Diary of a Low Budget Superhero

I know what the state of Florida should have done.

Follow up:

Earlier in the week when I wrote that the Prosecution didn't prove their case against Casey Anthony, I also wrote that doesn't mean they flubbed it. I still don't think they flubbed it per se, as they did present everything they had. But I have been mulling over that enormous sticking point, namely the reasonable doubt based on mostly all of their evidence against Casey being circumstantial...the evidence that Casey murdered Caylee. The jury couldn't deliver a guilty verdict on a capital murder based on that evidence, as no amount of clubbing, dancing, drinking or tattoos means a person is a murderer.

The Defense got up and insisted that Caylee had drowned accidentally. The Prosecution fought that claim as hard as they could, with every weapon in their arsenal. But what if, instead, they had accepted that story?

If the charges against Casey didn't include capital murder and the Prosecution had simply stipulated as to the drowning, everything that followed could have been about negligent homicide.

State laws vary as to the specifics, but basically negligent homicide, or criminal negligence, is when a person causes the death of another person without intent or malice but through negligent actions. It's the "intent" that makes all the difference in the world. There is no premeditation, no crime of passion, but instead a total lack of reasonable and expected care. Essentially you're acting like an idiot and someone dies because of you.

Such as, say, leaving your 2 year old alone for a long enough time that she gets outside, climbs a ladder and drowns in your backyard pool.

To be found guilty of criminal negligence, you have to knowingly realize that your actions could put another person in danger. You have to know, but not care, that there is a possibility that what you're doing right now is potentially going to get someone hurt.

What if they had posed to the jury something they could relate to, for example, have each of them imagine they are the one in charge of a child, theirs or someone else's. By saying imagine you're caring for a child. You lose track of time, then you remember you're in charge of a baby, you look up to find the unimaginable...

That's the negligence. That's not a true accident. Had they stipulated as to the drowning the Prosecution could have said, okay Defense, okay Casey, let's say she drowned. Then what scenario led up to Caylee being alone long enough to drown?

For the sake of relative brevity I am not even going to get into the whole "...and then why not call 911" and I would have to do a lot more research and re-listening to the interview tapes to look for proof, because remember, the Defense gets to just SAY that it was a drowning, the burden of proof is still on the Prosecution!

What would have happened had they left the capital offense out and focused on the negligence.

Just last month in Arizona a New Age guru named James Ray was convicted of negligent homicide. Three people attending one of his sweat lodge sessions, which he's conducted a million times, actually died from too much heat, and when it happened, he took off, fled not only the spa, but left Arizona completely! It took half the length of Casey's trial for a jury to name Ray as the one responsible for those deaths. Now, had it been me attending the sweat lodge seminar (which it would never be, I don't even like to stay in a sauna for more than a few minutes) I would have said "fuck this" and stood up and gone outside when I began to feel faint. Shit, Arizona IS a sweat lodge, are you kidding me with hot rocks and fire in a crowded tent? I did not see any of Ray's trial, but I would bet that the Defense made a similar argument that the attendees signed up on purpose and could have left at any time. It's so tragic that those poor people died suffering, I keep thinking about it and it just breaks my heart. But what if the guy had been leading a spinning class or a hike up Mt. Everest and the same three people died? All James Ray was doing was conducting his sweat lodge session, he didn't set out to kill anyone. It's a tough call, but I am fairly sure that the guilty verdict came down because James Ray, though he did not put his hands on those people and murder them, was solely in charge of the situation that led to their demise.

In Winnipeg in 2002 a the pilot of a small airplane miscalculated how much fuel he would need, and passengers died when the plane crash landed. Again, the pilot claims it was an accident, but the court called it a situation where the person in charge should have known better. Convicted: criminally negligent homicide. (CBC News Canada)

In Florida earlier this year, a guy thoughtlessly motoring around in his boat wasn't paying attention to the rules or the "Diver Down" flag, and his propeller actually sliced a diver. Negligence! Again, you can't just do whatever you want to do, go around in a daze and hurt or injure another person. (Sun Sentinel)

And those were adults, the laws are more serious when it's a child.

Only two weeks ago in Montana, a man and his little boy were walking near a creek in the father got a phone call, and while he was distracted his son was swept downstream and drowned. The charge: negligent homicide. (The Associated Press)

Last summer a little sixth grader drowned in Long Beach while on an field trip with her school. No parental permission slips, signs saying "no swimming" and "no lifeguard on duty" and only two adults in charge of thirty kids. The young teacher in charge was the guilty one there. (NBC New York)

You're probably totally sick of this topic, I know.

What's done is done, there's no going back, but you can bet that this case is going to be studied by law students for years to come. As well it should be.

Wouldn't it be a fucking shocker if the Anthony family mounted a civil case against Casey.

Just don't forget that you read it here first.