Crime

Verdict Reached in Casey Anthony Murder Trial

Below, watch a live feed of the verdict from MSNBC:

Verdict Reached in Casey Anthony Murder TrialORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A Florida jury reached a verdict Tuesday in the murder trial of Casey Anthony, who is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.

Judge Belvin Perry says the verdict will be read at 2:15 p.m. EDT.

The jury deliberated for more than 10 hours over two days after hearing 33 days of testimony. If convicted of first-degree murder, the 25-year-old Anthony could get a death sentence.

She could also be acquitted or convicted of second-degree murder or manslaughter. She is also charged with lying to sheriff‘s detectives investigating her daughter’s 2008 disappearance.

The jury of seven women and five men had worked through much of the long weekend, hearing closing arguments Sunday and Monday morning and deliberating for six hours that afternoon. Jurors were chosen from the Tampa Bay area because of pretrial media coverage, and they’re sequestered in an Orlando hotel.

Prosecutors argued Monday that Anthony killed her 2-year-old daughter Caylee in June 2008 because the toddler interrupted her carefree partying and love life. The prosecution said the defense‘s assertion that Caylee’s death was an accident made no sense.

Anthony‘s attorneys say the girl drowned in the family’s pool. They have said Anthony panicked and that her father, a former police officer, decided to make the death look like a homicide by placing duct tape over the child’s mouth and dumping the body in the woods. George Anthony has denied that.

Prosecutor Jeff Ashton told the jurors no one makes an innocent accident look like murder.

“That’s absurd. Nothing has been presented to you to make that any less absurd,” Ashton said. He also spent significant time reminding jurors about forensic evidence that he said links Anthony to her daughter’s death, including the smell and chemical signature of decomposition in her car.

Lead prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick followed Ashton, telling the jurors that prosecutors presented every piece of evidence they promised in May during opening statements. Without saying it, she was pointing out that defense attorneys never presented direct evidence backing up their contentions that the child drowned.

She then hammered on the lies Casey 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, Florida, 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.

“Responses to grief are as varied as the day is long, but responses to guilt are oh, so predictable,” Drane Burdick said. “What do guilty people do? They lie. They avoid. They run. They mislead, not just to their family, but the police. They divert attention away from themselves and they act like nothing is wrong. That’s why you heard about what happened in those 31 days.”

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 showed a tattoo of an Italian phrase meaning “beautiful life,” which Anthony 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.”

Anthony sat stone-faced during much of the prosecutors’ arguments, but occasionally shook her head in disagreement and spoke under her breath.

Defense attorneys claimed Anthony‘s lies and erratic behavior were brought on by her grief over her dead child and by her family’s dysfunction. George Anthony has denied allegations from the defense’s opening arguments that he abused his daughter, and the judge said no evidence has been presented to support it.

Defense attorney Jose Baez said during his closing argument Sunday that the prosecutors’ case was so weak they tried to portray Anthony as “a lying, no-good slut“ and that their forensic evidence was based on a ”fantasy.” He said Caylee’s death was “an accident that snowballed out of control.”

Baez began his closing argument Sunday with his biggest question: How did Caylee die? Neither prosecutors nor the defense have offered firm proof.

He attacked the prosecution’s forensic evidence. He said air analysis of the trunk of Anthony’s car, which allegedly showed air molecules consistent with decomposition, could not be duplicated. No one could prove a stain found in the trunk was caused by Caylee’s body decomposing there. And witnesses showed maggots found in the trunk came from a bag of trash that was found there, he said.

Baez also attacked George Anthony as unreliable. He said a suicide note George Anthony wrote in January 2009 that claimed no knowledge of what happened to Caylee was self-serving and the attempt was a fraud. He said George Anthony claimed he was going to kill himself with a six-pack of beer and high-blood pressure medicine.

Comments (59)

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  • SavingtheRepublic.com
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 2:22pm

    Told ya’s! Who wants to bet my earlier post about DNA was driving force for the decision?!

    Report Post » SavingtheRepublic.com  
  • lyradd
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 2:22pm

    Did the O.J. jury move to Orlando!!!

    Report Post »  
  • DDD
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 2:22pm

    Floridians are as moronic as Californians – they let OJ off, too. Poor Caylee – she’ll never know justice. Hope she is sheltered in Mary’s arms in Heaven.

    Report Post »  
  • hauschild
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 2:19pm

    The fact that people follow this trial proves my theory that this country is literally on its last legs.

    I couldn’t care less about this trial. If the vast majority of people thought about this like I did, we wouldn’t have to put up with this nonsense on FOX every hour on the hour.

    What really amazes me is that people are murdered every year, yet many of us don’t catch on to this fact. Some new murders draw us in? Why? What’s the payoff? You think yer gonna learn something new? Does it help your bottom line?

    We’re all grown people, right? Don’t you understand the only reason this is on TV is because idiots watch it? It makes no sense.

