Thread: Anthony = Not Guilty

AP
Anthony Cleared of Killing Daughter
URGENT: Jury finds Casey Anthony — the Florida woman accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee — not guilty of charges pertaining to the toddler's death.
http://www.foxnews.com/

Sadly justice failed little Caylee today but I suspect in time it will be found.

From the above URL--------

BREAKING: A Florida jury has acquitted Casey Anthony of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.

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.

Anthony was found not guilty on all murder charges as well as aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter. She was convicted of four counts of lying to investigators. Judge Belvin Perry will sentence her Thursday. She could receive up to a year in jail for each count.
Related Interactive



Timeline of the Casey Anthony Murder Trial


Orlando mother Casey Anthony stands accused of first-degree murder in the 2008 death of her toddler daughter, Caylee.



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.

"While we're happy for Casey, there are no winners in this case," Defense attorney Jose 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.

He added: "This case has brought on new challenges of all of us. Challenges in the criminal justice system, challenges in the media, and I think we should all take this as an opportunity to learn and to realize that you cannot convict someone until they've had their day in court."

Anthony's attorneys claimed 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 arugments. "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, and 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; that she and her daughter were spending time in Jacksonville, Fla., with a rich boyfriend who doesn't exist; and that Zanny had been hospitalized after an out-of-town traffic crash and that they were spending time with her.

Click here for complete coverage of the Casey Anthony murder trial from MyFoxOrlando.com

TIMELINE: Casey Anthony murder trial

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

I have been watching this trail since day one i could not believe what i heard today.

Once again justice wasnt served.I believe the jurerers wanted to go home if they found her guilty they would have to stay for sentencing and they where ready to go home.Will they look for the killer hell no.They found her guilty of lieing so big deal she wont get time she will get time served and walk Thursday afternoon but i bet the family will have to move because people will be hounding them and Casey wont be safe there.

I've served on a fair number of juries past few years and honestly I believe the system is broken due to poor public schools and simply a lack of common sense but what drove this jury has me amazed.

I disagree with all of you. Thank God we have jurors. They counteract the railroading of people into prison when there lacks evidence..Tell me, who killed Caylee without a doubt and when did it happen? Can anyone here answer that? Enough of presumtions which is what you have when you lack hard evidence. I am not defending Casey, but you can't prove she did it, can you?

Remiscent of O.J. Simpson's trial.

That said, though I might be able to get over their finding her not guilty of murder, but at the very least I thought she would be found guilty of aggravated child abuse via reckless endangerment and disregard for a human life she was responsible for by not reporting her missing for an amazing 31 days. That, at least, the jury knew as a fact. She is for a certainty guilty of at the very least that. Though, in my mind, she is guilty of the death of that child, period.

Like so many people, I am stunned...

I think it would be difficult in todays world to find 12 people who would want to be sequestered for 6-8 weeks and if forced to do so the anger may be directed at the state. In any event it certainly failed this time.

OLDGUY you might be right on that most of them didnt want to be there in the first place,BUT this morning 1 alternate had the guts to talk on tv rest of the jury wouldnt to ashamed or scared to be on camera but this 1 alternate showed his face on camera explained why Casey got off THE 12 FELT SORRY FOR HER BECAUSE SHE CAME FORM A DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY AND DIDNT KNOW ANY BETTER thats what he said on tv THATS UNREAL JUST UNREAL.

The guilty party will answer for this little girl's death, and it will be a much harsher punishment than any handed down by a Florida Judge and jury.