Emotions are still raw after Casey Anthony was found not guilty of killing her daughter, 2-year-old daughter Caylee Marie Anthony.
Three years after Caylee died, and a month and a half after Casey’s trial began, the jury’s decision took less than 11 hours and was announced to the world on Tuesday afternoon.
The defense team gathered for a group hug with Casey just moments after the jury found her not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter of a child. She was found guilty on four counts of providing false information to law enforcement, with each conviction carrying a maximum sentence of one year. The jurors, seven women and five men, would not talk to the media, and their identities were kept secret by the court.
Many in the crowd of about 500 people outside the courthouse reacted with anger after the verdict was read, chanting, “Justice for Caylee!” One man yelled, “Baby killer!”
Casey will learn on Tuesday during her sentencing at 9 a.m. if she could spend her first night out of jail in almost three years since she was first accused in the case. She has been in jail since her October 2008 arrest. But since she has been in jail for nearly three years already, she could walk free.
“I’m very happy for Casey, ecstatic for her and I want her to be able to grieve and grow and somehow get her life back together,” defense attorney Jose Baez said Tuesday after the verdict was read. “I think this case is a perfect example of why the death penalty does not work… Murder is not right, no matter who does it.” He continued, “Caylee has passed on far, far too soon and what my driving force has been for the last three years has been always to make sure that there has been justice for Caylee and Casey because Casey did not murder Caylee. It’s that simple. And today our system of justice has not dishonored her memory by a false conviction.”
Prosecutors contended that Casey suffocated Caylee with duct tape because she wanted to be free to hit the nightclubs and spend time with her boyfriend.
Defense attorneys argued that the little girl accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool and that Casey panicked and hid the body because of the traumatic effects of being sexually abused by her father.
Caylee’s disappearance went unreported by Casey for a month. The child’s decomposed body was eventually found in the woods near her grandparents’ home six months after she was last seen. A medical examiner was never able to establish how she died.
Prosecutors Jeff Ashton and Linda Drane-Burdick stood behind their boss, State’s Attorney Lawson Lamar, quietly as he backed them publicly, saying, “We’re disappointed in the verdict today because we know the facts and we’ve put in absolutely every piece of evidence that existed.”
Lamar continued saying,
“This is a dry-bones case. Very, very difficult to prove. The delay in recovering little Caylee’s remains worked to our considerable disadvantage.”
One of the alternate jurors told a reporter he’d have made the same decision because the state didn’t offer a motive, oddly a reason the court made clear in jury instructions that a motive does not have to be proven.
Some of the strongest reaction to the verdict comes from Casey Anthony’s former fiancé, Jesse Grund.
“I walk away from this case with dissatisfaction with every side. I’m angry tonight,” he said. “This was not about a search for the truth. This was about you winning at all cost. That’s what this was about, and I am angry. I am beside myself seething over that fact. This has been a frustrating experience overall based on the fact that Caylee…I still love and miss dearly. She’s never coming back and nobody sought out the truth in this. This was all about winning. This was never about the truth.”
Grund went on to say that, as far as he is concerned, the Casey Anthony to whom he was once engaged to is dead.
George and Cindy Anthony are back home, and they said they are concerned about their safety.
Their attorney said the family has received death threats.
“Our office is receiving death threat. They are also receiving death threats. They are making the rounds on the internet. Fortunately the orange county sheriff is on the job and they are taking very good care of us,” said Mark Lippman.
George and Cindy released a statement that said they will now try to rebuild their lives. (read the full statement here) They called the verdict fair, but criticized what they called the baseless strategy used by the defense attorneys.
Other family members are also talking about the verdict.
Casey’s uncle in Ohio said he was shocked by the jury’s decision, but now his focus has quickly turned to the well being of his brother-in-law.
“George is the one that was harmed the most and I, you know, and I just, I want to see that George is vindicated through this, that is my feeling,” said Chuck Eddy.
Eddy went on to say that if he could sit down with Casey, he would urge her to talk about what really happened to Caylee.
Casey’s aunt had some harsh words for the jury after the not guilty verdict. She spoke with Nancy Grace by phone on Tuesday night.
“I’m appalled, and now I’m angry and I say shame on this jury that they are either not too bright or just plain lazy.”
Because the case got so much media attention in Orlando, jurors were brought in from the Tampa Bay area and sequestered for the entire trial, during which they listened to more than 33 days of testimony and looked at 400 pieces of evidence. Casey did not take the stand.
Now the world is watching and waiting to hear from Casey herself once she’s released from jail.
“What someone like Casey, anything will do, is that she’ll become a celebrity. She will sell her story to the television networks. She will sell her story to Hollywood…book deals. Her identity will become her celebrity and she’ll live comfortably for the rest of her life,” said WFTV’s legal expert Bill Sheaffer.
The verdict could divide people for many years to come, just as the O.J. Simpson case in the mid-1990s did, with some believing Casey got away with murder.