On the acquittal of Casey Anthony

[grayhawkfh]

I was not in the courtroom.

I did not see all of the evidence presented.

I did not hear all of the testimony.

She had her trial. The jury returned a verdict of "Not Guilty". I have no reason to second guess the jury.

To quote fragbert in his earlier post: Yes, a child was murdered. That was a wretched, deplorable, and monstrous act. The person(s) responsible are, without a doubt, the pinnacle of depravity, and deserve to be punished -- within the rule of law.

Now, to everyone who is braying that Casey Anthony got away with murder, I have a message for you:

Unless you can provide incontrovertible proof that she did it
SHUT THE FUCK UP!

She is afforded the same protections and rights that you and I share under the Constitution of the United States.

You don't have to like it.

I'm not saying that she's some kind of saint, or even necessarily a good person.

But the process was followed, and the verdict returned. One's beliefs or dislike of the verdict do not give one the right to pursue "lynch mob" justice.

It's done.

Comments

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

Finally, someone who's not shouting for blood!

Many court cases, too many in the US, go out for blood. This was greatly emphaszied when a group of law students in Illinois found more than twenty people on death row who were sent there for crimes they did not commit.

Maybe she did kill her daughter, maybe she didn't. Many legal experts tell us there was no direct evidence that she did.

[magsmom.livejournal.com]

who knows what happened? Not me, that's for sure.

The media tells whatever story will get them viewers/readers. Those shouting for blood need to realize they have been manipulated by the media.

Whatever happened to that little girl was horrible. But if I'm ever on trial for anything criminal, I certainly hope people pay attention to that reasonable doubt standard.

[avahgdu.livejournal.com]

This post has the Avahgdu Seal of Approval.

[nyxalinth.livejournal.com]

I think that possibly the worst she's actually guilty of is bad parenting, maybe. I just hope she really is innocent. I have vacillated back and forth the whole time, and I finally just settled on 'I don't know.'

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

Emotional gut reactions have no place in a jury trial. JUST the facts and the law.

Justice and vengeance are two different things, and I'm glad our court system tries its hardest to go for the former, despite many people's preference for the latter... since it's "sexier". (I'm looking at YOU Ms. Grace.)

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

here, here. As the phrase goes - "reasonable doubt". She was found guilty of the charges that could be proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Interesting that "abuse" was filed but not "neglect" - but that might be a case of the FL penal code? IANAL. I think the prosecutor might have been able to get a conviction on "neglect". but again, IANAL and I don't have all the evidence either.

[leaf-kunoichi.livejournal.com]

I did see all of the evidence and heard all of the testimony. I can see why the jury did what they did. That doesn't mean she didn't get away with murder.

[aurienne.livejournal.com]

I know nothing about the trial, and I'm glad the jury used their brains based on what was in the courtroom instead of the tv emotional stuff, but I do hope they weren't expecting TV-drama style CSI-forensics of perfect DNA matches as the only thing they would accept as enough proof.

Like I said, I don't know what went on though. I only checked wikipedia yesterday after seeing posts on FaceBook to see what people were posting about.

[glittagwen.livejournal.com]

Shows like CSI are making it harder and harder to convict killers, because the jurys (sp?) think that cases should be "just like we saw on that there TV show."

[psywildfire.livejournal.com]

I think this needs to be reposted. I've been trying to say something similar and haven't come up with the words. Permission to do so/link?

-WF

[grayhawkfh.livejournal.com]

As always, permission to repost/link is granted so long as proper attribution is done.

[luvmomh.livejournal.com]

stop beating the dead horse.

[mummoth.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about the case, but I disagree with the sentiment. Just because a person can't be proven guilty, doesn't mean they're innocent. I wouldn't want them living in my community, I would not patronize an establishment where they worked, anything.

Andrew had a friend, whose 'bitter ex wife' had accused him of sexually abusing their daughter. RIght there, that's enough for me to never let my kids around him. people were saying to me "Innocent until proven guilty" and telling me the ex wife didn't heve evidence, he'd be found not guilty. But I WAS that bitter ex wife, who accused my husband of beating our son, and I can't believe there are many mothers out there who would allow their child to go through what mine had to for the police to try to gather evidence, and my son didn't have to take his underwear off... that would have been a lot worse.

Anyway, the guy had moved back in with a girlfriend, who he also had a teenage daughter with. The teenaged daughter had a baby, and wouldn't say who the father was. Eventually the police followed him around until he dropped a cigarette butt, and it was him. I couldn't tell you how many times people spouted "Innocent until proven guilty" at me before that, because I wouldn't allow my kids near him.

I believe that it's extremely rare for suspicion to fall on a person who isn't at least partially responsible for whatever crime happened.

[grayhawkfh.livejournal.com]

While I agree that "Not Guilty" is not the same as "Innocent", the fact remains that the prosecution could not prove "Guilt beyond a reasonable doubt", something that I'm certain that the prosecutor would have loved to have done. He'd be all but guaranteed re-election.

Otherwise, I'm going to agree to disagree on this, because you have a very valid viewpoint on this, which has, in my mind, an equally valid counterpoint. I respect you, your experiences, and your view far too much to risk this degenerating into something...unconstructive.

[mummoth.livejournal.com]

I think the court system does as well as it can. I think a lot of people react like me because they're judging who is safe to be around their family, and it'd be easier if everyone who might have done something really bad doesn't have access to their kids. Jail is a pretty effective way of keeping them away! I know it's not practical in terms of the system.

[deceptiverose.livejournal.com]

Seriously! You took the words right out of my mouth.