Badges

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

The Casey Anthony verdict: the jury was right and Nasty Nancy (as always) is wrong

Nancy Grace is livid. She had been shilling for months for a conviction of Casey Anthony for allegedly murdering her two-year-old daughter, Caylee, and now the jury has acquitted Anthony of murder charges. What's a gal like Nasty Nancy to do?

Perhaps the first thing that Nasty Nancy should do is to read the laws of this country, and learn the standards that supposedly exist for conviction. Even though Nasty Nancy's standards for conviction are simple -- an accusation automatically means one is guilty -- the legal standard actually is "guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."

(One must remember that Nasty Nancy during the Duke Lacrosse Case, in which she automatically declared the lacrosse players guilty of gang rape, actually tried to claim that the legal presumption of innocence was a creation of Hitler's Germany. I'm serious.)

During the trial of Casey Anthony, the prosecution managed to establish what people already knew:
  • The skeletal remains found were those of Caylee and there was duct tape sticking to her skull;
  • Casey lied to the police about a number of things;
  • Casey denied murdering her daughter;
  • Casey was not a person of the highest character.
Some of those things are damning indictments if a woman applies for the Mother of the Year Award or is trying to be a role model to young women. I would hope that none of my daughters turns out to be like Casey Anthony.

However, having a bad character does not mean one is a murderer. If that were so, then Washington, D.C., would be the murder capital of the world. (Come to think of it, not long ago, D.C. WAS the murder capital of the world, and it is true that bad character abounds in that city. Nonetheless, my original point stands.)

Seizing on the duct tape, prosecutors then claimed that Casey smothered her child with it in order to get rid of her so that she could be a Big Party Animal. The problem was that they had no idea if the child were smothered with duct tape or not, none. They were engaging in conjecture, and any jury that takes its job seriously is not going to convict on the basis of a pretty loose conjecture.

Now, had Casey's DNA been found on the duct tape, that might have demonstrated a connection to the prosecution's narrative, but, alas, they found nothing of the sort. What they had was a little girl's skeletal remains and a mother of less-than-savory character.

In the end, the jury did convict Casey Anthony of the obvious: she lied to the police. The crimes are misdemeanors, and the maximum she could get if the sentences for each of the four counts are run consecutively is four years, and she already has been jailed for three. Thus, whatever time she will spend in jail almost is over.

I predict that in the coming days, Nasty Nancy will be hounding the jurors and doing everything but demanding that lynch mobs burn down the jurors' houses. Certainly, the Usual Suspects in the media will denounce what they see as a wrongful acquittal.

Along with Nasty Nancy, Andrea Peyser at the New York Post, a writer who always seems to believe that anyone accused is guilty, and that no trial ever is necessary, already is on the "O.J. Verdict" bandwagon. Her column is the "How DARE a jury disagree with my views!" screed that I would expect from her. Peyser really does seem to believe -- and I have read her columns for years -- that an accusation is the same as proof of guilt, and that there is no need for a trial when she already has been judge and jury.

Yet, what I see is a jury that did its job. Prosecutors and Nasty Nancy and company demanded that jurors engage in speculation, and the jurors refused to do that, and I applaud them for their integrity. Maybe Casey Anthony did murder her daughter, but the prosecution never proved it, and jurors are supposed to acquit when that happens. And it happened.

34 comments:

Amanda said...

Well said. I also got annoyed with Nasty Nancy's "Tot Mom" moniker for Casey. It was just... stupid. If you're going to come up with a catchy nickname, try to make it actually, say... catchy.

As for the rest, this is what I just posted on a local (I live in central Florida) "moms" board:

I completely get the cries for justice when an innocent child is hurt or dies. However, what many of those calling for blood appear to forget is that justice is not served by a runaway prosecution; nor is it served by conviction of an innocent person.

Again, I'm not saying Casey is necessarily innocent. She's clearly not a good person just based on how she lied to law enforcement over and over, and she was convicted of that crime multiple times. But did she commit a crime worthy of the most harsh penalty our country offers? Maybe she did. Maybe she got away with it. I'm not so sure. At best she's a foolish liar, at worst she's a murderer. The truth likely lies somewhere in between, and ultimately we don't base death sentences on supposition.

