Monday, January 20, 2020

The Death of Caylee Anthony: Murder or Accident? (Part II)




Verdict and sentence
On July 5, 2011, the jury found Casey not guilty of counts one through three regarding first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and aggravated child abuse, while finding her guilty on counts four through seven for providing false information to law enforcement:
·         Count Four: Anthony said she was employed at Universal Studios during 2008, pursuant to the investigation of a missing person’s report.
·          Count Five: Anthony said she had left Caylee at an apartment complex with a babysitter causing law enforcement to pursue the missing babysitter.
·         Count Six: Anthony said she informed two "employees" of Universal Studios, Jeff Hopkins and Juliet Lewis, at Universal, of the disappearance of Caylee.
·         Count Seven: Anthony said she had received a phone call and spoke to Caylee on July 15, 2008, causing law enforcement to expend further resources.
On July 7, 2011, sentencing arguments were heard. The defense asked for the sentencing to be based on one count of lying on the grounds that the offenses occurred as part of a single interview with police dealing with the same matter, the disappearance of her daughter, as one continuous lie. The defense also argued for concurrent sentences, that is for all four counts to become one count and the sentence to run together as one. The judge disagreed with defense arguments, finding that Anthony's statements consisted of "four distinct, separate lies" ordered the sentences be served consecutively, noting that "Law enforcement expended a great deal of time, energy and manpower looking for Caylee Marie Anthony. This search went on from July through December, over several months, trying to find Caylee Marie Anthony.”   Judge Perry sentenced Casey to one year in the county jail and $1,000 in fines for each of the four counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer, the maximum penalty prescribed by law. She received 1,043 days credit for time served plus additional credit for good behavior, resulting in her release on July 17, 2011.  Anthony filed a notice of appeal on July 15, 2011.
In September 2011, Perry, complying with a Florida statute requiring judges to assess investigative and prosecution costs if requested by a state agency, ruled that Casey Anthony must pay $217,000 to the state of Florida. He ruled she had to pay those costs directly related to lying to law enforcement about the death of Caylee, including search costs only up to September 30, 2008, when the Sheriff's Office stopped investigating a missing-child case.  In earlier arguments, Mason had called the prosecutors' attempts to exact the larger sum "sour grapes" because the prosecution lost its case. He told reporters that Anthony is indigent.
In January 2013, a Florida appeals court reduced her convictions from four to two counts. Her attorney had argued that her false statements constituted a single offense; however, the appeals court noted she gave false information during two separate police interviews several hours apart.
Media coverage
Initial coverage
The case attracted a significant amount of national media attention, and was regularly the main topic of many TV talk shows, including those hosted by Greta Van Susteren, Nancy Grace, Geraldo Rivera, and others. It has been featured on Fox's America's Most Wanted, NBC's Dateline, and ABC's 20/20. Nancy Grace referred to Casey Anthony as the "tot mom" and urged the public to let "the professionals, the psychics and police" do their jobs.
Casey Anthony's parents, Cindy and George, appeared on The Today Show on October 22, 2008. They maintained their belief that Caylee was alive and would be found. Larry Garrison, president of SilverCreek Entertainment, was their spokesman until he resigned in November 2008, citing that he was leaving due to "the Anthony family's erratic behavior".
More than 6,000 pages of evidence released by the Orange County Sheriff's Department, including hundreds of instant messages between Casey and her ex-boyfriend Tony Rusciano, were the subject of increased scrutiny by the media for clues and possible motives in the homicide.  Outside the Anthony home, WESH TV 2 reported that protesters repeatedly shouted "baby killer" and that George Anthony was physically attacked.   George Anthony was reported missing on January 22, 2009, after he failed to show up for a meeting with his lawyer, Brad Conway. George was found in a Daytona Beach hotel the next day after sending messages to family members threatening suicide. He was taken to Halifax Hospital for psychiatric evaluation and later released.
