Okay, I guess, since I have been listening to it in my office for days now, I shall weigh in on the Casey Anthony Case. God help me! Allow me to address the issues of how she was prejudged first, and then describe how she could have been even better off (like she would have walked out of the courtroom when they said “not guilty” better) had she followed a couple of basic rules.
Casey Anthony got a fair trial by all accounts that I have read and seen. Twelve jurors heard every shred of legally admissible evidence presented by the prosecution and found her not guilty. Clearly she was tried in the press and by the public well before any evidence was presented. Not surprisingly, an almost mob mentality started to take over. She was presumed guilty from the outset for any number of reasons not relevant to whether she did or did not kill her daughter. Among these is the fact that she did not behave “appropriately” during the period that her daughter was “missing” and presumably dead. She partied until the wee hours of the morning with friends. Prior to Caylee going missing Casey is alleged to have brought her toddler daughter to nightclubs with her. Caylee slept in the car while her mother danced the night away.
Casey Anthony is alleged to have practiced bisexuality, engaging in lesbian affairs and been indiscriminant in her sexual liaisons with both men and women and combinations of the two. How much more titillating can you get? By the same token, what in the world does it have to do with her guilt or innocence? I will acknowledge and admit to having had a pretty wild past. I shall not titillate you with the details, but let us say has a certain X-rated quality to it. Does this make me a killer or a premeditated murderer? I would like to think not, but who am I?
No one will ever describe Casey Anthony as a nominee for Mother of the Year, for the above reasons, but the fact that that you suck as a mom does not make you a killer either, in most cases. In this case the prosecution failed in their duty to prove, beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt, whether Casey Anthony killed her daughter. In fact, they failed on even a more basic level.
Given as true every single fact brought out at the trial, the prosecution failed to prove that the theory presented by the defense could not have been true. In other words, the prosecution was not able to prove the death could not have occurred in a way consistent with Casey Anthony’s innocence. The way the laws of the United States are designed to be interpreted, if you can come up with a scenario that is consistent with all the facts and is also consistent with the Defendant being not guilty, you have to find her not guilty, because it could have happened that way. It is hard to put into words, but if a man comes in from outside and he is soaking wet, there are many ways he could have gotten that way. It could be raining, he could have walked through the sprinkler, or he could have been in the shower with the woman next door. Until you can rule out all the other explanations, in a court, you have to go with the explanation that is consistent with not guilty.
Quite frankly, I am rather proud that the jury did not succumb to what was incredible public and media pressure to convict the woman. They have said, since the verdict, that they did not say she did not do it, but that the prosecution did not prove the case sufficiently to find her guilty, much less make a sentencing decision. The jury system is specifically designed to act as a check on the prosecutor and, in combination with the burden of proof and the limitations placed on the prosecution as the representative of the government, they hold the government to a very high standard of proof, and so they should.
We come from a history of abuses by a tyrannical government. Each and every day we see other governments abuse the human rights of their citizens in kangaroo courts in which the deck is clearly stacked in favor of the government. We live in a country that tries to make it as difficult as possible to convict an innocent person. In spite of this fact, since 1973, 138 men have been released from death rows in 26 states based on the grounds that they did not commit the crime for which they were sentenced.
Unfortunately, we no longer live in a society that believes that it is better to let ten guilty persons go free than convict one innocent person. We now believe that the one innocent person needs to take one for the team so those ten go to prison and we feel safer. I would argue that you will feel perfectly fine with this until it is you or your son or daughter that randomly gets selected to be the one that takes one for the team. It is much easier to allow some other not guilty person go to prison than you and yours.
The other thing that could have made a bunch of people just roll their eyes is if Casey Anthony had walked out of the courtroom a free woman on Tuesday. This could have happened and let me tell you how.
In my wallet, I carry a card on which is written the following:
Dear Law Enforcement Officer:
Several years ago, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that law enforcement agents were justified and authorized to lie to suspects and potential suspects during questioning. As a result, nothing the police say can be relied upon as correct or accurate. Accordingly, I have made the decision not to provide any information to, nor communicate with any law enforcement officer or agent without my attorney present. Please consider this an invocation of my rights under the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. I refuse to discuss any matter of any kind or nature with you. Further, the Supreme Court of the United States has upheld the right of citizens of the United States not to be required to produce identification upon the demand of a law enforcement officer. My named is William A Miller and my date of birth is MM/DD/YYYY. This is sufficient information to adequately identify me. The name of my attorney is XXXXXX X. XXXXXX and his phone number is XXX-XXX-XXXX. Please contact him regarding any request for information.
I have done nothing wrong and do not wish to engage in any conversation of any kind with you for any reason. This is a formal request that I not be detained any further, that I be allowed to leave immediately and that any and all property, papers and/or possessions be returned to me immediately. Should you refuse to allow me to go about my business, I consider myself to be under arrest and reiterate my invocation of my Constitutional Rights. I request that you allow me to immediately contact my attorney. Should I answer any questions, I do so only as a result of acquiescence to and fear of your authority as an armed law enforcement officer.
If you are on my property without a Warrant, I request that you leave immediately, as I consider you to be committing the crime of Trespass after Warning in violation of Chapter 810, F.S. This document constitutes an official notification which is required to be retained in your law enforcement records in this case. DESTRUCTION OF THIS NOTICE IS A THIRD DEGREE FELONY UNDER FLORIDA STATUTE 918.13(a).
PLEASE GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY.
/s/
May 5, 2002
When Casey Anthony was initially questioned regarding the whereabouts of her daughter, she merely had to invoke her right to remain silent under the Fifth Amendment and let her attorney do the talking for her. She would not have been in a position to give the police false information as she would not have spoken to them, except, presumably, through her attorney. Thus, no felony counts of providing the police with false information. She would have walked out of the courtroom when she was found not guilty of the murder.
The police read you your rights when you are questioned, after you have been taken into custody. In part they will tell you, “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.” The ONLY thing that cannot be used against you is your invocation of your right against self-incrimination or right to counsel. So, the government, in this case, was in the position of “if we can’t get you one way, we’ll get you anther.” As my friend and Attorney Dean L. Willbur, Jr. says (and has on t-shirts, as a matter of fact), “Keep your mouth shut and you won’t get caught!” This is true for both criminals and fish.
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