Anonymous said...

Too bad the jury in the Sam Parker case (LMJC) didn't focus on the facts, but instead listened to the fantasy spun by ADA Patterson. And the judge didn't help matters when he directed the jury to return with a verdict, when it was clear that they were not able to agree.

Law enforcement and prosecutors won't ever be forced to do the hard work when juries continue to buy into their fanciful concoctions.

Anonymous said...

Spot-on as usual, Dr. Anderson! ...

Unfortunately, it seems like so many are completely dumbed-down on concepts like Presumption of Innocence, Burden of Proof, Reasonable Doubt, etc. There are people who still CANNOT UNDERSTAND how O.J. could have been declared Not Guilty of Murder in his criminal trial, but nevertheless lost his Wrongful Death civil trial ... Somehow, the fact that the "burden of proof" was at significantly different standards, is simply not comprehended by many.

I wonder if any kind of plea deal was ever offered to Ms. Anthony, one that had serious prison time associated with it? I can't imagine it not having been taken had it been offered, given the significant possibility that there could have been a conviction with the death penalty imposed.

Regardless, I am PROUD that the jury did the job they were sworn to do ... as I think that all of us should be.



dc

justiceseeker51 said...

Justice was done in Orlando's Courtroom. The jury did what juries are supposed to do. As they did in TC's case. I am PROUD too, to be a citizen of The United States of America....when justice is done this way.

justiceseeker51 said...

Oooops....Good Job... Mr. Bill Anderson:)

liberranter said...

Perhaps the first thing that Nasty Nancy should do is to read the laws of this country, and learn the standards that supposedly exist for conviction.

[SARCASM]C'mon now, Bill, why would any PROSECUTOR do such a thing? You know darned well what kind of precedent that would set. Good grief, what are you going to suggest next? That judges act like impartial arbiters during a trial, rather than auxiliary prosecutors?[/SARCASM]

Anonymous said...

Wow! It seems I FINALLY found a rare place of sanity and intelligent people who refuse to throw out the laws of this country and replace it with polls of public opinion that has largely been formed on the intentional mis-truths spouted by Nasty Nancy and her brow beaten drones since July of 2008! And can I just say, will SOMEONE PLEASE GET A CALENDAR and count the number of days from June 16th to July 15th!! It is NOT 31 days!! If you can't even figure that out and ask if that discrepancy had any significance, I have little faith in the integrity of the investigative journalist skills. Even if it's not significant, report the facts correctly please. I pray that this family can heal and deal with this tragedy in private. I've followed this since it broke in 2008 but decided to look at the evidence released myself. I cringe when I hear NNG spin the truth or out right lie. Based in what I know, the verdict was RIGHT! Because we just don't know...Thank you for the sanity check!!

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Dr. Anderson.

Anonymous said...

Why don't these rubes call for "justice" for the thousands of innocent children in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, incinerated by U.S. bombs dropped by aptly-named "predator drones" on orders from the President?

And what about 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones, shot in the head by a SWAT team in Detroit? Why don't Nancy and her lynch mob want justice for her?

Oh, I forgot. Agents of the state have *authority* to kill innocent people. It's part of their job description. Therefore, it isn't murder. To say otherwise is unpatriotic, right?

Cyril Lucar said...

Bill,

Sadly, you are right again. The media almost always rushes to judgement if there is a child involved, and it doesn't matter how fantastical the accusations are. Prosecutors regularly fabricate evidence (though I'm not aware of that happening here). This was just a bad case. They didn't have the evidence.

The prosecutor knew that she killed her daughter. I know she killed her daughter. The jury probably knew that she killed her daughter. But their job was to determine if the prosecution PROVED that she killed her daughter. And that, they did not do. They proved exactly what Dr. Anderson pointed out. Casey Anthony is a terrible human being, an awful parent and a liar. They also proved that her defense attorney crafted really stupid alibis. "Casey's father covered up an accidental death and made it look like a murder." Right.

But I'm glad that the system worked, because it's times like these that the integrity of our system is tried. Unsympathetic defendants, horrible crimes and shaky evidence. Our system is engineered to let guilty people go free rather than take undue risk of convicting an innocent.