    I’d rather watch intelligent people have discussions about how we can turn back this onslaught of Marxism, instead of listening to idiots like Rivera (and the host with the worst timing in the history of news – Van Sustern) ramble on.

    Report Post »  
  • RayOne
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 2:18pm

    Another post birth medical treatment from the WH.

    Report Post » RayOne  
  • Fight for America
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 2:07pm

    She threw everyone else under the bus.

    Does everyone really think that this party girl would sit in jail for three years if the accidental thing was true?

    Casey is used to controlling everything. Oops – looks like that got blown away.

    Maybe it was in part of the coverage I didn’t see.

    Was there any establishment that she knows right from wrong?

    She seemed to know how to function just dandy when she wanted something.

    If it was in her way – she took care of it. If she wanted it, she took it or stole it. And didn’t care who she hurt including family members and friends.

    Report Post »  
  • Pastor Ray
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 2:03pm

    If America would put the effort into some TSA PERVERT sexually assulting an innocent American trying to fly somewhere as they have in this CRAP then maybe we could recover so of our freedom that the Obamanation has STOLEN from us all!

    Report Post » Pastor Ray  
  • PrfctlyFrank
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 2:03pm

    Has sounded like another prosecution cluster F*#k in Florida..If this woman walks it will be on them, not the defense..

    Report Post » PrfctlyFrank  
  • Fly Old Glory 24/7 365
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:59pm

    I have stopped watching FOX because of this. And I wont go back…. waste of time….

    Report Post »  
  • SavingtheRepublic.com
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:59pm

    Uhhh that was fast! Hate to say it but based off of what I saw there is no smoking gun in this; a lot of coincidence. In this day and age of DNA testing there was NO DNA in the trunk, on the duck tape etc. How is that possible? No history or evidence of child abuse. Can you convict her of being a bad mother?

    Report Post » SavingtheRepublic.com  
  • TomFerrari
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:56pm

    G
    U
    I
    L
    T
    Y

    otherwise, the debate would have gone on longer.

    May God have mercy on her soul.

    Report Post » TomFerrari  
  • solaveritas
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:53pm

    Many people have been rescued from death row and found to be innocent by DNA evidence.
    The death sentence should only be used where there is eyewitness or similar “absolute” evidence of guilt.
    There is too much doubt in this case for a death sentence, but apparently enough proof to give Casey Anthony life in prison.

    Report Post » solaveritas  
  • TunaBlue
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:51pm

    Based on the overall evidence, I predict that she will be found not guilty. I‘m not saying she’s innocent, she’s guilty, but I don’t believe there was enough evidence to convict.

    Report Post »  
  • intothelight
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:50pm

    Oh Joy, thank goodness it’s over. The media has been like a dog with a rag in it’s mouth. Just wouldn’t let go. Enough is enough. Please go away now.

    Report Post »  
  • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:50pm

    In this case, with as little time as the jury needed to reach their decision; it is a fair chance she will be aquitted of the charges. I have not followed this case much, so my commentary is based on the number of juried trials I have seen first hand in duration, not on any oppinion.
    http://artinphoenix.com/gallery/grimm

    Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
  • burnteye86
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:49pm

    I wish her a long life in prison.

    Report Post » burnteye86  
  • TaunTaun
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:49pm

    We’ll be in for more weeks of this as sentencing gets discussed in every agonizing detail.

    Report Post »  
  • BlackCrow
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:48pm

    What next for the bread and circus pop culture crowd?

    Pity they can’t pay as much attention to the impending federal bankruptcy or the riots that are happening everywhere yet not being reported by the MSM.

    Report Post » BlackCrow  
  • vennoye
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:47pm

    First the verdict…….then all the appeals start!! Sometimes it would be nice to just see justice carried out.

    Report Post » vennoye  
  • UBETHECHANGE
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:45pm

    I’m not a Christian so I can say this…FRY CASEY FRY!

    Report Post »  
  • concealled9mms
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:45pm

    I watch fox daily and i am sure glad it will be over you talk about saturation, all pray they dont do it over

    Report Post »  
  • SingerGuy
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:42pm

    Oooh, I’m all a-twitter. (not!)

    Report Post » SingerGuy  
  • dlspiece
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:41pm

    justice in the case will never be enough

    Report Post »  
  • poverty.sucks
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:40pm

    Guilty

    Report Post » poverty.sucks  
    • DimmuBorgir
      Posted on July 5, 2011 at 2:12pm

      This case is Bullpoo

      it’s nothing but mob mentality in the court. No evidence of how she died or that casey killed her. But we don’t like her so lets convict her.

      Report Post » DimmuBorgir  
  • Sound The Trumpet In Zion
    Posted on July 5, 2011 at 1:38pm

    Is this thing finally over? If it is it’s about time.

    Report Post » Sound The Trumpet In Zion  
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