Casey Anthony acquitted

[TechMan]

With this case over, I'm eagerly awaiting the next wall-to-wall-coverage court case....the one where Casey Anthony sues the heck out of Nancy Grace for slander (& maybe libel, if Grace put anything in print or blog)..... 

http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=483217

[280plus]

Geeez... 

[Viking]

When I take power you're going to be my Minister on Internal Relations.

[Hawkmoon]

Because we all know she did it, but the jury did their job (but will be remembered as the ones that let the baby killer go)

But ... what "it" did she do?

The first count was first degree murder, and the prosecution couldn't even show that there had been a murder.

[AJ Dual]

Drop napalm on the alley .

I might have to wait a while for Nancy Grace to remove her helmet... just to be sure.

Oh, someone just told me that's her hair. 

[Waitone]

Anyone questioning the procecutors yet as to why murder one when the evidence just wasn't there?  I suspect someone in the DA 's office is about to go out on their own and was looking for a fat book contract or consultancy contract on future media circus . . . . .er, murder cases.  And don't call me cynical.  Call the prosecutor corrupt.

[Sergeant Bob]

Even though I've tried to avoid it, practically every time I tuned to Fox this story was running . . . so I couldn't help but hear a few things before I changed the channel. (Fox was becoming the "All Casey, All The Time" channel.)

Did she do it? I don't know . . . and clearly the jury didn't, either. Showing that someone is a worthless lowlife isn't the same as proving - proving! - she killed her kid. My gut feel is that she's guilty . . . but I wasn't in the court and can't say beyond a reasonable doubt that she in fact killed her kid.

As for the "lying to a cop" conviction  - remember Martha Stewart, anyone? - it says, once again, to keep your mouth SHUT when being questioned. (I have a problem with making it a crime to lie when you're NOT under oath . . . when the person you're talking to is free to lie to YOU.)

I find myself in complete agreement with you.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Looked this up just now. Notice the statement I highlighted right at the bottom. Like I said, I think she, not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, just plain old screwed up and killed the kid instead of putting her to sleep:

http://howtomakechloroform.com/

It is possible for you to make chloroform at home. But you need to remember that using this chemical should be limited to as a solvent and nothing else.

•To learn how to make chloroform, you will need the following materials: acetone, water, pitcher, ice, and shock powder. The mixture of shock powder and acetone creates a mix that is potent and at the same time dangerous. Shock powder is Calcium Hypochlorite and is used for swimming pools. You can purchase this in hardware or pool supply stores.
•To make the chloroform, you will need to put the water first into the pitcher. As soon as you have poured the water, put the shock powder, and use a wooden stick to help dissolve the powder. As soon as you are done, you will need to put some ice in the pitcher. And then slowly pour the acetone in. Slowly stir the acetone while pouring the acetone into the pitcher. You need to do this slowly since there will be a chemical reaction when the water starts to change in its temperature. Usually 135 degrees will keep the chloroform working.
•As soon as you are done stirring, you will notice that there are 3 layers in the pitcher. The acetone, water, and the chloroform. When distilling the chloroform, you need to be careful, so you will need a funnel to help separate the layers. Always wear some protective clothing when handling the chemicals. Wear a mask as well since chloroform has intoxicating effects. Now that you have transferred the chemical in its bottle, seal the bottle well, and store it in a place out of children's reach. You will have to put a label outside the bottle just in case you forget its contents. Always wipe the spills with gloves. Use a dispersing agent to make sure the affected area is now okay. If you don't have any dispersing agent, you will need to shovel some sand on the affected area to prevent the gas from diffusing into the room.
•If someone swallows chloroform, do not let the person take anything except for milk. Loosen the person's clothing and bring this person as soon as possible to the doctor to get some treatment. Take note of the person's contaminated clothing, and put it immediately in the washer to prevent further contamination. This is very potent, even small amounts of this chemical could lead to coma and even death.

some years back i "dated" a girl with a son about 3. whenever i came over he was sleepy and went to bed left us alone. sometime along i commented on it and she said "i give him a double dose of kiddie tylenol"   i terminated our association and told her sister who took custody of the kid

[red headed stranger]

Anyone questioning the procecutors yet as to why murder one when the evidence just wasn't there?  I suspect someone in the DA 's office is about to go out on their own and was looking for a fat book contract or consultancy contract on future media circus . . . . .er, murder cases.  And don't call me cynical.  Call the prosecutor corrupt.