Really, our kind of system is actually based on a belief in God. We do the best we can with all of the evidence, err on the side of letting guilty go free, and then trust that what God will do to them far exceeds anything we can do. No one escapes justice forever.

But unbelieving prosecutors and their media shills play God, whether from pride, a play for power or simple unbelief. And not actually being God, they make terrible mistakes and ruin lives. The agents of justice bring injustice. And it only starts with the self-centered wretches like Casey Anthony. It moves on to all of us.

Anonymous said...

Did lead defense attorney Jose Baez not "demand that jurors engage in speculation" when he claimed that Casey Anthony's father and brother sexually molested her?

William L. Anderson said...

He did, although Alan Dershowitz in the Wall Street Journal wrote that this move by the defense actually worked against Anthony because it came across as an excuse for guilt.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303544604576429783247016492.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_t

Anonymous said...

re: SPECULATION

The Defense, which does not have to PROVE anything, can certainly offer an alternative theory of a crime ... which, if a jury finds plausible, can serve to thereby introduce REASONABLE doubt.



dc

Kerwyn said...

While I do believe Ms. Anthony was involved in the death of this child, I do not believe it was murder. I think rather, that something accidental happened. Whether it be drowning in a pool or the child got hold of some party drugs and died that way, no one knows. However, that was the charge the prosecutors chose to use, Capital Murder.

I applaud the jury for NOT voting with "I think maybe she did it" and instead saying, "you didn't PROVE she did it". There is a huge difference there.

After seeing the evidence in this case I came to some conclusions;

1. The child did die
2. Nobody knows how
3. Nobody knows by whose hand
4. Her mother (in fact the whole family) is unsavory.

Everything else was speculation.

Nancy Grace did everything in her power to assure a guilty verdict through the use of innuendo, dishonest manipulation of quasi-fact and everything else she could think of.

The woman is a menace.

Anonymous said...

I don't know what happened to Caliegh Anthony other than that she is dead-none of us do. But for those media following, emotionally driven morons who seem to want Casey Anthony to "do time" for it consider this. If it were not for Nancy Grace sensationalizing this case for ratings and chasing the almighty $$$$, Ms Casey Anthony would be sitting in jail today serving a 15-25 year sentence. How you might ask??? By making Ms Anthony a media darling, Nasty Nancy created an environment in which more defence attorneys were interested in the case and she got a much better legal team than the over burdened public defender's office. Then when the over zealous prosecutors put capitol murder on the table, Ms Anthony was able to file indigent status and so the state was then compelled to pay for Mr. Baez and his team! Now if Nasty Nancy had kept her flame-spewing dragon's mouth shut and Ms Anthony had gotten a public defender there most likely would have been a plea deal to involuntary manslaughter or negligent homicide and she would be serving time right now... Suck on that Nancy!

Jane said...

We wrote similar blogs about this topic. I very much agree with you. Nancy Grace is unstable and taints jury pools all over the country.

Anonymous said...

I came across your blog via Lew Rockwell. Great blog. You seem to have great insight into this case. Were you, or anyone else, able to attend the trial? Did you get to witness this trial in the first person?

Anonymous said...

I don't care for "Nasty Nancy's" ways either but on this subject you are full of it. The same type of evidence convicted Scott Peterson. I think if she had been ugly and over weight she would be in prison tonight.

liberranter said...

The same type of evidence convicted Scott Peterson.

And Peterson's trial was also a farce and a sham, another media-driven circus in which the rules of evidence were conveniently tossed out the window. Unfortunately for Peterson, he was saddled with a combination of a less-then-stellar defense team and a typical jury full of clueless, spineless, emotionally-driven dolts. You might want to shop for a more apt comparison here.

Anonymous said...

The CA Jurors DID NOT make a decision by using the GOOGLE SEARCHES either...the fact that the BRAD COOPER jurors based the CONVICTION of MURDER in the 1st Degree....on a GOOGLE SEARCH which was NOT PROVED to even be linked to BRAD....is almost unreal...to say the very least....no doubt the appeal....WILL REVERSE THE CONVICTION...MiMi

Anonymous said...

As much as I am convinced that Casey Anthony did have something to do with the death of little Caylee, I agree that the case was not proven by the prosecution. If they had not being trying for a Capital conviction, she would have likely done more than 1007 days. I would laugh my hiney off though if she sued Nasty Nancy and won millions from her.

