Well, much to my surprise, Casey Anthony was found not guilty. Well to be honest with you, I am not surprised on the verdict. Every time we have tried a case in the media, this is how it ends up.
But here in this article I am going to take the side of our Justice System. I believed it worked today the way it is suppose to work. I will accept the fact that Casey Anthony was found not guilty. She was not found innocent. The United States Justice system worked, it worked the way it was suppose to work. A jury of 17 people was taken from more than 100 interviewed and questioned about the trail. Jurors are chosen by the Judge, Prosecution and Defense. They have to answer questions from one or all of these people.
So in this trial in order to try and get enough Jurors, who would be fair and unbiased to set this trial, they had to go outside of the county to get people who would swear or affirmed that they had little to no knowledge about this case. A start to a trial that I thought from the first would be impossible to be a fair trial. So this being the first part of the trial was to me an impossible task of finding anybody that had not heard about this.
You see, there lies the problem, the media and press was involved in this from the get go. They started putting everything out on the news from Day 1 of this whole crime. They started there suspected twists and spins and own investigations. So much information came out through the media trying to be the network that solves this case themselves. Never leaving it to the proper people to investigate the case, like on anything else that is news worthy, they made their own rules. I remember watching all of it, like the trial itself, there was nothing else on the news except for this story. I also remember, myself, my wife and mother along with neighbors talking about the news and at that early of a time into the story, the news media had us and everybody else believing the Casey Anthony had done it, and that she was guilty.
Since I have lived in the Orlando area, this case has been at the top of the news media, both local and national. Even during the down times, when they were getting ready for the trail and such things as that. Never did more than two or three days go by without something on the news about someone from the Anthony family. If someone from the Anthony family said “Hello”, they broke in on other programs to show it and then a one hour special that evening would air. Most all of the local television news programs showed some type of picture involving the Anthony’s on their advertisements. So without a doubt, I have taken my fair share of the obsession in this case, as have the Orlando area, and the whole nation and I would say in some part even the whole world. This tends to make people bias in one way or the other.
With that said, I believe in my heart and with listening to the evidence shown during the trial, that Casey Anthony is Guilty. Now how the Jury looked at it, and what they got out of it, I do not know. But I do know that when the media starts putting their two cents worth in it, what should be absolute, gets a lot of gray put into it.
This jury had to set through 35 days of listening to people come up to the witness stand and tell their story, and while they were telling their stories, the jury had to listen to the lawyers objecting back and forth about how questions were asked and then also the lawyers going back and forth fighting with each other. Along with that, they had to watch something like almost 300 hundred pieces of evidence being submitted, they had to listen to more than a day of lawyers talking back and forth to them delivering closing arguments. Then if that was not enough, they were delivered from the Judge a pile of papers setting forth all of the instructions they must follow along with verbal instructions on how they could not listen to some, but they could listen to others. If that was not enough, they also had to set in that courtroom daily with camera’s shown on the witness, the judge, the prosecution and the defense and news media in the crowd watching the trial, and they new that these people where news media.
This jury was so overwhelmed with paper, information, evidence and basically BS. What was meant to be a simple job for these 12 individuals became so complicated it should not be any surprise to anybody the verdict they came back with.
But it is clear, they did not have the same pre trial media that most everybody else had. That is if they did tell the truth at the questions during the selection. So, the bottom line to me is that they was not put into a position we the audience was put into. They did not have it put into their head by the media that Casey Anthony was guilty. You see, if the media would of tried to make Casey look innocent or if they would have been neutral in the matter as they should, that would not sell any news.
Think about this!!! If Casey Anthony would have been found guilty today, what would of all the news stations talked about. A verdict such as that would of cut there news information in half if not more. Especially if they would not of come back with a guilty verdict and no death penalty. Maybe a little 5 to 10 minute spot if that would have been the case. But with the fact that she was found not guilty, their has been nothing but this on all over the television. The fact that she was found not guilty has made Nancy Grace a few more thousands of dollars. She was able to have a two hour show and if Casey would have been found guilty, that would not have happened.
So, this jury, not listening to the media hype leading up to this trial, came into it with a clear and open mind. They listened to what the defense had to say, they listened to what the prosecutors had to say, what the judge had to say, what the witnesses had to say and what the evidence had to say. After doing that, they got together and made a decision of guilty or not guilty on the 7 counts that the State of Florida had charged against Casey. On these 7 counts they had instructions that told them exactly what had to be proven to them to convict someone on these counts. There was no count that ask the Jury if they felt Casey Anthony was involved in anyway in this crime, or was at fault in anyway of this crime, and there was no count asking them if Casey Anthony was innocent, and I am not sure how other people feel, but to me, there is a difference in being innocent of something and not guilty of something in the court of law. They were given 7 specifics to make a decision on, and they made that decision. The Jury was not given any wiggle room to say that they believed someone else committed the crime, or to say that they thought Casey committed the crime but should be charged with something else. Maybe if they would of have been given that type of choice, things might have been different.
So you see, the Justice System did work today. It might not of come out the way I thought it should, but it did work. Because 12 Jurors set and listened to what was presented in the courtroom and then given 7 different counts to determine the guilt or non guilt of a person. That is what our Justice System is all about. It is not perfect, no Justice System is, but it is the best Justice System in the world.
So in closing I am going to agree with statements of the two defense lawyers. The first is, nobody won today, because Caylee Anthony is no longer with us and that in itself is a great tragedy. To add to that, no matter if Casey Anthony was found guilty or not guilty, justice was not going to be given to Caylee today. Nothing that could of happened in this case could of brought this young child back. For you see, true justice on this case can only be given by our God almighty! Second, I agree with the other defense lawyer, in that we need to stop trying all these cases in the media. Television prosecutors and defense lawyers need to just let things be handled by the Justice and Court System of this great country.
Please feel free to comment on this or any other blog I have. I enjoy reading and learning from the comments I get no matter if they feel or do not feel the same way I do.
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