The world was shocked Tuesday when the Casey Anthony jury came back with a not guilty verdict. I was shocked as well. Do I think it could have been an accident? Maybe, except for the duct tape on her mouth. Do I think she was sexually molested by her father as a child? Probably not. Do I think she killed Caylee so that she could be free to live the life she wanted? Yes, I do. But when it comes right down to it, we don’t live in a country where we are convicted in the court of public opinion. We live in a wonderful country, as so many of you pointed out on July 4th! In our country we have a process. We are given a trial with judgement handed down by a jury of our peers. If charged with a crime, we do not have to prove our innocence. It is left to the government to prove our guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
In this case, I don’t think the prosecution proved any of this “beyond a reasonable doubt”. I think the defense was able to throw in enough testimony to create even more reasonable doubt. That’s all it takes is a seed of doubt. My husband and I discussed this case over the weekend. Both of said she’s probably guilty, but neither of us thought there was enough hard evidence to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.
Through no fault of their own, I think the prosecution had very little hard evidence to work with. The body took too long to find and lots of DNA evidence was probably lost because of the elements. The odor in a jar was just a little too out in left field for me. The findings of the searches for chloroform were questionable to me.
But to get a lynch mob started for the jury is beyond my comprehension. They were the ones selected, they were the ones sitting in those chairs everyday. They were the ones that had this burden placed on them and as a group of 12 people came to this decision of not guilty. That was their job. Not mine, not yours, and certainly not Nancy Grace.
I am not defending Casey Anthony by any stretch of the imagination. But I do believe in our system and I think we have the best system in the world. If you think Casey should have been stoned, maybe we should just all move to Iran and live under that law.