As soon as the jury proclaimed Casey Anthony “not guilty,” her parents, George and Cindy Anthony, stood up, blank-faced, and walked out of the courtroom. It was one of the few times since the trial began that the Anthonys did something I could relate to.
Just a few days earlier, Cindy Anthony attempted to convince jurors that she was the person who Google-searched “chloroform” on her home computer. When the searches were determined to have occurred during the time she was clocked in at work and logged into the company computer, she maintained her unlikely story, an obvious attempt to exonerate her daughter.
If Casey’s parents loved her enough to lie for her, there’s also no doubt that they adored their beautiful granddaughter, Caylee. Like so many other grandparents these days, they were the real parents to that little girl, providing the love and stability that their immature, partying, and selfish adult daughter wouldn’t. Casey Anthony didn’t have a job and she and Caylee lived with them — until Caylee disappeared and Casey moved in with her new boyfriend and his roommates. The Anthonys decorated their granddaughter’s room and filled their home and backyard with toys for her, including a playhouse that George Anthony built a floor onto so Caylee wouldn’t have to sit on the ground.
Like the Anthonys, my parents adore their grandkids. Like Mr. Anthony, my daddy lovingly tiled the bottom of the outdoor playhouse at their house for their grandkids. The difference between my parents and the Anthonys is that I can guarantee that if I had anything to do with the disappearance of one of my kids, or if I was lying or withholding information about my child’s whereabouts to the cops, as Casey clearly did and was found guilty of today, my parents would not be trying to help me get away with it. I am absolutely certain that they would be fully cooperating with law enforcement on behalf of their innocent grandchild.
The Casey Anthony verdict didn’t deliver justice for little Caylee. But it did give America some insight into the kind of family dysfunction and parental enabling that produces a mother like Casey: one who could move in with her boyfriend, enter a bikini contest, and get a “Bella Vita” tattoo during the time her little girl’s body was decomposing in a swamp near the family home.
Perhaps the most poignant moment in the trial was when the prosecutor described the way a different mother grieved the loss of her child in an accidental drowning. Sometime after the child was buried, a big storm came. That mother ran out to her child’s gravestone to be with her because, she said, her little girl had never been alone in a storm before. That’s how someone deserving of the title “mother” grieves. Sadly, Casey will never get enough time in prison to reflect on such things.
— Rachel Campos-Duffy is author of Stay Home, Stay Happy: 10 Secrets to Loving At-Home Motherhood.
The worst part of this is that future whackjobs who get tired of their children will look at this verdict and think, "Wow! She got away with it!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseExcellent analysis; sad but true.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCatcha is "Red-handed". Too bad in the Casey Anthony case this was not so.
The Jersey Shore Party Girl Wannabe will go into hiding, then resurface with a book telling "her side of the story", the sister will want to get a Playboy Spread, and the Morning Talk Shows will all vie for the "get".
The OJ trial of this Decade.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseParagraph 3 gets to me. The same scenario is being played out all over the country, in families everywhere. It really is not fun to watch it happening and feel helpless to do anything about it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf this case was a slamdunk, why didn't jurors find her guilty?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThey were idiots?
That what you going for here?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm not so sure that's true, what evidence did they have? Her weird behavoir does not mean she killed her kid.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI hope Casey spends lots of time with her moron parents. They deserve her in their life every day for the rest of their lives.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's tough to see what went down with this verdict. The case boiled down to a pretty good circumstantial case for the prosecution. The CSI effect more than likely had something to do with the NG.
As a prosecutor, I followed the case with interest. I wasn't impressed with either side's lawyering. The prosecutor allowed his emotions to get the better of him, and showed too little poker face, which rubs juries the wrong way. When you have a circumstantial case like that, you must be the embodiment of cool, calculated reason.
On the flip side, I was puzzled by the defense. The arguments it made convinced me she was guilty because it was as if he was left with little else to argue.
Overall, it was a tough case for the prosecution, in large part, because your average human being simply does not want to believe that a mother could be so evil to her own child - could be capable of doing what animals don't even do to their young. A prosecutor can win over this bias, but must first realize that the bias is there. It felt like the prosecutor either didn't realize it, or never figured out an effective way to combat it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@MattX
The case wasn't a 'slam-dunk' first degree murder case and the prosecution over-reached and under-performed. Although I personally think she is responsible for the death of her child, I'm not sure that I would have voted guilty to a first-degree murder charge based upon what I've read.
Additionally, I do believe that the 'CSI effect' did come into play.
Finally, Casey Anthony has to look at herself every day in the mirror. That might be the harshest penalty of all.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Finally, Casey Anthony has to look at herself every day in the mirror."
While I didn't watch the trial - never let not knowing what you're talking about get in the way of having an opinion ;) - it's pretty obvious acquittal isn't going to help her in the court of public opinion (unless "the real killer" is found).
Casey's essentially unemployable. "Working with children" is out; interacting with the public on behalf of an employer ... what employer is going to want that notoriety? Even in a job where she'd have no interaction with the public, she'd still have interaction with her fellow employees - what employer is going to want to risk upsetting his workplace for someone like Casey?
She's not going to be welcome in the community and there's nowhere she can go where her notoriety won't follow her.
Please understand - I DO NOT feel sorry for her and this is not a "poor Casey" post. She will pay a price for her actions - not the price sought by the state, but a price nevertheless.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusebook/movie will mean she doesn't have to work.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhile I think that would go over as well as all the "anti-Iraq war" movies Hollywood made the past few years, you might be right.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseShe'll find work in adult films.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe CSI effect only comes into play if a good number of the juors watch CSI. I think that's a weak theory.
The evidence seems to be mostly that she's a party girl and she's the mother thus she killed the kid. If that's all they had, it's hard to say she's guilty with no reasonable doubt.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI keep hearing the claim that the Anthony's walked out of court looking angry. I guess my own lying eyes were wrong about seeing Cindy Anthony smiling at the verdict?
I'm sure they wanted to get out of there so they would not have to deal with the mob of reporters who would be immediately in their face asking for a comment. Who can blame them for wanting to exit being the object of such a feeding frenzy and get to a place where they could give a thoughtful statement?
Their daughter was just spared the death penalty. Even as complicated as the family relations became during this trial, it did not surprise me one bit to see Cindy's smile at the not guilty verdicts.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think comparing this case to the OJ case is absurd. There were no issues of race or celebrity, most people thought OJ was guilty wheras people are pretty evenly split on this one, plus there was much more widespread interest in the OJ case than this one.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePeople are split? Really? I've seen a ton of reaction on this today, and it looks very much like 90/10 guilty to me.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOne thing that I have learned is that we all deal with grief in different ways. There is no "right" way to grieve, so whenever anybody uses that argument I dismiss it pretty much out of hand.
The trial was fair. The jury heard much more detail than any of us, yet so many people seem think that they know the truth.
And saying that people who come to a different decision than you wanted them to are "idiots" is the epitome of shallow thinking.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"That mother ran out to her child’s gravestone to be with her because, she said, her little girl had never been alone in a storm before. That’s how someone deserving of the title “mother” grieves."
I don't think that is how most mothers grieve. Grief does not require or involve some kind of symbolic gesture like this.
This kind of logic could get a lot of people found guilty, if they don't follow some "normal" description of human behavoir, and, even if the "normal" description isn't true.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse