with the American jury system. Twenty years ago it was clear that the average juror was too ignorant to understand basic scientific evidence (corrupt DNA does not make it likelier to transform into the main suspect's DNA). America's education system has, during my lifetime, been criticised to the point that the NY Times pays writers to laud the virtues of the fascist Chinese system where a population of 1.4 billion has two universities known abroad, and where corruption is so rampant universities abroad refuse to acknowledge the qualifications gained from nearly all. Clearly ignorant people such as Bush and Palin are held up to be the best that a population of 300 million could hope for to represent them in these most challenging times. In the past this intelligence deficit was seen as threatening the country's future scientists, economists, doctors... now it seems that it is affecting the very idea of justice itself. A dystopia if ever there was one.

Occam's Tool| 7.5.11 @ 4:31PM

I think that it would be very very useful for all readers of this column to read what in my opinion is one of the ten greatest novelletes of the 20th Century, and that is CM Kornbluth's The Marching Morons. Another story framed in that Universe is The Little Black Bag, which was made into one of the greatest twilight zone episodes, with Burgess Meredith. The time spent reading Cyril, I assure you, will not be wasted.

I think making her serve time on lying to police is rather absurd. The lady is obviously deficient is some fashion. A much better (although impossible) sentence would have been forced sterilization.

Teflon93| 7.5.11 @ 6:09PM

Haven't we had quite enough of her going to extremes because she didn't want children already?

p-squared| 7.5.11 @ 8:12PM

This case is a PERFECT example of the jury system, which IMO is the fairest justice system in the world. Instead of Anthony being dragged through the streets, stoned, burned at the stake, and drawn and quartered as the mobs would like, the state had to present it's evidence to twelve people who were charged with determining guilt. NONE of the jury were convinced by the weak prosecution case, in spite of the emotional impact. I don't like the outcome, but the process worked perfectly in my opinion.

Alan Brooks| 7.6.11 @ 12:40PM

"I don't like the outcome, but the process worked perfectly in my opinion."

But she is guilty as hell. it is not at all plausible that a stranger or anyone else killed her daughter
-- she did it. Is she asking anyone to offer a reward leading to the arrest of the killer? no. Has she said she even wants to know who killed her daughter? no. Nothing like that.
Remember Susan Smith who drowned her boys in '96? maybe she is innocent' as well. She was forced to confess, right?

Alan Brooks| 7.6.11 @ 12:44PM

Poor Susan Smith, she was railroaded.

Red Phillips| 7.5.11 @ 8:20PM

Ever seen the opening scene of Idiocracy? It explains a lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXRjmyJFzrU

Wayne | 7.5.11 @ 10:33PM

I was just waiting for someone to blame Palin. Liberals are truly pathetic.

Alan Brooks| 7.6.11 @ 12:42PM

blame Anthony, not anyone or anything else.

MM| 7.5.11 @ 4:21PM

With every member of the family lying about everything possible, Casey is the only one paying for lies in jail time.

Who would deny that there is much more to this story than any of us will ever hear? Very shady family from the start. From the very first inklings in the news this story smelled to high heaven with every family member with something to hide.

Al Adab| 7.5.11 @ 4:54PM

Without passing judgement or mindreading the mother, we might still ask if, since it is permissible to eliminate the child for convienience before it is born, is it such a great leap to find that people eliminate them after birth for the same reason?

Teflon93| 7.5.11 @ 6:12PM

Exactly! Read the excellent Philip K Dick short story, "The Pre-Persons", which posits this very situation.

Kingofthenet| 7.5.11 @ 5:10PM

I obviously have no idea what really happened, but my hunch is the child drowned while unattended than the Mother panicked and made up a TON of bad lies. One thing I do know, if you can hide a body till it decomposes to skeletal remains, you CAN hide many ways of murder...

buckeyeman| 7.6.11 @ 11:23AM

If the child drowned and hence was already dead why would anyone put duct tape over its mouth?

