Casey Anthony Is The New OJ Simpson?

The OJ Simpson case was driven by race.  A black man accused of killing a white woman has to pay, just in case he's guilty . . .

The Casey Anthony case is driven by gender.  A white woman accused of killing her child, and is uncharacteristically defiance, has to pay, for conduct unbecoming a lady . . .

The take down strategy in both cases was the same, make the defendant the quintessential embodiment of a category of evil.  For OJ it was abuse of women; for Casey it was abuse of children.

By the end of the OJ Simpson case, there was no evidence of spousal battery, but there were two or three incidents, described by Denise Brown, Nicole Simpson's sister, that did not involve hitting.  In addition, there was the backdrop of the pre-trial testimony of Dr. Lenore Walker, the architect of the battered woman syndrome, who described OJ's relationship to Nicole as lacking the "prior escalating life-threatening behavior," typical of abusive relationships resulting in homicide; also, after 60 hours of interviews, she concluded that OJ Simpson "did not suffer from any kind of anti-social personality disorder."

Now the "bad mother," Casey Anthony, was caretaker to a child who, the evidence shows was not a victim of past physical trauma and, all of the witnesses to Casey's relationship with her daughter, testified that she was a good mother.  Photograph after photograph corroborates that, depicting a smiling young mother who is engaged, affectionate, and playfully interactive with her daughter.

The real evidence In the OJ Simpson case was blood evidence, but the defense countered with proof that blood taken from OJ, was improperly brought to the crime scene, and that some of it was missing.  Also, blood found at the scene contained unnatural amounts of EDT, a chemical used to preserve blood.  Finally, blood was applied to OJ's sock when his foot was not in it, since the blood impression, on both sides of the sock, was the same.

With Casey Anthony, the only real evidence of murder, are the circumstances surrounding Caylee Anthony's disappearance, and the conditions surrounding the discovery of her body. 

The prosecution asserts that a piece of duct tape, with a heart on it, was applied to Caylee's face, to  suffocate her, but they don't know if she died from suffocation.  They point to hearts in Casey's room, that are like the heart found on a piece of duct tape that was in the vicinity of her body, even though they can't established that the heart on the duct tape came from Casey's room, or that she had exclusive access to it. 

Prosecutors, in both cases, thought the jury would overlook the absence of substantive evidence, blinded by the evidence of the defendant's bad character, but they underestimate the capacity of a jury to find the truth, and the truth is, the prosecution didn't prove its case.

"(T)rial by jury is the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."