Once again, this case just goes to show, you NEVER talk to the police!!! period... Exclamation Point!!! Nothing good ever comes from talking to the police. All they do is gather evidence. They are not trying to find out what actually happened, they are only trying to find something to hang you with!!! NEVER NEVER NEVER TALK TO THE POLICE WITHOUT AN ATTORNEY PRESENT!!!!

Anonymous said...

I do not always agree with Nancy Grace but if I'm not mistaken she did go to law school--how many of people did? I think Casey Anthony needs to move to Alaska with Sara Palin.

Anonymous said...

I DID!

Anonymous said...

Well Anon 2:51, that is not a good argument. So did Facebook Arnt, Judge Brian Outhouse, Mike Nifong, and The Man Gregor Sorry!!! Nancy Grace is a dis-grace to lawyers everywhere with the mentality that if you are accused, then you must be guilty!!! She is only in it for herself and her pocketbook. She only puts herself out there like that, because in this police state we live in, the sheeple just feed on whatever is thrown at them. I refer back to Dr. Anderson's post...
http://williamlanderson.blogspot.com/2011/06/evil-nancy-grace.html

Anonymous said...

Well said. Judicial decisions should be made by juries in courtrooms not at the water cooler, the supermarket checkout line, or the television studio.

These points will need to be made many times...as many times as necessary.

Bravo again.

Anonymous said...

It seems like the media wants to convict people before they are even tried, which is WRONG...it is true that a child is dead...but no cause was known...perhaps this was an accident or perhaps she got sick...as we DO NOT KNOW for sure.

No doubt, this family had all sorts of "issues"...and I think someone knows exactly what happened to this little one...I also think that there was abuse which happened in this family...

Sometimes, when people tell really "strange things that happen"...it can turn out to be true...and I am speaking from knowing this...I am NOT guessing...

If there is more to this than was revealed...I think someone will be "judged" one day for what happened to Caylee...but I do not think that the public will ever know the "exact details" of what went on...

Casey got pregnant by someone...and perhaps no one knows but her who the father of this baby was...we can not JUMP to conclusions and just assume that everyone who was a witness told the whole truth about everything...
because we do NOT know...

The state DID NOT prove a case of MURDER...in fact, all they proved was that a little girl's body was found...and "someone" had to put her there...

What a shame if the jurors had found this woman guilty and sentenced her to death...when in fact, she might have NOT had anything to do with the death of this child...

Put yourself in the juror's seat...and think about it...as no one knows and probably never will...

Anonymous said...

Excellent post and well put. I wish I attended the college you teach at.

justiceseeker51 said...

The Casey Anthony charade isn't dying down any, thanks to nancy DISgrace. I ran across a great post, and doing it in its entirety, because it would take too long to find it, if linked.

AllSequiturs27- 9 people judged it negatively!

As I sit here and read the comments expressing outrage with the not guilty verdict I am amazed by the citizens of our country.

Since the death penalty has been reinstated in 1976 there have been a total of 138 people in 26 states released from death row due to evidence of their innocence.

Of those 26 states, Florida leads them all with a total of 23. Illinois is a close second with 20, followed by Texas with 12.

Blackstone's formulation sums this up quite succinctly, "better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer".

The public outrage fueled by the likes of Nancy Grace is unjustified. As a citizen of the United States, I am mortified by the ease in which the American people are led. We are not sheep, and the time has come to take a step back to truly examine the supposed outrage exhibited by this verdict.

The outrage should not be directed at Casey Anthony. It should not be directed at the jury of 12. It should not be directed at the defense team which fought to seek justice.

The outrage, hatred, and anger should be directed at the abuse of power wielded by the state of Florida. It should be directed at irresponsible news media talking heads. It should be directed at anyone contemplating vigilante justice.

The very rights afforded by the sixth amendment of the U.S Constitution state:

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense."

Regardless of your feelings regarding Casey Anthony's guilt or innocence we are all protected by our constitution.

As citizens of this nation, we should take solace in that fact and never entertain the notion that a jury of her peers got it wrong. To do so, undermines the very thing that makes us the best country in the world.