That said, the burden the prosecution must meet is to PROVE that the act was committed by the DEFENDANT, not just "anybody". Clearly they were not able to convince 12 jurors that the FACTS PROVED that the DEFENDANT committed the crime. I think she's probably guilty too but what I "think" doesn't meet the standard of our trial by jury system.

jrp61356| 7.5.11 @ 5:29PM

There are simply too many unanswered questions in this case. If the child did indeed die as an accidental drowning victim - (1) why did the family wait 31 days to report it (and then report her as missing rather than dead); (2) why was her body tossed into the truck of a car; (3) why was tape placed over the child's mouth and nose; and (4) why was her body later dumped in a wooded area?

Granted, I did not monitor this case on a daily basis, so perhaps there are some details of which I am not aware. Based on what I do know, I agree with what the prosecutor said in his final argument - why make an accident look like murder?

Another killer goes free - if not the mother, then someone else...

Kingofthenet| 7.5.11 @ 5:45PM

Not to be disgusting, but it was never proven that the tape was over her mouth, it may been there to hold the head onto a decomposing body. Makes sense, if take was on her mouth when her skin rotted away the tape would go with it, but it was attached to bare skull. If they were trying to cover up a negligence accident, everything happened as expected, except the body was supposed to never been found.

Wayne | 7.5.11 @ 10:35PM

Except there was no evidence that there was an accident.

Patriot| 7.5.11 @ 5:30PM

From the beginning, just like MM said, too much mystery and collusion.

From the conveniently absent dad, who courteously died at a very young age, to the old man who obviously had so much to hide lying about an affair was no problem at all, to the foul-mouthed Mother Anthony whom they probably all feared; and I suspect that fear caused all the lies and a cover-up of God only knows what . . . besides that weird and hugely suspect family.

The old man, who didn't want his affair to be known, and his fishy suicide attempt -- knows way more than he ever let on. God knows what ...

The old lady who took credit for the chloroform searches (none was ever found, or evidence of any); the whole story is fishy, fishy, fishy.

Don't expect to ever know the truth. Not with so many with so much to hide.

Creepy.

jrp61356| 7.5.11 @ 5:37PM

Well stated. This is a seriously dysfunctional family, in which no one tells the truth. Unfortunately, an innocent two-year-old child has paid the ultimate price for their dishonesty and irresponsibility.

Wayne | 7.5.11 @ 10:37PM

The woman, the grandmother should be tried for lying in court. Maybe the grandfather also.

Red Phillips| 7.5.11 @ 6:03PM

The prosecution overreached by going for first degree murder and the death penalty.

Dollface| 7.5.11 @ 7:12PM

I was shocked that they had court over the weekend and on the 4th of July. Maybe the jury had enough and refused to deliberate.

e cowan| 7.5.11 @ 8:30PM

The verdict is another example of the "CSI effect"
Fortunately, there is a higher justice which Casey will have to face sometime.

EMG| 7.5.11 @ 10:12PM

jrp61356:

(1) why did the family wait 31 days to report it (and then report her as missing rather than dead);

Casey Anthony's family had no idea that Caylee was 'missing' for those days because Casey had constructed a series of elaborate, essentially sociopathic lies to deter her mother from realizing that Caylee was not actually traipsing around central Florida with her (Casey) in tandem with the obligations of her nonexistent job, nonexistent babysitter and nonexistent boyfriend. During that time, Casey apparently did little but commit check fraud and spend said spoils at the local Target, use her mother's Kohl's credit card (seriously) for a shopping spree, and have sex with her boyfriend the amateur club promoter (aforementioned boyfriend a student at Full Sail at the time and yet another victim of Casey's lies - she told him and his roommates Caylee was 'at the beach' with 'Zanny the nanny' the entire month Caylee was actually dead).

