Casey Anthony — A Failed Strategy That Worked!

When Jose Baez came out of the blocks talking about sex abuse by Casey's father, I thought, why muddy the waters, and put the the family on the defensive, possibly dividing them, when Casey needs their support . . . 

I even had my doubts about the drowning scenario.  It's not so likely that it happened that way.  What if the jury gets so distracted by their disbelief in that theory, that  they decide, if the defendant's theory is not true, then the prosecution's theory probably is . . .

But as time went on, I began to see something beneficial evolving from the swimming accident theory, and the jury may have had that experience too.  The swimming accident theory, reminds thoughtful people that, the cause of death is unknown.  Caylee could just as well have died from drowning, as by suffocation.  As a matter of fact, she could have died from strangulation, starvation, a fall, or even sudden infant death syndrome . . .  Once you understand that the cause of Caylee's death is unknown, how can you convict someone of bringing about her death?  Like the alternate juror said, "they didn't prove that there was a murder."  

If the "swimming accident" is possible, it highlights the fact that suffocation by duct tape is the same thing, merely possible, not proven.

Eventually, I even signed on to the Casey's father as an incestuous molester defense.  No one believed it, but it riled George up, and his reaction dislodged the covering on his character, revealing a lying, self-serving, cheat; whose lack of natural affection for his child, is sufficient for him to wish her dead. 

To George, a public airing of his purported sins, deserves a death sentence, for his own daughter.  He as much as asked the jury to take her life, when he said, "something happened to Caylee. She's no longer with us. And Casey was the last one that I saw with Caylee. One and one adds up to two . . ."  Yet,, before Casey told on him, he was prepared to frame an innocent person, on her behalf . . .

The jury observed this dysfunctional family, as they were paraded before them.  Lee, the only one who loves Casey, clearly wanted her to be found not guilty.  Her mother seemed to want her in jail, but not dead; and her father just plain wanted her dead.

George was exposed to the jury as a man who has affairs in the midst of family crisis, and who cares so little for his daughter that, if he didn't molest her, it's probably just because he didn't get around to it . . .

Similarly, Cindy was a wife and mother who appeared unmoved by the claim that her husband molested their daughter, and had an affair with one of the volunteers, searching for their missing granddaughter.

In the end, George and Cynthia went to court to learn their daughter's fate.  At the end of the reading of the verdict, this mother and father left before the judge could finish speaking.  Cindy looked like someone exiting a funeral, and George looked like a mafia boss, who had just been dissed.  Nothing in their faces reflected relief, or joy, that their daughter would continue to  live, and would eventually be free . . .

If Jose Baez had not provoked George Anthony into exposing his true colors, the jury would not have understood the context in which these events occurred.

If Jose Baez understood what would evolve from his drowning defense, he's a genius.  But whatever he knew when he did it, in the end, it worked!

In the case of OJ Simpson and Casey Anthony, the defense lawyers did the same thing, they cut through a ball of confusion, and pointed the jury to a legal truth.  In the OJ Simpson case, that truth was, There's only one thing that links OJ Simpson to the crime, blood evidence; if you don't believe in the integrity of the blood evidence, you have a reasonable doubt.  In the Casey Anthony case, that truth was, if you don't know how Caylee Anthony died, you have a  reasonable doubt that Casey Anthony murdered her.

The American jury system works!