Many observers are assuming that a verdict of not guilty, which took less than 11 hours to deliver by the grand jury in the Casey Anthony trial, was a correct and justifiable one. We also assume that those individuals charged with the keeping and delivery of justice did so with utmost integrity and vigilance.
But now that Casey Anthony has been declared innocent of the death of her 2- year-old daughter, thus escaping the death penalty and with only four counts of perjury to worry about, what is there left to accuse her of?
Well, self-evidently, Ms. Anthony is guilty of extremely inept parenting, of lying like a twelve year old when confronted with evidence and even perhaps of partying it up too much.
According to prosecutors in her case, she went out and got the word “Beautiful life” tattooed in Italian, on her arm during the months that Caylee, her daughter, was missing.
Is that fact sufficient enough to discredit Ms. Anthony’s innocent verdict? Of course it isn’t, not by far, but it does seem a tad bit reckless and suspicious, perhaps if I dare say even un-motherly.
But what about the fact that the defense claimed that the toddler drowned accidentally in the family swimming pool and that Casey was actually hiding emotional distress caused by sexual abuse from her father?
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to be gleaned from these allegations, as Casey’s father repeatedly denied them. Also, there was no physical evidence to support the claims, so no dice.
The truth is that the prosecutors had a really tough time gathering any hard facts to tip the case in their favor. The six-month gap between the times Caylee was reported missing and the December 2008 discovery of her remains substantially shrunk the amount of evidence investigators could procure from the little girl’s bones.
Yes, bones were all that was left of her after such an extended period of decomposition. Again, a case could be made that Casey Anthony was a terrible mother. Unfortunately, being a terrible, careless, carefree, irresponsible and rather neurotic mother is not a criminal offense.
There were some other potential facts thrown around by the prosecution, such as the fact that Casey Googled the word chloroform on the family computer and that “a carpet stain taken from the family’s car trunk had a smell consistent with a decomposing body.” none of which stuck with the jury.
A lot of circumstantial evidence surrounded both Casey’s proof of innocence and proof of guilt. This was a classic instance of, as the Orange County State Attorney put it, “A dry-bones case”.
And because of the flimsy nature of the evidence, there will always be a cloud hanging over this terrible mother’s head nationally.
People will always be suspicious. Casey Anthony’s life may never be able to return to normalcy after the circus Americans witnessed during the trial.
Perhaps that is in itself a form of justice.
