First Day of Trial, Opening Statements today. Posecution will be first. Most of the attorneys on both sides are already in the courtroom, but Casey Anthony has not come in yet.
In the nearly three years it took to get here — opening statements in Casey Anthony's trial are scheduled for Tuesday — various defense theories briefly captured our attention and then fizzled. Now that the guilt phase of her trial is at hand, the legal experts who have watched this case carefully and know it best say she has few defense. Prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick began opening statements just after 9 a.m. Telling the jurors that evidence pointed to the 25-year-old defendant as the murderer of Caylee Anthony, who was gone for a. Opening statements in the State of Florida v. Casey Anthony, one of the Sunshine State’s most sensational child murder cases, is scheduled to start Tuesday in Orlando. Three years in the making, the trial is expected to call more than 300 prosecution and defense witnesses and will last an estimated eight weeks.
Defense attorneys Baez and Mason have just gone back to the holding cell area. Casey Anthony has just walked into court for her first day of trial. George and Cindy are sitting in the fourth row on the left side. Cindy holds a teddy bear, while George holds an open Bible. Very sad. Judge Belvin Perry has just taken the bench. He calls for a side bar.The jury for the Casey Anthony trial is now being brought in .
The prosecution’s opening statements start off by focusing on the story of Caylee Anthony. Case yAnthony appears to be very somber as she listens to the State's opening. At one point, she wipes a tear from each eye. Again, Casey Anthony wipes away a tear. Her parents, George and Cindy Anthony, are sitting on the left sidecontinue of the courtroom. Casey Anthony appears to have gotten more upset as opening statements have continued, steadily wiping away tears with a tissue now.Casey Anthony continues to cry openly, looking downward.
Ten years after a jury acquitted Casey Anthony of first-degree murder, people are again thinking about a murder trial that enthralled an entire nation. Many were outraged when the verdict came back “not guilty” while others believed that the prosecution (must have) failed to prove its case. Some saw it as a repudiation of our justice system while others saw it as a vindication.
A justice system that presumes innocence rests on the belief that it is worse imprison an innocent person than it is to let a guilty one go free. Ten years later, people are still considering the ramifications of that axiom to the American justice system. That has a lot to do with the outcome of the Casey Anthony case.
So the question then becomes: how did the prosecution lose this case when the facts seemed to prove the case form them?
According to the jurors who were involved with the case, the prosecution failed to prove how Caylee Anthony died. But those who were involved with the investigation can’t understand why they believe that. Here’s why.
The Facts of the Casey Anthony Murder Trial
- Caylee Anthony’s body was found near the house decomposing. She was found with duct tape over her mouth.
- Casey Anthony lied about nearly everything. The police caught her in numerous lies that didn’t require much evidence to realize were false. She also seemed unfazed by the fact that her daughter was missing. She spent much of that period out at the club with friends. The friends only realized that her daughter was missing after seeing a report on the news.
On the basis of those two facts – the forensic evidence and her demeanor – the prosecution formed a theory that Casey Anthony had given the child chloroform and then suffocated her with the duct tape.
The Defense Argument
The defense proposed an alternative theory. Lawyers for Anthony argued that her daughter had drowned in the swimming pool. Upon realizing that her daughter drowned, Anthony did what she always did. She lied about.
The fact that Anthony was a compulsive liar was not in dispute at this point. She lied to both the police and her friends about working at Universal Studios. She did this convincingly. The defense argued that she actually believed it was the truth.
They argued that her mind made up a story that her daughter was missing because that story was more comfortable than the truth. Why not? She made up a story that she worked at Universal Studios and even led police to Universal Studios where they discovered she did not have a job. Casey Anthony was a master manipulator, maybe, but of herself more so than anyone else.
In other words, the defense’s theory fit. When a jury is forced to weigh two theories and each of them is possibly true – they must acquit.
Except, why was there duct tape over Caylee’s mouth?
The defense succeeded in explaining away most of the physical evidence and all of Anthony’s bizarre conduct during the investigation. In the end, that was enough for reasonable doubt.
Prosecution Opening Statement Casey Anthony Trial Update
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Resources:
cnn.com/2018/06/29/us/casey-anthony-10-years-later/index.html
Prosecution Opening Statement Casey Anthony Trial Report
cnn.com/2013/11/04/us/casey-anthony-trial-fast-facts/index.html
Prosecution Opening Statement Casey Anthony Trial Brief
Prosecution Opening Statement Casey Anthony Trial Verdict