Trial coverage
The trial was commonly compared to the O. J. Simpson murder case, both for its widespread media attention and initial shock at the not-guilty verdict.   At the start of the trial, dozens of people raced to the Orange County Courthouse, hoping to secure one of 50 seats open to the public at the murder trial.  Because the case received such thorough media attention in Orlando, jurors were brought in from Pinellas County, Florida, and sequestered for the entire trial. The trial became a "macabre tourist attraction", as people camped outside for seats in the courtroom, where scuffles also broke out among those wanting seats inside.  The New York Post described the trial as going "from being a newsworthy case to one of the biggest ratings draws in recent memory", and Time magazine dubbed it "the social media trial of the century".   Cable news channels and network news programs became intent upon covering the case as extensively as they could. Scot Safon, executive vice president of HLN, said it was "not about policy" but rather the "very, very strong human dimension" of the case that drove the network to cover it.  The audience for HLN's Nancy Grace rose more than 150 percent, and other news channels deciding to focus on the trial saw their ratings double and triple.  HLN achieved its most watched hour in network history (4.575 million) and peaked at 5.205 million when the verdict was read.  According to The Christian Post, the O. J. Simpson case had a 91 percent television viewing audience, with 142 million people listening by radio and watching television as the verdict was delivered. "The Simpson case was the longest trial ever held in California, costing more than $20 million to fight and defend, running up 50,000 pages of trial transcript in the process." The Casey Anthony trial was expected to "far exceed" these numbers.
Opinions varied on what made the public thoroughly invested in the trial. Safon argued the Anthonys having been a regular and "unremarkable" family with complex relationships made them intriguing to watch.  In a special piece for CNN, psychologist Frank Farley described the circumstantial evidence as "all over the map" and that combined with "the apparent lying, significant contradictions and flip-flops of testimony, and questionable or bizarre theories of human behavior, it is little wonder that this nation [was] glued to the tube". He said it was a trial that was both a psychologist's dream and nightmare, and believes that much of the public's fascination [had] to do with the uncertainty of a motive for the crime.   Psychologist Karyl McBride discussed how some mothers stray away from "the saintly archetype" expected of mothers. "We want so badly to hang onto the belief system that mothers don't harm children," she stated. "It's fascinating that the defense in the Anthony case found a way to blame the father. While we don't know what is true and maybe never will, it is worth taking a look at the narcissistic family when maternal narcissism rules the roost. Casey Anthony is a beautiful white woman and the fact that the case includes such things as sex, lies, and videotapes makes it irresistible."
When the not-guilty verdict was rendered, there was significant outcry among the general public and media that the jury made the wrong decision. Outside the courthouse, many in the crowd of 500 reacted with anger, chanting their disapproval and waving protest signs.  People took to Facebook and Twitter, as well as other social media outlets, to express their outrage. Traffic to news sites surged from about two million page views a minute to 3.3 million, with most of the visits coming from the United States. Mashable reported that between 2 pm and 3 pm, one million viewers were watching CNN.com/live, 30 times higher than the previous month's average. Twitter's trending topics in the United States were mostly about the subjects related to the case, and Newser reported that posts on Facebook were coming in "too fast for all Facebook to even count them meaning at least 10 per second".  Some people referred to the verdict as "O.J. Number 2", and various media personalities and celebrities expressed outrage via Twitter.  News anchor Julie Chen became visibly upset while reading the not-guilty verdict on The Talk and had to be assisted by her fellow co-hosts, who also expressed their dismay.
Others, such as Sean Hannity of the Fox News Channel, felt the verdict was fair because the prosecution did not have enough evidence to establish guilt or meet its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Hannity said that the verdict was legally correct, and that all of the evidence that was presented by the prosecution was either impeached or contradicted by the defense.  John Cloud of Time magazine echoed these sentiments, saying the jury made the right call: "Anthony got off because the prosecution couldn't answer [the questions]," Cloud stated. "Because the prosecutors had so little physical evidence, they built their case on Anthony's (nearly imperceptible) moral character. The prosecutors seemed to think that if jurors saw what a fantastic liar Anthony was, they would understand that she could also be a murderer."
