The Caset Anthony trial. This thing has been going on for about 3 years. Well, three years that she's been in jail anyway. It started off with a missing child. A 2 year old little girl named Caylee. It then turned into all of the mom's (Casey)friends coming out and saying that Casey was lying. The girl wasn't with any of them when she went missing. Turns out, no one had seen this little girl for 30 days. Then we also around this same time start hearing all these reports about how Casey would chloroform her daughter, or have her drink cough syrup to pass out, so Casey could go partying and clubbing with her friends. This information broke my heart at the time. I remember being shocked and apalled that a mother could do this.
When they finally found the daughter, her body had been duct taped all around it. around her head and mouth etc, wrapped up in cloth and dumped/buried in the middle of the woods. Fast forward three years, and just about everyone in central florida, specificaly Orange County was positive she was guilty. I can't say I met anyone who thought she was innocent.
The state couldn't bring in enough proof that it was her. The woman never cried, or showed any sort of emotion. Her defense lawyers did more to prove her guilt than the prosecution. The defense lawyers said something along the lines of this in their opening statement: "yes, the girl died in an accident while with her mother, but when she realized her daughter died, Casey panicked and tried to hide her daughters body." I think they tried to say the poor girl drowned.
I feel sick thinking about a mother who could so easily just wrap her daughters body up with duct tape adn cloth and just bury her in the woods. And then show zero emotion whenever they talk about her daughter. Even during the trial. One person commented to me that Casey had to dip her napkin in onion juice and wipe her eyes with it before she ever teared up. I can't verify this, because I didn't watch much of the trials (they made me too sick) and after three years of this, I was getting kinda tired. Everyone was sure she was going to get guilty...
Then, yesterdat at 2:15 the verdict came in. Not guilty on account of 1sy Degree Murder. Okay, so the jury believes the accidental death thing. That's fine. Not guilty:child abuse. My mind couldnt wrap itself around that concept. So chloroforming your child, or having a healthy child drink cough syrup till she passes out is not child abuse? Well apparently, there wasn't enough proof brought in from the state to prove that it was her or that those things really ever happened. She was guilty on one account" Lying to law enforcement. maximum of 4 years in prison and she has already served 3.
I don't blame the jury - all of whom came from a totally different county so that she could have an unbiased jury. The prosecution didn't do their job. They didn't bring in nough concrete evidence that proved ... anything. On top of that, they were only willing to go after 1st degree murder, which stated that she planned the kill her daughter. They didn't want to go after any other charges.
I wish they had... and yet I feel horrible for saying so. I feel horrible that I can't stand this woman, when I don't even really know her. I keep struggling because I know that God requires us to love everyone, and I am having a hard time opening up my heart to her and giving her God's love. I was glad when they said she wouldn't get the death penalty because I don't believe in it. She is one of God's children and none of us deserve to be killed. I can't stand her though at the same time. The way she laughed when they took her out of the courthouse after she got the not guilty. The fact that friends and others testified that she did these things to her daughter so she could go clubbing and partying with friends.
She won't have much longer to serve, if anything at all. But I don't know how to feel now. I know I should be loving towards her and not speak ill of her, but it is so difficult....So I am praying that God shows me what to do, and that maybe something will come to light that proves this woman never did kill her daughter. Maybe that would put my heart at rest... I don't know. But I know God knows just what I need right now and so I'm praying for His strength and guidance in all this.
5 comments:
I disagree-there's no excuse for the jury to let her go, except possibly because the charges and the punishment were too large for what was presented. But the evidence? The defense did nothing to piece together a more plausible story than the prosecuting attorney; her little tales did NOT add up. That horrible woman should be beginning her life sentence right now.
The fact is though, the defense isn't supposed to create a plausible story, but rather create reasonable doubt. after everything i heard, can i say with 100% certainty that she purposefully killed her daughter? well... not really. the prosecution did not show me that. the defense showed me that she could have panicked after the accidental death of her daughter. there was no 100% that she maliciously planned to kill her daughter. Now, I don't know how she got off on aggravated child abuse, but I guess in some ways, theres no way to prove it was her abusing caylee and not her mother or father etc. its horrible and i cannot believe she got off with barely a slap on the wrist.
I can say with 100% certainty that she killed Caleigh. Both her parents smelled a dead body in her car; there's no way a homicide detective and a nurse could both mistake that smell. She said her father found the body in the pool and showed it to her; that very night, the poor little grieving mother partied for hours. She never reported her daughter missing, lied about a woman she'd never met being the nanny (she couldn't even afford a baby-sitter, much less a nanny), and the "drowned" child had duct tape across her mouth, duct tape of a rare kind that the Anthony's owned. The duct tape had a heart sticker on it at the baby's mouth, just like the heart stickers Casey owned. She viciously lied about her father and brother. No tears during the trial, while everyone else was sobbing at graphic details of the skeletal remains. She couldn't be more obviously guilty.
all of that is very true... but i cannot say without a shadow of a doubt that she was innocent. that there is NO possibility of it being an accident or that someone else did it. most of the jurors have come out as saying they think shes actually guilty but that the evidence wasn't there in the trial. it might have been in other things they talked about on TV but not really at the trial which is the annnoying part...
either way...the problem i'm having is the ill will in my heart towards her. someone i have never met. God tells us to love and I'm not sure I can love her. that's what i am struggling with more than the verdict. i think its what all christians should be forced to think about when it comes to how they feel about this case. how would God want us to react.... and that is the difficult part of this whole thing for me.
I think it's impossible that someone else did it, but your feelings about how to relate to her are more clear now; perhaps I didn't complete reading the post. You don't have to hate her, but anger towards her and disgust are perfectly justified. Judging by Christ and God's actions in the Bible, I think They'd say she needs to pay the penalty and be executed. But They would also want her to be ministered to, to have the same chance anyone else would of redemption; justice and mercy are not mutually exclusive in this way.
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