Casey Anthony found not guilty of murdering daughter Caylee

Florida jury acquits mother of killing 2-year-old toddler who went missing in 2008 and was found dead six months later A Florida jury has cleared a young mother, Casey Anthony, of murdering her two-year-old daughter, rejecting the prosecution’s portrayal of her as “a lying, no-good slut” who would rather go nightclubbing than rear her child. The jury unanimously found Anthony, 25, not guilty on murder, manslaughter and child abuse charges in a case that has gripped US talkshows and cable news television. She was, however, convicted on charges of lying to the police after claiming that her daughter, Caylee, had been abducted by a nanny when Anthony was driving around with the body of her child in the boot of her car. Anthony would have faced a possible death sentence had she been convicted of first-degree murder but will serve no more than four years in prison when she is sentenced on Thursday. Prosecutors had alleged that Anthony murdered Caylee because she stood in the way of her party lifestyle and interest in men. Prosecutors told the jury that Anthony killed her daughter with chloroform in 2008 and then buried her body in woods near the family home in Orlando several weeks later. Caylee’s corpse was found with three strips of duct tape over her mouth and nose. Anthony’s father, George, told the court that his daughter left home in June 2008, taking Caylee with her, and did not return for a month. Anthony’s parents asked repeatedly to see the child but their daughter told them she was too busy with work. Anthony also claimed that Caylee was being looked after by a nanny. It was later established that the nanny did not exist. Anthony maintained that claim until her parents received a notice that their daughter’s car had been towed. When they went to pick it up, George Anthony said he noticed a strong odour from the boot that he and a worker in the tow yard told the court smelled like a decomposing body. Anthony’s mother, Cindy, then called the police and reported Caylee missing. “There is something wrong. I found my daughter’s car today and it smells like there’s been a dead body in the damn car,” she told the emergency operator. The prosecution homed in on Anthony’s failure to report her daughter missing during those 31 days. “Responses to grief are as varied as the day is long, but responses to guilt are oh so predictable,” the lead prosecutor, Linda Drane Burdick, said. “What do guilty people do? They lie. They avoid. They run. They mislead, not just to their family, but the police. They divert attention away from themselves and they act like nothing is wrong. That’s why you heard about what happened in those 31 days.” The defence said Caylee had accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool and that her mother then panicked. It claimed that Anthony’s father knew about the accident and helped his daughter dispose of the body. It said George Anthony, a former police office, placed the tape over the dead girl’s face to make it look like murder in an attempt to cover up the failure to report the death. The man denied his daughter’s account. The defence also claimed that Casey Anthony had been sexually abused by her father and brother and that was a factor in her erratic behaviour. Anthony’s lawyer, Jose Baez, said the prosecution had attempted to portray his client as “a lying, no-good slut” who murdered her daughter in order to go nightclubbing when in fact Caylee’s death was “an accident that snowballed out of control”. Another prosecutor, Jeff Ashton, said the defence failed to present any real evidence to back any of its claims and, in closing arguments, said the claim that George Anthony staged a murder to cover up a lesser crime made no sense. “That’s absurd. Nothing has been presented to you to make that any less absurd,” he said. But the jury was not persuaded that Anthony killed her daughter either deliberately or by accident. After the verdict, one of Anthony’s lawyers, Cheney Mason, condemned the “media assassination” of his client since her arrest, including by other lawyers who appeared on television talkshows to pronounce her guilty before the trial was over. United States Florida Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 5, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.