Was the Casey Anthony 'Not Guilty' Verdict the Right One?

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This verdict is a delegation problem. As busy as people are, smart people are simply too quick to find a way out of jury duty As a consequence, the job of deciding guilt or innocence has been delegated to underskilled individuals, people unwilling or unable to even take notes in a case where a wrong decision could result in a murder going free or an innocent person facing the death penalty.
Without notes for jurors to refer back to, all the defense attorney had to do was keep talking and proposing absurd alternate theories until the real, damning evidence fell from the jury's memory. Not knowing where your child was for a month and not reporting it? Searching for chloroform and other means of unnatural death prior to the disappearance? A car trunk that smells like decomposition? Should we simply say that no murderer will be convicted without multiple, credible eyewitnesses no matter how much the circumstances justify a verdict?
Our justice system does not rely on every member of the jury having a stellar IQ. But consider this: had you or just one other smart juror been able to check notes, remind fellow jurors of conflicting evidence, refer back to specific inconsistencies and damning evidence and simply *held out*, at least the hung jury would have allowed a retrial before another set of fellow citizens. No such luck here.
Please remember this trial the next time you get a jury duty summons. If we all avoid jury duty like the plague, we'll get the justice system we deserve.

Do Your Duty of MI 3:01PM July 06, 2011

If you watch the entire closing arguments on you tube (wesh), the only concrete evidence points to Casey's father, George. The duct tape on the babies mouth hasn't been made since 2007 and it had a distinct logo printed on it. George was shown on a video to have possesion of it. George is a womanizer who cheated on his wife, he is a cronic liar that showed time and time again he cared only about himself and was very dictatorial. He would be the kind of person who would control his family with fear and torture. I wouldn't be a bit surprized if George tried to make the baby quit crying by duct taping her mouth and accidentally suffocated her. He was a police officer and would know to get rid of all of the finger prints that were mysteriously absent from all of the evidence. I think Casey's bazaar behavior was her only way of mentally escaping the painful world her father created for her. I'd like to see an investigation of her father.

boris1421 of HI 2:58PM July 06, 2011

When did people in America start trusting liars? I think I missed the memo on that one. Call me old-fashioned but I can't trust a liar. Did it start with the allowance of comments like I smoked it, but didn't inhale? Not sure.

Mommamiapia of AZ 2:57PM July 06, 2011

Did I hear him right? Did he say they did not know if she was murdered? I can't believe they would wonder about something so blatantly obvious. Who would cover up an accident? Yes, it's true they only had circumstantial evidence and no one should be convicted of a murder without it. But it's clear for the evidence of her partying and such after her daughter was missing that she had something to do with her baby's disappearance and perhaps death. A lesser charge should have been given here. What "good mother" would not report her child missing after 31 days? A good mother would do so after seconds. If you ever lost a child in a crowded area you know what I mean. Plus, would she go out and party if she was a good mom regardless of age. My mom had kids at her age and would never have done this. It's a shame the prosecution could not retrieve more damning evidence. She got away and can say she did it and our justice system could not touch her.Double Jeopardy.

Mommamiapia of AZ 2:54PM July 06, 2011

i think she murdered that baby..and now that she knows she can get away with murder.i think she will kill another one..given the chanceand if she does kill another one of her babies..the stupid jury will let her off again..man they have to be college educated to think the way they do.their college really showed up here.with casey anthony..

allen of AR 2:51PM July 06, 2011

If they buy into the Accidental Death theory, what happened to Abuse of a Corpse? Was she in on disposing of the body or did she blame that on Dad also? The Jury was technically right without using common sense! Can you really imagine Casey and Dad throwing the body into the swamp and "high fiving" each other before heading home? I can't!

BOOWAH of PA 2:46PM July 06, 2011

"Given that we know for a fact that Casey hid her daughter's death and lied to police about it, the burden of proof should have been on the defense to show why she hid the death and lied about it,"
This is a completely ignorant and uneducated comment. The law states that we are all INNOCENT until PROVEN guilty. The BURDEN of PROOF lies on the PROSECUTION! It is NOT the defenses responsibility to prove she was innocent. You can't prove innocence! The prosecution jumped way too high in their charges. The jury found her not guilty of MURDER ONE, AGGRAVATED MANSLAUGHTER and AGGRAVATED CHILD ABUSE. I want to know exactly what concrete evidence you people who don't believe it was the right verdict saw that makes you truly feel that she is guilty of murder! The plain fact is, there was NONE...not even one!
On the other hand...I have heard people like Nancy Grace (who is supposed to be an educated legal mind) say things like "common sense is what wasn't used in this verdict". Bull crap. How embarrassing that that woman is paid for her opinions. Just because the jury found her not guilty of the above charges, does NOT mean they don't think she is guilty of some kind of criminal activity. They were not handing down a verdict of involuntary manslaughter or accidental death. Had the prosecution been a little more conservative in their charges, they would have had a much better chance of getting a guilty conviction.
Consider some other ideas too. Casey likely was involved in an accidental death of her daughter. Drowning in a pool, over medicating to make her sleep so she could party...whatever. The thing is, there was not one single witness out of the over 300 that testified that stated she was a bad mother or an abusive mother. So how can you really think that the prosecutions accusation that she killed her daughter just so she could go party is really logical?!?! There are way to many options available to her. Drowning in a pool isn't so far fetched either. Casey could have been passed out from her partying the night before & when she was supposed to be watching her, Caylee could have easily climbed right in the pool & drowned. Consider that George could have found her & being a cop mind could have realized that his daughter could be charged with child neglect & accidental death so they better cover it up. How do we know George's so called suicide attempt wasn't because the guilt was eating him up? How do we know that Cindy doesn't know something about the cover up & that's why she lied for her daughter in that she searched for chloroform when she was proven to have been at work on her computer? We just don't know.
Those jurors did what they were asked to do by the judge. He told them to find her guilty if BEYOND ALL REASONABLE DOUBT they felt the evidence proved that. ALternately, he also said that if they had any inclination that something else could possibly have happened, then they needed to return with a verdict of not guilty.

HH in NC of NC 2:44PM July 06, 2011

A message to the Jurors. Someday when they meet their Maker & they go to heaven, PLEASE look for little Caylee and explain to her why she did not get JUSTICE.

Letty de Guxman of FL 2:40PM July 06, 2011

Our Justice System is only as good as the people we allow to run it. If you think it is not working, or is broken, then do something about it. Vote new people into office and before doing so, really do you research on these people and find out who they really are and what their “real” motives are for wanting the position.

jad1414 of MS 2:38PM July 06, 2011

Unfortunately the prosecution was unable to present evidence that directly and irrefutably tied Casey Anthony to the homicide, such as a credit card transaction for chloroform, fingerprints on the duct tape. While it is clear that Casey Anthony is a pathological liar with a personality disorder who behaved very suspiciously, suspicion in not sufficient to justify a criminal conviction. The prosecution dropped the ball on this case and clearly did not probe far enough to prove who committed the homicide. Clearly the outcome is unfortunate, but the jury did their duty and upheld the high standards that our criminal justice system requires.

Cthos of CA 2:37PM July 06, 2011