(2) why was her body tossed into the truck of a car;

Casey Anthony, lovely spry Casey, took it upon herself to double-bag young Caylee in some Hefty garbage bags after she was suffocated the little girl to death, then placed her in the trunk of her car to literally rot until a few days later. You know, when Casey could get around to taking a spare twenty minutes to toss her body in the middle of the woods a few miles away from the Anthony family home. (Perversely, Casey had played in those same woods often as a child...paging Dr. Freud).

3) why was tape placed over the child's mouth and nose;
Suffocation.

and (4) why was her body later dumped in a wooded area?

I have no idea other than geographic proximity for Miss Sociopath. It is literally a travesty of justice (I'd like to hear how the jurors came to their conclusion) that she was acquitted for this HORRIFIC murder.

I can't even watch the youtube videos of little Caylee without wanting to cry. How fitting that her own family immediately exorcised her immediately after the verdict came in. She'll have the stigma of Baby Killer the rest of her life, and probably rightfully so. Those who hem and haw about justice being served at the end of all of this to the benefit of Casey's supposed innocence being assuaged should review the facts of this case, which point to Caylee's horrible murder. She's dead and her killer is free.

Sorry, this case is just so horrible that I have to do my part to nip any Casey apologists in the bud. I guess if you want to commit a relatively foolproof murder of your kid, just be sure to look as innocent and non-murderer-like as humanly possible to plant that lone seed of festering doubt in the jury.

Okay, I've said enough, but for those who can't sleep tonight, your macabre interests will too be satiated by reading through the incredibly interesting case docs compiled as PDFs by the Orlando Sentinel and others.

EMG| 7.5.11 @ 10:16PM

Oh, and. She wanted to abort Caylee, but Mama Anthony would have none of that. Voila.

Lillith| 7.5.11 @ 11:06PM

The prosecution has all the powers of the state (money, time, experts) to make their case.

The defense only needs to prove 'reasonable doubt'.

This guarantees there will be more guilty people who are acquitted than innocent people imprisoned. That's the way the Founding Fathers wanted it.

Handy| 7.6.11 @ 1:07AM

This is a great example of "Never Admit Guilt."

A defense attorney that I got to know very well once told me that. His practice centered on, but was not limitd to, DUIs. He actually defended several murder/manslaughter/armed robbery cases and won them all.

He posited that all prosecutors are basially stupid: That they don't really understand law at all. Many people make fun of public defenders, because they don't have "paying" clients. But, they make the same money as prosecutors, and their checks are signed by the same officials.

He also stated that most judges never had successful private practices, and went to the bench out of frustration. They were cowards, he said, and never really wanted to make decisions anyway.

BTW, he also believes that most of his DUI clients were technically guilty of .08 and above so he recommends trial by jury in those cases. If there is no significant property or personal damage, he believes that all clients brought before a jury will have about 2-4 on the panel of 12 that have been previously charged themselves.

A hung jury in those cases is as good as an acquittal. The state will never re-prosecute. And, a motion to expunge the record will always be granted.

The Anthony case and so many others from OJ to the Duke lacrosse team and this DSK case are merely high-profile proofs that his theories hold true.

beebop| 7.6.11 @ 5:26AM

For the past two plus years this case has been sensationalized by a segment of the media that cannot report facts without slanting them to a moral conclusion. Nancy Grace is the "moral" equivalent of a Paul Krugman -- the only difference is their audience and subject. We need to question anything and everything we are told.

As for the mother? If she committed the crime or was merely negligent it is clear she lacks any sort of moral compass to "suffer" for her actions or inactions.

In memory of Caylee Anthony| 8.31.11 @ 4:47PM

A fundraiser event was started in Caylee Anthony's name with Save the children. We wanted to celebrate young Caylee Anthony by helping Children in Need. We are not looking for grand gestures with the donations. ANY amount will do. There's no limit. It can be $1 up to any amount. We don't want anyone going broke for this event. I've lowered the donation amount to $5000 so that we might be able to meet our goal (since we have only received 1 donation so far). Please just click on the website link to make a donation.