Disagreement with the verdict was heavily debated by the media, lawyers and psychologists, who put forth several theories for public dissatisfaction with the decision, ranging from wanting justice for Caylee, to the circumstantial evidence having been strong enough, to some blaming the media.  UCLA forensic psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman, said, "The main reason that people are reacting so strongly is that the media convicted Casey before the jury decided on the verdict. The public has been whipped up into this frenzy wanting revenge for this poor little adorable child. And because of the desire for revenge, they've been whipped up into a lynch mob." She added, "Nobody likes a liar, and Anthony was a habitual liar. And nobody liked the fact that she was partying after Caylee's death. Casey obviously has a lot of psychological problems. Whether she murdered her daughter or not is another thing."
There was a gender gap in perceptions to the case. According to a USA Today/Gallup Poll of 1,010 respondents, about two-thirds of Americans (64 percent) believed Casey Anthony "definitely" or "probably" murdered her daughter; however, women were much more likely than men to believe the murder charges against Anthony and to be upset by the not-guilty verdict. The poll reported that women were more than twice as likely as men, 28 percent versus 11 percent, to think Anthony "definitely" committed murder. Twenty-seven percent of women said they were angry about the verdict, compared with nine percent of men.   On the day Casey Anthony was sentenced for lying to investigators in the death of her daughter, supporters and protesters gathered outside the Orange County Courthouse, with one man who displayed a sign asking Anthony to marry him. Two men who drove overnight from West Virginia held signs that said, "We love and support you Casey Anthony," and "Nancy Grace, stop trying to ruin innocent lives. The jury has spoken. P.S. Our legal system still works!"  The gender gap has partly been explained by "the maternal instinct". The idea of a mother murdering her own child is a threat to the ideal of motherhood.  For example, the trial was compared to the 1960s trial of Alice Crimmins, who was accused of murdering her two small children.
Explanations other than, or emphasizing, the prosecution's lack of forensic evidence were given for the jury's decision. A number of media commentators reasoned that the prosecution overcharged the case by tagging on the death penalty, concluding that people in good conscience could not sentence Anthony to death based on the circumstantial evidence presented.  The CSI effect was also extensively argued—that society now lives "in a 'CSI age' where everyone expects fingerprints and DNA, and we are sending a message that old-fashioned circumstantial evidence is not sufficient".   Likewise, commentators such as O. J. Simpson case prosecutor Marcia Clark believe that the jury interpreted "reasonable doubt" too narrowly.   Clark said instruction on reasonable doubt is "the hardest, most elusive" instruction of all. "And I think it's where even the most fair-minded jurors can get derailed," she said, opining the confusion between reasonable doubt and a reason to doubt. "In Scotland, they have three verdicts: guilty, not guilty, and not proven. It's one way of showing that even if the jury didn't believe the evidence amounted to proof beyond a reasonable doubt; it didn't find the defendant innocent either. There's a difference."
Aftermath
Defense, prosecution, and jury
Following the criminal trial, Mason blamed the media for the passionate hatred directed toward Casey Anthony. He described it as a "media assassination" of her before and during the trial, saying, "I hope that this is a lesson to those of you who have indulged in media assassination for three years, bias, and prejudice, and incompetent talking heads saying what would be and how to be." Mason added: "I can tell you that my colleagues from coast to coast and border to border have condemned this whole process of lawyers getting on television and talking about cases that they don't know a damn thing about, and don't have the experience to back up their words or the law to do it. Now you have learned a lesson."
Mason's response was viewed as especially critical of Nancy Grace, whose news program is cited as having "almost single-handedly inflated the Anthony case from a routine local murder into a national obsession".   Grace said that she did not understand why Mason would care what pundits are saying, and that she imagines she has tried and covered as many cases as Mason. She criticized the defense attorneys for delivering media criticism before mentioning Caylee's name in their post-verdict news conference, and said she disagrees with the verdict.   At a meeting of local professionals, named the Tiger Bay Club of Tampa, Mason told the media and those in attendance that he was surprised by the not-guilty verdict.
