Diary of a Low Budget Superhero

I wonder how Casey Anthony will spend the rest of her summer. Will she go clubbing? Hit the beaches? Hang out by the backyard pool? Maybe she'll make a million dollars selling her story. If you haven't heard by now, the verdict came in this afternoon. "Not Guilty" on all counts except for lying to the police.

Follow up:

I first wrote about the disappearance of this toddler in September and October 2008 (Where Is Caylee Anthony? and Caylee Update). Back then, the only coverage to be found was Nancy Grace's TV show, David Lohr's crime blog and the Orlando Sentinel online -- a vast difference compared to this summer's 24/7 media frenzy.

As it happens, most of the Anthony trial coincided with my hernia surgery recovery, so for two weeks I was at home unable to do much but mark my days with painkillers and naps in between live trial coverage. It was a head-spinning maelstrom of forensics, character witnesses, consultants on everything from human decomposition to how people grieve, family members called and recalled. I haven't seen a case as crazy as this one since OJ. This was a death penalty case, structured largely around circumstantial evidence.

When the testimony portion was finished, my fear was that the Prosecution did not make their case against Casey Anthony. Today, that fear was borne out when the verdict was read. I wish I were more surprised. I really do, but man, it was a death penalty case, very much relying on circumstantial evidence, and when it comes to putting a person to death our American justice system has this thing about reasonable doubt. Imagine if it were you on trial for a major crime. If there is any room for doubt then you, the accused, would receive the benefit of that doubt. This is what happened here. The jury couldn't return a guilty verdict and Casey Anthony walks free because there was just enough doubt to convince twelve people that she may not have killed her daughter, intentionally or accidentally.

Where does the doubt come from, and how reasonable was it? First, can I take just a few minutes to review the facts of the case? Just the facts, and then we'll get back to that doubt, and talk about degrees of reasonable.

1. The last person to be in charge of Caylee was her mother, Casey. The child was last seen by family on June 16th, 2008. For 31 days Casey Anthony avoided her mom, Caylee's grandmother Cindy Anthony, until Cindy snapped and called the authorities in a panic over her missing grand-baby.

2. Weeks turned into months, summer to autumn, while the search for Caylee continued, all the while Casey spun numerous tales, one crazier than the last, to explain what happened to her daughter. She never told the truth, and still hasn't!

3. Caylee's body was found after months of searching, double-bagged and dumped two minutes from the Anthony home in a low-lying swampy area where her body got submerged under flood waters from that summer's tropical storms. By the time the waters had subsided and a meter reader discovered the body, little Caylee was so badly decomposed that there was very little forensic evidence left. The skull had duct tape obstructing the mouth and nose.

Now, when I said that the Prosecution didn't prove their case, I don't mean they flubbed it. By contrast, that Prosecution presented every shred of forensic evidence that they could find at the dump site, they had the panicked 911 calls from Cindy, they had numerous professionals testifying that the trunk of Casey's car smelled like a decomposing body, they had computer records showing searches on the terms "how to make chloroform" and "neck breaking" and "missing child." And in my opinion the most damning of all, they had photos of Casey in the weeks after Caylee's disappearance. To me these photos are the most chilling evidence: your child is gone (missing? dead?) and you're out with your friends, dancing around, getting a new tattoo, happy, smiling, looking like you're on top of the world? Really? I was totally engrossed in the testimony of a "grief specialist" who offered up that this behavior is not to be maligned, citing that no two people grieve in the same way. I'll accept that. But if you have a child, could you imagine any scenario in which you go partying within days of losing your baby?

The Defense opened with the story that Caylee's demise was a tragic accident that could happen to anyone -- that she drowned in the backyard pool. To me it seemed they spent no time proving that, but a great deal of time attempting to destroy the character of Casey's family, attempting to show that the entire family spins on an axis of dysfunction and that Casey was raised to falsify and obfuscate and compartmentalize. One day Defense attorney Jose Baez even shocked everyone by blurting that faking normalcy was so ingrained in Casey as a child that she could go to school and act normally even after having "her father's penis in her mouth." Horrible, wild accusations, yet they never proved any of it -- not that Caylee drowned, not one iota of corroboration that there had been any sexual abuse. The only thing they proved was that Caylee liked to play in the pool and that she was able to open the back door latch and climb the pool ladder. Left completely unexplained was why, if the child did drown, did no one in the Anthony family ever simply report that? This could have been nothing more than a child neglect case at most, if only Cindy or George Anthony said, "Caylee drowned. Our daughter Casey lost track of her on June 16th, found her in the pool, panicked and had a mental rift with reality and so she invented those crazy stories."