One my coworkers who has been following the case mentioned that this prosecutor is eligible for retirement, and that there is some speculation that he wanted to go out with a bang. 

[T.O.M.]

Let's say for a moment that there was a big meeting at the prosecutor's office.  Cops, CSIs, prosecutors, lab types, etc.  Everyone sat around and said "this is the best we've got.  It's never going to get any better."  I've been in those kinds of meetings.  At that point, everyone looks to the man (or woman) with his name on the front door, and he makes the call.  It's either go with what you've got, or wait and hope for better evidence.  In the long run, go with what you've got keeps a prosecutor elected.

I'm thinking that may have happened here.  And, listening to some of the jurors starting to talk, the prosecutors got it half done.  They won the emotional side.  It's too bad that they didn't have the intellectual side as well.

[Hawkmoon]

Let's say for a moment that there was a big meeting at the prosecutor's office.  Cops, CSIs, prosecutors, lab types, etc.  Everyone sat around and said "this is the best we've got.  It's never going to get any better."  I've been in those kinds of meetings.  At that point, everyone looks to the man (or woman) with his name on the front door, and he makes the call.  It's either go with what you've got, or wait and hope for better evidence.

But "go with what you've got" has to include recognizing what you've got ... and what you DON'T got.

In this case, they had a dead kid. That she was dead was obvious. Beyond that? Nada ... zip ... zilch ... zero. Without anything to show how she died, they couldn't really even show that the death was a homicide, as opposed to an accident or a health-related incident. An experienced, career prosecutor on the verge of retirement SHOULD have learned that the essence of the American system is that the government must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

How do you prove ... beyond a reasonable doubt ... that Casey Anthony murdered her child, when you can't even prove there was a murder? In fact, you can't even prove there was a homicide (which, BTW, is NOT the same thing as "murder").

I spend a lot of time ranting against what I call prosecutorial overreach. Usually, it takes the form of piling on absurd charges with malicious intent, to either break the defendant financially (and perhaps psychologically) or in the hope that out of the whole list, something will surely stick. It sucks, and it's wrong. People who do wrong should be arrested, tried, and convicted. But along with that goes the supposition that a person gets charged with what he or she might actually have done, not a laundry list of fantasy charges that only a contortionist could see relating to the actual facts of the incident.

This was such a case. Here, though, I don't think it was done out of malicious intent. I think it was done out of stupidity. They were all convinced that Casey Anthony had killed her child, so they forged ahead on the assumption that they had to try her for that using whatever evidence they could scrape up. I seriously doubt the arcane notion of charging her based on what they thought they might be able to prove ever occurred to them.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

That would be incorrect - The evidence against Scott Peterson would have had to be a video tape to be any stronger.

Anthony's defense was a realistic alternative.  The monkey business about finding the body only helped.  It's quite possible (even reasonably believable) that she did not intentionally murder the girl.

Scott Petersons case left no alternative conclusion.

er nope

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/29/48hours/main652356.shtml

[Doggy Daddy]

er nope

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/29/48hours/main652356.shtml

The tab in IE shortened the name of that page to "Mock Jury Weighs Peters".

I giggled.   
DD

[De Selby]

er nope

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/29/48hours/main652356.shtml

Please tell me you're not relying on a tv mock jury for real life conclusions.

Peterson was damned by the deed - but convicted because his wife's body washed up exactly where he said he was on the day of her disappearance.  Telling his girlfriend that his wife died the month before she did was certainly no help.

He gOt the penalty he deserved, and got it through the right process.

[Hawkmoon]

With regard to Casey Anthony and the verdict, I remain of the opinion that there is a Higher Power and that some day Casey Anthony will be judged again. The jury did the best they could and should not (IMHO) be raked over the coals for doing their job.

Which brings us to HLN's Nancy Grace, who despite being a former prosecuting attorney HAS raked the jury over the coals, and in fact carries on as if the trial hasn't ended and she can go on referring to Casey Anthony as a murderess. I had never heard on Nancy Grace -- I don't watch television, but various Internet links brought me to video clips of some of her pronouncements on this case.