State's Attorney Lawson Lamar said, "We're disappointed in the verdict today because we know the facts and we've put in absolutely every piece of evidence that existed. This is a dry-bones case. Very, very difficult to prove. The delay in recovering little Caylee's remains worked to our considerable disadvantage."  Jose Baez said, "While we're happy for Casey, there are no winners in this case. 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." He added, "And today our system of justice has not dishonored her memory by a false conviction."  Former Casey Anthony defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden shared Baez's sentiments.  She believes the jury reached the right verdict. "We should embrace their verdict," she stated.
On July 6, 2011, Jeff Ashton gave his first interview about the case on The View. Ashton said of the verdict, "Obviously, it's not the outcome we wanted. But from the perspective of what we do, this was a fantastic case." He disagrees with those who state the prosecution overcharged the case, saying, "The facts that we had... this was first-degree murder. I think it all came down to the evidence. I think ultimately it came down to the cause of death." Ashton additionally explained that if the jury did not perceive first-degree murder when they saw the photograph of Caylee's skull with the duct tape, "then so be it". He said he accepts the jury's decision and that it has not taken away his faith in the justice system. "You can't believe in the rule of law and not accept that sometimes it doesn't go the way you think it should," stated Ashton, and explained that he understands why the case "struck such a nerve" with the public. "I think when people see someone that they believe has so gone away from [a mother's love for her child], it just outrages them." Ashton also made appearances on several other talk shows in the days following, and complimented Jose Baez on his cross-examinations and as having "the potential to be a great attorney".
After the trial ended, the twelve jurors did not initially want to discuss the verdict with the media.   51-year-old Russell Huekler, an alternative juror who stepped forward the day of the verdict, said, "The prosecution didn't provide the evidence that was there for any of the charges from first-degree murder down to second-degree murder to the child abuse to even the manslaughter [charge]. It just wasn't there."
The next day, juror number three—Jennifer Ford, a 32-year-old nursing student—told ABC News, "I did not say she was innocent" and "I just said there was not enough evidence. If you cannot prove what the crime was, you cannot determine what the punishment should be." She added, "I'm not saying that I believe the defense," but that "it's easier for me logically to get from point A to point B" via the defense argument, as opposed to the prosecution argument. Ford believed George Anthony was "dishonest." She said the jury "was sick to [their] stomachs to get [the not-guilty] verdict" and that the decision process overwhelmed them to the point where they did not want to talk to reporters afterwards.  Juror number two, a 46-year-old male who requested to stay unidentified, told the St. Petersburg Times that "everybody agreed if we were going fully on feelings and emotions, [Anthony] was done". He stated that a lack of evidence was the reason for the not-guilty verdict: "I just swear to God ... I wish we had more evidence to put her away. I truly do ... But it wasn't there." He also said that Anthony was "not a good person in my opinion".   Juror number six, identified by WTSP as Brian Berling, told gossip website TMZ.com that he was willing to be interviewed "so long as the opportunities are paid".
In an anonymous interview, the jury foreman stated, "When I had to sign off on the verdict, the sheet that was given to me—there was just a feeling of disgust that came over me knowing that my signature and [Casey Anthony's] signature were going to be on the same sheet," but that "there was a suspicion of [George Anthony]" that played a part in the jury's deliberations.   The foreman stated his work experience enabled him to read people and that George Anthony "had a very selective memory" which stayed with the jurors, emphasizing that the jury was frustrated by the motive, cause of death, and George Anthony. "That a mother would want to do something like that to her child just because she wanted to go out and party," he said. "We felt that the motive that the state provided was, in our eyes, was just kind of weak."  Although the foreman objected to Casey Anthony's behavior in the wake of her daughter's death, he and the jury did not factor that behavior into their verdict because it was not illegal. They initially took a vote on the murder count, which was 10–2 (two voting guilty), but after more than ten hours of deliberation, they decided the only charges they felt were proven were the four counts of lying to law enforcement.
Perry announced at sentencing on July 7 that he would withhold the jurors' names for several months because of concern that "Some people would like to take something out on them.”   He released the jurors' names on October 25, 2011.  On May 6, 2013, he stated that he believed there was sufficient evidence to convict Casey Anthony, even though most of the evidence was circumstantial, and that he was shocked by the not-guilty verdict.
