The Trial of Casey Anthony

Did a Mother Kill Her Own Daughter to Escape the Responsibilities of Parenthood? 

The Murder of Caylee Anthony

On July 15, 2008, Cindy Anthony called 911 to file a missing person report because she hadn't seen her 2-year-old maternal granddaughter, Caylee Marie Anthony, in 31 days. Additionally, Cindy had suspicions that her daughter Casey Anthony was involved with the disappearance of Caylee due to the foul smell of a dead body that lingered in her car. When Cindy confronted Casey about Caylee's whereabouts, Casey gave varied explanations before finally admitting that she hadn't seen Caylee in multiple weeks. Casey was quickly interviewed as a suspect by the Orlando police, where she created a false story that explained Caylee's disappearance. Casey claimed that Caylee had been kidnapped by a nanny on June 9 and that she was currently in the process of locating Caylee. Casey continued to plead her innocence, and when asked why she failed to alert the authorities about her daughter's kidnapping, Casey claimed that she was too frightened to contact the police. Later, a computer in the Anthony household had googled "foolproof suffocation." In October 2008, Casey Anthony was charged with first-degree murder and promptly pleaded not guilty.

On December 11, 2008, Caylee Anthony's skeletal remains were found with a blanket in a laundry bag. Her remains were located in the woods close to the Anthony residence. While the trial testimonies about duct tape vary, the medical examiner confirmed the presence of duct tape at the location of Caylee Anthony's remains. The examiner also used the duct tape found to rule the death as a homicide. 

The Trial of Casey Anthony

The trial of Casey Anthony began in May of 2011, as she faced the death penalty. The prosecutor alleged that Casey wished to relieve herself from her parental roles by administering chloroform, duct taping, and murdering her daughter. The defense focused their case on attempting to disprove the prosecution's evidence, stating that it was mostly "fantasy forensics." The defense also highlighted the sexual abuse that Casey faced as a child and how that related to her lying to law enforcement during questioning. While the defense never presented any evidence to prove this theory, they suggested that Caylee Anthony drowned in the family's swimming pool on June 16, 2008, and George Anthony (Caylee's Grandfather) disposed of the body. On July 5, 2008, the jury found Casey Anthony not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter of a child. Yet she was found guilty of 4 misdemeanor counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer. In 2013, 2 of the 4 misdemeanor charges were overturned by a Florida appeals court.

Why was Casey Anthony Found Not Guilty?

While the media, public, and police believed that the jury would quickly convict Casey Anthony on all charges, what went down in the jurors' minds was the complete opposite. One juror said, "We sat there for a few minutes and were like, 'Holy crap, we are letting her go free,'" He described the mood in the jury room as the final vote approached. "Everyone was just stunned at what we were about to do. [A fellow juror] asked me, 'Are you okay with this?' and I said, 'Hell, no. But what else can we do? We promised to follow the law.'" Casey Anthony was acquitted due to the lack of evidence that proved that she murdered Caylee beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecution spent the trial explaining and demonstrating the morally horrible acts of Casey Anthony during the entire ordeal. But they could never submit enough concrete evidence that directly linked Casey to the death of Caylee. "My decision haunts me to this day," said the juror. "I think now, if I were to do it over again, I'd push harder to convict her of one of the lesser charges like aggravated manslaughter. At least that. Or child abuse. I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and I didn't stand up for what I believed in at the time." So it begs the question, did Casey Anthony brutally murder her own daughter? We'll never know, and if she did commit this heinous act, Caylee would never get the justice she deserves because of the original "not guilty" verdict (Double Jeopardy).