Prosecution: Casey Anthony’s daughter, Caylee Anthony is dead. Casey Anthony is a pathological liar. Casey Anthony’s car smelled like a dead body after Caylee Anthony died. Therefore, Casey Anthony murdered her daughter by smothering her with duct tape.
Defense: Casey Anthony’s daughter, Caylee Anthony is dead. Casey Anthony is a pathological liar. Casey Anthony’s car may or may not have smelled like a dead body at some undetermined point after Caylee Anthony died. The Anthony’s are a very weird and dysfunctional family, with Casey’s father at the center of the storm, and that’s why Casey is a pathological liar. Caylee Anthony’s death was a tragic accident that George and Casey Anthony tried to conceal.
Notice there is a good deal of agreement. The prosecution has spent a lot of time and energy demonstrating that Casey Anthony is a pathological liar, something that isn’t in dispute, beating a dead horse to a large extent. In fairness, though, the sheer depth and scope of the lying is kind of breath taking. It’s one of those things that leaves you shaking your head in wonder.
Still. It’s kind of irrelevant. It’s not that you can’t tell a plausible story that mommy killed her little girl and then lied and lied and lied to cover it up. The biggest problem is that there’s no connection between all the lying and supposedly murdering the little girl, as the prosecution itself has gone to some length to prove. They have already shown, for just one example, that Casey Anthony had claimed to have a job at Universal Studios that she did not in fact have, and this was for years before Caylee was dead. If they are going to argue that the pathological lying was obviously an effort to conceal a murder, then what is the answer to the fact – that they themselves have proven – that the pathological lying was going on when there was no murder to conceal?
So if the connection between the pathological lying and the supposed murder cannot be made, what else is there? A lot of suspicion and a bad smell in the car, which is also kind of irrelevant because no one is disputing that Caylee Anthony is dead and that her remains were not found for several months.
If the bulk of commentary on the internet is any guide, though, that might well be enough to convict someone of murder and sentence them to death. That could well make Casey Anthony one of legal history’s most tragic victims: first at the hands of her dysfunctional family, then she loses her daughter in a tragic drowning accident, then the government – and seemingly the whole world – starts beating the drum for her head, picking apart her every act and gesture, relishing every detail on the march to the gallows.
What’s going on in Florida does not speak well of us.
Lawyers on Strike 