Anthony family
Mark Lippman, the attorney for George and Cindy Anthony, told ABC News that the family received death threats after the not-guilty verdict was rendered.  In response to the verdict, a statement was released by Lippman on behalf of the Anthony family (George, Cindy and Lee Anthony):
While the family may never know what has happened to Caylee Marie Anthony, they now have closure for this chapter of their life. They will now begin the long process of rebuilding their lives. Despite the baseless defense chosen by Casey Anthony, the family believes that the Jury made a fair decision based on the evidence presented, the testimony presented, the scientific information presented and the rules that were given to them by the Honorable Judge Perry to guide them. The family hopes that they will be given the time by the media to reflect on this verdict and decide the best way to move forward privately.
It was alleged in press reports that Cindy Anthony had perjured herself when telling jurors she—not Casey Anthony—was the one who used her family computer to search the Internet for "chloroform". The state attorney's office said she would not be charged.
On July 6, 2011, Anthony's jailhouse letters were released to the general public. They were originally released (though not to public) in April 2010 by prosecutors preparing for the Anthony trial. In more than 250 handwritten pages, Anthony discusses her life in jail, what she misses, and her plans for the future if freed.  On July 8, 2011, Cindy Anthony had scheduled a visit to meet with Casey at 7 pm, but Casey declined to meet with her mother. Mark Lippman told Reuters during the trial that Casey had cut off communication with her parents.   It was later announced that George and Cindy Anthony would be appearing on Dr. Phil in September 2011 to tell their story.
Casey left for an undisclosed location not long after the verdict. However, on August 12, she was ordered to return to Florida to serve a year's supervised probation for an unrelated check-fraud conviction. When she pleaded guilty to that charge in January 2010, the judge in that case intended for Casey to serve her probation after proceedings in the murder case concluded, but an error in the sentencing documents allowed her to serve her probation while awaiting trial.  Casey returned to Florida on August 25 and is serving out her probation in an undisclosed location. Due to numerous threats against her life, the Department of Corrections did not enter her information into the state parolee database.  In August 2011, George and Cindy issued a statement that Casey would not be living at their home when she returned to Florida to serve her probation.  According to Huffington Post, she was reportedly working with her probation officer to take online college classes in an unspecified field, while protected by her security, at an undisclosed educational institution.
In August 2011, the Florida Department of Children and Families released a report based on a three-year investigation into the disappearance and death of Caylee. An agency spokesperson stated, "It is the conclusion of the [DCF] that [Casey Anthony] failed to protect her child from harm either through her actions or lack of actions, which tragically resulted in the child's untimely death."
Casey filed bankruptcy with the Middle District of Florida Bankruptcy Court on January 27, 2013. Her estimated liabilities were between $500,000 and $1 million.
Civil suits
In September 2008, Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez sued Casey for defamation. During the investigation, Anthony told investigators that she left 2½-year-old Caylee with a babysitter named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez—also known as "Zanny"—on June 16 at the stairs of a specific apartment in the Sawgrass apartment complex located in Orlando. Fernandez-Gonzalez, who was listed on apartment records as having visited apartments on that date, was questioned by police, but stated she did not know Casey or Caylee.  Her defamation suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, alleging that Casey willfully damaged her reputation.  Fernandez-Gonzalez has told reporters that she lost her job, was evicted from her house, and received death threats against herself and her children as a result of Anthony's lies. Fernandez-Gonzalez' lawyer, John Morgan, said he wants to interrogate Anthony about Caylee's death because it is "the essence" of the defamation suit.
On October 8, 2011, Morgan deposed Casey via a video conference. She exercised her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and answered only a couple of factual questions. Morgan felt that was improper, but legal experts think that Anthony is well within her rights to plead the Fifth until her appeals of the convictions for lying to officers are exhausted.   Fernandez-Gonzalez' attorneys sought and received permission to obtain Anthony's address (though it was kept sealed from the public) so they could subpoena her to testify, even if she only took the stand long enough to plead the Fifth. However, Fernandez-Gonzalez is willing to drop the suit if Anthony apologizes to her and compensates her for pain and suffering.   In September 2015, a judge ruled in favor of Anthony, stating: "There is nothing in the statement…to support (Fernandez-Gonzalez's) allegations that (Anthony) intended to portray (the nanny) as a child kidnapper and potentially a child killer."