So I just took a minute to Google her. Surprise, surprise! CNN/HLN's "expert" legal commentator/host has been sanctioned by the courts, not once but TWICE in her career for unethical behavior as a prosecutor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Grace

Prosecutorial misconduct

The Supreme Court of Georgia has twice commented on Grace's conduct as a prosecutor. First, in a 1994 heroin drug trafficking case, Bell v. State, the Court declared a mistrial, saying that Grace had "exceeded the wide latitude of closing argument" by drawing comparisons to unrelated murder and rape cases.[8]

In 1997, the court was more severe, overturning the murder-arson conviction of businessman W. W. Carr in the death of his wife. While the court said its reversal was not due to these transgressions, since the case had turned primarily on circumstantial evidence, it nevertheless concluded "the conduct of the prosecuting attorney in this case demonstrated her disregard of the notions of due process and fairness, and was inexcusable."[9] Carr was freed in 2004 when The Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Fulton County had waited too long to retry him, thereby unfairly prejudicing his right to a fair trial[10].

Despite upholding the conviction she sought, a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in a 2005 opinion that Grace "played fast and loose" with her ethical duties and failed to "fulfill her responsibilities" as a prosecutor in the 1990 triple murder trial of Herbert Connell Stephens.[11] The court agreed that it was "difficult to conclude that Grace did not knowingly use ... [apparently false] testimony" from a detective that there were no other suspects, despite the existence of outstanding arrest warrants for other men.[11]

No wonder I didn't like her. She has boosted her ratings tremendously on the basis of her coverage of this trial. Just like her behavior in the courtroom, apparently, she doesn't let little things like facts and truth get in the way of the pursuit of her objective.

[280plus]

Two catcth phrases come to mind. For Casey, "Stupid is as stupid does"

and Nancy grace, "*expletive deleted*bag is as *expletive deleted*bag does."

I rest y case...   

[henschman]

This case makes me very glad that I have quit watching TV news and have been relying purely on the internet for news for the past few years.  I was also not aware of the case until a friend mentioned it at a party the Friday before the jury announced the verdict.  I'm glad I didn't waste my time watching all the op-ed BS from the talking heads for however many months it has been a big story. 

[gunsmith]

I watch cable news but had managed to avoid the drama, I won a bet saying she would be found innocent, based on only watching the closing statement.

I wish it was finally over but I guess Casey sells a lot of ads ... I think she's telling the truth. Her families weirdness prevented them from doing the right thing.

She has to be warped, when my girlfriend died it took me about a year to get past the grief, going out dancing and partying so soon after the baby died is unimaginable to me.

Nancy Grace? what a low life, she was all hysterical once about a 14 yr old boy who's parents got him a hi point 9mm carbine and let him keep it in his room unloaded.

She said "what kind of parent allows her kid to keep a high powered assault weapon" in his room

[Hawkmoon]

Nancy Grace? what a low life, she was all hysterical once about a 14 yr old boy who's parents got him a hi point 9mm carbine and let him keep it in his room unloaded.

She said "what kind of parent allows her kid to keep a high powered assault weapon" in his room

An American military veteran, perhaps?

Or, maybe just ... an American?


Ironically, before I looked her up on Google I e-mailed some friends in the deep south to ask if they agreed with my perception that Ms. Grace looks, dresses, talks and acts like trailer trash. Then I read her bio in Wikipedia and I learned that she basically IS trailer trash.

[MicroBalrog]

And apparently there may have been prosecutorial misconduct in the case

[roo_ster]

And apparently there may have been prosecutorial misconduct in the case

Tell me again why these jokers have sovereign immunity?

[sanglant]

because they write the laws.

[Perd Hapley]

I liked how NG went on about Casey getting money for a book deal etc and how she'll cash in on the whole thing. Anyone bother to ask NG how much money the situation has put into HER pocket? How much money do you get for being a guest talking head on GMA? Hmmm? 

In the spirit of the jury that rightly acquitted Casey Anthony, I have to acquit Nancy Grace of this charge. Unlike Anthony, Nancy Grace did not contribute to the tragic death that started all of this. Pretty large difference.

[sanglant]

what are the odds that without nancy harping, the pa would have still went for the death penalty?


yeah that's right, i just said. nancy grace, got casey anthony acquitted of the murder charges.








that might have been a joke, i can't tell.

[Hawkmoon]

And apparently there may have been prosecutorial misconduct in the case

Probably personal friends of Nancy Grace. Never let a little thing like the truth stand between you and a persecution prosecution.