Casey Anthony Trial Starts Jury Selection

[Dave]

After 3 years, the trial of Casey Anthony, a Florida mom accused of killing her then 2 year old daughter, is finally coming to a Florida court. I'm a bit surprised that its taken so long for the trail to come about as it seems most cases move through the courts within a year... 3 years is a rarity I'm thinking. I generally don't like to assume guilt on anyone without seeing at least some of the official evidence and this case is no exception. There has been plenty of what is believed to be evidence that has made its way out into the media but until its in a court of law, its nothing and she is innocent until proven guilty. That said, IF what has been said is true, I would have to say that things are not going to turn out well for Casey.

 

 

(Reuters) - Lawyers in the Casey Anthony murder trial began searching on Monday in Pinellas County on Florida's Gulf Coast for 20 people who could move for eight weeks to a hotel in Orlando, 100 miles from home, to serve on the jury.

 

Anthony, 25, of Orlando, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee whose grandmother reported her missing in July 2008.

 

A jury is being picked in Pinellas County in hope of finding people who haven't become biased by saturation media coverage of the case in Orlando.

 

At the end of the day, 45 people out of the first 66 questioned were sent home after convincing Judge Belvin Perry the lengthy jury duty would be too much of a hardship.

Many prospective jurors said they could not afford to serve because their employers would stop paying them. Small business owners said their businesses might fail. Single parents said they had no one to look after their children. Middle-aged children said they had no one to look after elderly parents.

Perry said he hopes to pick and be ready to transport a total of 12 jurors and eight alternates to Orlando on Monday next week in time for opening statements by the lawyers on Tuesday.

Although the day was devoted to jury selection, it began and ended with lawyers battling over a key piece of evidence -- an analysis of odor captured from Casey's car trunk and analyzed by experts at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Questions still remained over the issue at the end of the session.

Perry issued a ruling that prosecutors would be allowed to admit evidence that compounds were found in the air sample consistent with the early stages of decay of a human body.

But just before adjourning for the day, Perry warned that he was re-thinking that decision after defense lawyer Jose Baez complained that the defense had never received the details of the study -- a database of some 468 chemical compounds identified in a long-term study of human decomposition -- on which the air analysis was based.

Baez told the judge he had been rebuffed by lawyers for the Oak Ridge expert who said the information is proprietary and belongs to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Prosecutor Jeffrey Ashton argued Baez long ago should have taken further action to get the database from the FBI or via other avenues.

Perry said he was deeply concerned about the ramifications of going forward with the evidence without allowing the defense access to the database.

"It might come back to bite, and to bite in the form of a very significant appellate issue," Perry said. He said he had assigned two staff lawyers to study the issue and planned to research it himself on Monday night.

"I have no plans to do this (trial) again, and if I'm going to err, I'm going to err on the side of caution," Perry said.

Jury selection continues Tuesday at 8:30 a.m.

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/10/us-crime-florida-anthony-...

[Dave]

Well, she now knows how long she'll have to sit in jail now... sentenced to 4 years with credit for time served which should have her getting out no sooner then December if they were to let her out at all early. I almost feel a little sympathetic to her as she will find life very tough once she is out... but then any sympathy I might have for her evaporates when I keep in mind that she knows what happened to her daughter.

I did see this morning where one of the jurors did talk about the verdict and as I suspected, at least with her anyway, that the cause of death could not be given is the main reason for the not guilty verdict. The juror did seem to think that Casey was guilty of something but without the cause of death, she simply could not judge Casey guilty.

[Lisa O'Brien]

I wouldn't waste any sympathy on her, from what I've been reading between book deals, interviews and made for tv movies she is going to be very wealthy. I think I will boycott all sources that provide money to this women. On a brighter side the state of Florida is going after her for the cost of investigating her lies, plus I read another company that searched for Caylee is suing her, also Zanny Gonzalez the fictional nanny that supposedly kidnapped the little girl. The first couple of months will probably be difficult for her, but sadly something else will jump in the spot light and I predicate within a year she will become obscure.

[Dave]

It seems she wont have to wait long after all to get out, the judge has ruled that she will be released on July 13th, less then a week from today.

[AQUAMAN]

This darn cat-tale is a real mind blower. The human common sense side of me says someone is walking free without justice being served. The legal-eagle side of me says that the law and American rights prevailed, esp. given the lack of cause of death of the infant, plus the way the newscasters/police acted for the last 3 years. I'll be watching her future behavior/acts as any reports appear though, this really isn't over yet, the killer is still out there, or, if it's an accident, someone knows more than what the rest of us do so far. Darn, the enigma of it all.

[Lisa O'Brien]

wasn't her whole defense that Caylee drowned in the family pool NOT murdered, that her and her stepfather made it look like murder cause they were scared?

[J.B]

That was just a statement to raise a question on her death and blame grandpa,  The judge would not allow any statement in closing about of that.  I feel that TV found her not guilty.    CSI   all too much showing that you can find the cause of death.   which they could not show how she died.

[Dave]

Its going to be tough on Casey for awhile.. one thing I heard is that after offering her a bunch of money, a porn company rescinded the offer because they were getting to much flack from people. Its pretty bad when even porn doesn't want to deal with her... hahaha.

As the old saying goes, you reap what ya sow... she's going to be paying for quite awhile I think.

[Dave]

Casey gets out of jail in 4 days, while she might be 'free', she might as well be in prison.... and deservedly so. No one is going to hire her, family life is going to be poor if not non-existent, tough for her to even find a place to live. As soon as she moves somewhere and residents around her find out she's there, she's going to be ran out of the area. Death threats have already been thrown her way and surely she will be seeing more of those. I'd say poor Casey but in her case, she reaps what she sows.... life will be hell for her, she better get use to it.

[AQUAMAN]

Very true Dave, it was also reported today she will be moving out of Orlando, and changing her legal name. All I can say is go to a different state where noone knows your face Casey, or get plastic surgery. All in all, if the media gets its way, she'll be a new star with celebrity appearances, book offers, and perhaps even a movie. Sad state of affairs any way you look at it.

[Dave]

I'm not so sure that she will as sought out as some other notorious people. At the moment she is literally one of the most hated people in the USA and many people think she is a murderer. Unless she had some sort of revelation in a book as to what actually happened with her daughter, even a book deal might not be that big of a payday for her. Speaking of movies, I heard it reported that a company that makes adult movies offered her a substantial amount of money to make a adult movie but after a lot of negative feedback, decided to rescind the offer.... doesn't bode well for her if even the adult movie industry doesn't want her. Even moving out of state might not do much as her face has been shown on TV screens and news paper headlines for the last 3 years and specially in the last few months.