In July 2011, Texas EquuSearch (TES), a non-profit group which assisted in the search for Caylee from July to December 2008 when she was believed to be missing, sued Anthony for fraud and unjust enrichment. TES estimates that it spent more than $100,000 searching for Caylee even though she was already dead.  TES founder and director Tim Miller estimates that the abortive search for Caylee expended 40% of the group's yearly resources which could have been spent looking for other missing children. It only learned that Anthony knew all along that Caylee was dead when the trial began.  TES and Anthony eventually settled out of court on October 18, 2013. TES was listed as a creditor to Anthony and was entitled to $75,000.
"Caylee's Law"
Since the end of the trial, various movements have arisen for the creation of a new law, called "Caylee's Law", that would impose stricter requirements on parents to notify law enforcement of the death or disappearance of a child.  One such petition, circulated via Change.org, has gained nearly 1.3 million electronic signatures.  In response to this and other petitions, lawmakers in four states—Florida, Oklahoma, New York, and West Virginia—have begun drafting versions of "Caylee's Law".  The law in Oklahoma would require a child's parent or guardian to notify police of a missing child within 24 hours, and would also stipulate a time frame for notification of the disappearance of a young child under the age of 12.  The Florida law would make it a felony if a parent or legal guardian fails to report a missing child in timely manner if they could have known the child would be in danger.  The call for mandatory reporting laws has been criticized as being "reactive, overly indiscriminating and even counterproductive".   One critic noted the law could lead to overcompliance and false reports by parents wary of becoming suspects, wasting police resources and leading to legitimate abductions going uninvestigated during the critical first few hours. Additionally innocent people could get snared in the law for searching for a child instead of immediately calling police.
Memorials and tribute songs
Different artists have written songs in Caylee's memory. Jon Whynock performed his own version at her memorial service in February 2009, and Rascal Flatts' Gary LeVox collaborated with country comedian and radio host Cledus T. Judd and songwriter Jimmy Yeary to write a song titled "She's Going Places" in Caylee's memory.
Later information
In November 2012, WKMG-TV television in Orlando reported that police never investigated Firefox browser evidence on Casey's computer the day of Caylee's death; they only looked at Internet Explorer evidence. The browser history showed that someone at the Anthony household, using a password-protected account Casey used, did a Firefox Google search for "foolproof suffocation" at 2:51 p.m. and then clicked on an article criticizing pro-suicide websites promoting "foolproof" ways to die, including the idea of committing suicide by taking poison and putting a plastic bag over one's head. The browser then recorded activity on MySpace, a site used by Casey but not George. The station learned about this information from Casey's attorney Jose Baez who mentioned it in his book on the case, speculating that George had contemplated suicide after Caylee's death. He conceded to reporters that the records are open to interpretation; however, he speculated that the state may have chosen not to introduce the search at trial because, according to Baez, the computer records tend to refute the timeline stated by George, which was that Casey left at 12:50 p.m. An analysis by John Goetz, a retired engineer and computer expert in Connecticut, revealed that her password-protected computer account shows activity on the home computer at 1:39 p.m., with activity on her AIM account, as well as MySpace and Facebook.
In April 2016, transcripts of two 2015 affidavits of private investigator Dominic Casey were filed on the court docket in the matter of Kronk v. Anthony and picked up by news services in May 2016. In one affidavit, Casey stated that on July 26, 2008, Baez admitted to him that Casey Anthony murdered Caylee Anthony "and dumped the body somewhere and, he needed all the help he could get to find the body before anyone else did".   He also claimed that Baez had a sexual relationship with Anthony, and that "Casey told me she had to do what Jose said because she had no money for her defense." Baez "vehemently" denied a sexual relationship.

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