If anyone disagrees with our system of justice, I suggest they leave our country and move to Thailand.

Aside from the 138 people mentioned above, how many others have been put to death, or wrongfully imprisoned due to an overzealous prosecution?

If the public continues to take the Nancy Grace's of this world seriously, we are on the verge of chaos.

Why hasn't Nancy Grace dedicated her shows to the thousands of child abuse cases that riddle the news on a daily basis?

Why do we seek "justice for Caylee" and not justice for the other child victims that have been taken too soon?

When I read the following I was disgusted:

http://wap.wesh.com/wap/news/text.jsp...

Snipped from above article:
"Ivan Charles, 23, is accused of shaking his son so hard that the child's ribs broke, his skull cracked and he could suffer permanent brain damage."

I bet that this news story does not receive 3 years worth of media coverage. The child is only 4 months old! That is more disgusting than the case against Casey. She went partying, and lied but never abused her child.

I apologize for my rant, but I feel it needed to be posted.
*******************************

I think this person did a tremendous job of summing up the 'state' of our country and ng.

DW

Anonymous said...

I think you’re wrong here, Dr. Anderson. As I inquired of you via email, can you position any plausible reason why anyone would attach duct tape to the head area of a *dead* body? Ms. Anthony's fingerprint was on the tape and even the jury foreman stated that they had no doubt that the tape came from the Anthony household. It was a rather distinctive type of tape and rolls of it were found in the house. This combined with Ms. Anthony’s conduct after the death of her daughter, even discounting the web search for chloroform, would have been sufficient for me to overcome the reasonable doubt threshold.

Either Ms. Anthony murdered her daughter or else duct taped her in response to the girl having “acted out.” This would not be the first such case of a parent acting in such a manner. In the latter case, perhaps Ms. Anthony inadvertently covered the child’s nose as well as her mouth, or perhaps the child could not breathe sufficiently through her nose due to some medical reason. Ms. Anthony panicked and neglected to remove a piece of the tape before burying the child.

Since there is reasonable doubt as to murder, a guilty verdict for manslaughter was clearly indicated. At least that much was proven. There was no way for the defense to reasonably accout for the tape on the child's body.

Anonymous said...

Keep on proudly clapping Mr. Anderson and company

Chris Halkides said...

I saw your round table discussion at FrontPageMag with Shapiro and Rob Taylor. Those guys had some pretty strange ideas about the presumption of innocence and the concept of reasonable doubt.

BrunoT said...

Well, you lost me Mr. Blogger. I loathe Nancy Grace, but even a blind squirrel sometimes finds an acorn.

Innocent moms don't make up babysitter names.

Innocent moms don't lie to detectives trying to find her missing child.

Innocent moms don't party it up at nightclubs laughing and cavorting when their child is missing. Even those with the worst character don't exibit this behavior, unless they're complete sociopaths. Which she appears to be.

Innocent moms don't abandon their car, which coincidentally happens to smell like death, a very distinctive smell, as I can attest, having found a body in a car once myself.

I see you are connected with Lew Rockwell. I read columns there, including yours on Nasty Nancy. I buy into Austrian economic theory(what I understand of it), but I also realize that a good proportion of what is written there is a little kooky. You may be sliding into that category on this one.

Chris Halkides said...

Bruno,

The prosecution did not have a strong enough case for Murder-1, IMO. Although I am by no means an expert on this case, I think she should have been charged with involuntary manslaughter. If she would have, and if the jury had found her innocent, I would seriously question that decision.

mlc2005 said...

As an enthusiastic follower of your blog, I agree with your point here, but I wish sometimes you nuanced your viewpoints a little bit. For example, you are absolutely right that the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Casey murdered her daughter. The jury did the right thing. But you seem to view anyone who would be angered/frustrated by this (or other such situations) in the most negative way possible. It's human nature to be angered when it's fairly clear that, due to a poorly argued state case/the elements destroying physical evidence, a narcissistic, bratty mother who murdered her child escapes justice.
We're not all like Nancy Grace (assuming everyone is guilty); but when a mother doesn't report her child missing for 30 days, and lies about where the child is, AND the child turns up dead, AND the woman's ego is the size of Jupiter, don't be cynical when people are a bit upset about it.