Nothing about drowning or any other accident was proven. And this is the big, giant, glaring ball of WRONG that gets me. Yes, I understand that the the Prosecution wasn't able to prove where, when, how or at whose hands the baby died. I understand that it isn't a crime to go dancing, to get a tattoo or to Google "how to make chloroform" and "neck breaking" and "missing child." I understand this is all circumstantial. But isn't there a tipping point where enough circumstantial evidence accumulates to allow reasonable people to surmise the truth? And right here at that tender, subjective crossroads is where "reasonable doubt" plays. HOW much circumstantial evidence is required before the doubt becomes unreasonable? Our American lexicon is fraught with cautionary adages about the folly of human perception, to wit, if you hear galloping hooves you think "horses" and not "zebras." Then again, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...okay, all we have is zebras and ducks, but the point is, there comes a time when enough circumstantial evidence does compose a picture. If one person on that jury plays along with Wheel of Fortune, I would like to speak with them about how they can solve the puzzle with letters missing. Because our brains can fill in the blanks, within reason.

The trial is over and despite the considerable stack of circumstantial evidence, no one is answering for the death of this child and we still do not know how Caylee died. That she is dead and that Casey was the last one in charge of her is fact, everything else was contributing, but circumstantial. Caylee somehow perished, and then someone wrapped that toddler in trash bags, taped her mouth and nose and dumped her in the swamp. What are the ways that could have happened? Suppose she did drown. Isn't there a law on the books that makes covering it up a crime? Ignoring an accident that killed a person? You can't drive away from the scene of a car accident, but you can let your baby die and then go out dancing?

Unfortunately, the burden of proof is not on the Defense. It is on the Prosecution. And the Prosecution was not able to bring proof that Caylee DIDN'T drown. The Prosecution was focused on all the evidence that supports the fact that on June 16th, Caylee was alive and well, then somehow she died, and that Casey pretended nothing had happened for 31 days, and when finally confronted by her own mother, only then did she admit Caylee was gone. She led the authorities on a goose chase of epic proportion, inventing a fictitious nanny and a kidnapping and "I don't know where she is."

She never said what happened, so there was no specific crime. When the case went to the jury this past Sunday night, I was left with a feeling of dread that without a specific crime to hang her on, there wouldn't be a way to say "she did it." Did what? Guilty of what? What did Casey do all day on June 16th and 17th of 2008? WHAT HAPPENED?

I am all for reasonable doubt, but I was really hoping that someone in deliberations would bring up Scott Peterson. Just like Caylee, we never found out where, when or how Lacy and her unborn baby died. But the Peterson trial is over and though we still do not know how Lacy died we do know that it was at the hands of her husband Scott. Another circumstantial case, Scott could have killed Lacy in their home, in the car, at the marina, out on the water on the boat. He could have drowned her, strangled her, drugged and dumped her over the side of the boat, slashed her throat...we do not know how Lacy died any more than we know how Caylee died, but surely there was enough circumstantial evidence to show that it was at the hands of Casey? Did she drown Caylee on purpose? Drown her by accident? Lose track of her and find her dead in the home? In the yard? In the pool? Mix a batch of homemade chloroform and dose her? Tape shut her airway until she suffocated? Poor Caylee didn't get the justice that Lacy and Connor Peterson got. The jury heard the galloping hooves and said "It COULD be zebras."

And finally, though acquitted of all child neglect, manslaughter and murder charges, Casey was convicted on the counts of lying to the authorities. This, frankly, blows my mind. Take it step by step: if she is guilty of lying, and that lie was "I don't know what happened," then it's the same as saying she did know what happened. And if she knew what happened, she gets to simply say nothing, and that silence means she is free?

Really.

If I were Scott Peterson I would be calling Jose Baez right now.

Reasonable doubt, my ass.

Rest in peace, Caylee Marie. You won't be forgotten, little one.