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Casey Anthony
Casey Anthony at the time of her arrest on October 14, 2008
Born	Casey Marie Anthony March 19, 1986 (1986-03-19) (age 25)[1]
Conviction(s)	Not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter of a child. Guilty on four counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer.[2]
Penalty	One year in jail and $1,000 in fines for each count of providing false information to a law enforcement officer[3]
Status	Incarcerated in Orange County Jail. Based on time served and good behavior, release is scheduled for July 17, 2011. [4]

The Casey Anthony trial (officially titled the State of Florida v. Casey Marie Anthony, 48-2008-CF-015606-O) was a criminal trial held in Orlando, Florida from May 9 to July 5, 2011 in the state's Ninth Judicial Circuit Court involving the death of two year old Caylee Marie Anthony.^[5][6] Caylee's mother, Casey Marie Anthony, was arrested on July 16, 2008 and indicted on charges of first degree murder on October 14, 2008. On April 13, 2009, prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty.^[7] Anthony maintained that she was innocent and that the child died accidentally by drowning in the family swimming pool.

On July 5, 2011, Casey Anthony was found not guilty of first degree murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and aggravated child abuse. She was found guilty of four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer. On July 7, 2011 she was sentenced to one year in jail and $1,000 in fines for each count. With credit for time served and good behavior, her release date was set for July 17, 2011.^[8][9]

The case received national media attention in the United States and became a public obsession, with newspapers and magazines calling it "the biggest ratings draws in recent memory" and "the social media trial of the century".^[10][11] Defense counsel charged that Anthony was being tried in the media to her great detriment while she was facing the death penalty.^[12] The case has been cited as an example of the unfairness of prejudicial pretrial publicity impacting the rights of defendants in the United States.^[13][14][15]

Disappearance and discovery

Caylee Marie Anthony, deceased circa June 16, 2008

According to Casey Anthony's father, George Anthony, Casey left the family's home on June 16, 2008,^[16] taking Caylee (who was almost 3) with her and did not return for 31 days.^[17] Casey's mother Cindy asked repeatedly during the month to see Caylee, but Casey claimed that she was too busy with a work assignment in Tampa, Florida. At other times, she said Caylee was with a nanny, later identified by Casey as Zenaida "Zanny" Fernandez-Gonzalez, or at theme parks or the beach.^[18] It was eventually determined that although Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez did in fact exist, she had never met Casey nor Caylee Anthony, any member of the Anthony family, or any of Casey's friends.^[19]

On July 13, 2008, while doing yard work, Cindy and George Anthony found a notice from the post office for a certified letter affixed on their front door. George Anthony picked up the certified letter from the post office on July 15, 2008, and found that his daughter's car was in a tow yard. ^[20] When George picked up the car, both he and the tow yard attendant noted a strong smell coming from the trunk. Both later testified that they believed the odor to be that of a decomposing body.^[21] When the trunk was opened it contained a bag of trash, but no human remains.^[22]

Caylee Anthony was reported missing to the Orange County Sheriff's Office on July 15, 2008,^[16] by her grandmother, Cindy. During the same call, Casey Anthony acknowledged to the 911 operator that Caylee had been missing "for 31 days".^[23][24] A distraught Cindy also told the 911 operator "There is something wrong. I found my daughter's car today and it smells like there's been a dead body in the damn car."^[25]

Case

Investigation

When Detective Yuri Melich, with the Orange County Sheriff's Department, began investigating the disappearance of Caylee Anthony, he found discrepancies in Casey's signed statement.^[26] When questioned, Casey said Caylee had been kidnapped by her nanny, Zanny. Although Casey had talked about Zanny, she had never been seen by Casey's family or friends, and in fact there was no nanny.^[18][27] Casey also told police that she worked at Universal Studios, a lie she had been telling her parents for years. Investigators brought Casey to Universal Studios on July 16, 2008, the day after Caylee was reported missing, and asked her to show them her office. Casey led police around for a while before admitting that she had been fired years before.^[28]

Casey Anthony was first arrested on July 16, 2008,^[16] and was charged the following day with giving false statements, child neglect, and obstruction of a criminal investigation. The judge denied bail, saying Casey had shown "woeful disregard for the welfare of her child".^[27] On August 21, 2008, after one month of incarceration, Casey Anthony was released from the Orange County jail after her $500,200 bond was posted by the nephew of California bail bondsman Leonard Padilla^[29] in hopes that Casey would cooperate and Caylee would be found.^[30] She was arrested again on August 29, 2008, on charges of forgery, fraudulent use of personal information, petty theft for forging $700 worth of checks and using her friend's credit cards without permission.^[31] Leonard Padilla, whose nephew posted Casey Anthony's bail, stated that if he had known before the bail was posted what he learned later, including that Anthony would not cooperate with him, he probably would not have helped get her out of jail.^[32]

On August 11, 12, and 13, 2008, tips of a suspicious object found in a forested area near the Anthony residence were called in to police by a meter reader, Roy Kronk. However, a search was not conducted at that time. After another report from the same man on December 11, 2008, human remains were found in a plastic bag. Duct tape was found on the face of the skull.^[33] On December 12, the remains were tentatively identified as Caylee's.^[34]

On December 15, WFTV reported that more bones were found in the wooded area near the spot where the remains had initially been discovered.^[35] On December 19, 2008, medical examiner Jan Garavaglia confirmed that the remains found were those of Caylee Anthony. The death was ruled a homicide and the cause of death listed as undetermined.^[36]

Arrests and charges

Casey Anthony was offered a limited immunity deal by prosecutors until September 2, 2008, but she did not take it.^[37]

On September 5, 2008, she was released again on bail after being fitted with an electronic tracking device.^[38] Casey Anthony was arrested for the third time on September 15, 2008, on new charges of theft,^[39] and was released shortly afterward.^[40] Her $500,000 bond was posted anonymously,^[41] and it was later revealed that her parents, Cindy and George Anthony, signed a promissory note for the bond.^[42]

On October 14, 2008, Casey Anthony was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and four counts of providing false information to police.^[43] She was arrested for the fourth time. She entered a plea of not-guilty to all charges.^[40] Judge John Jordan ordered that she be held without bond.^[44] On October 21, 2008, the charges of child neglect were dropped against Casey. In a statement that morning, the State Attorney's Office explained: "The neglect charges were premised on the theory that Caylee was still alive. As the investigation progressed and it became clear that the evidence proved that the child was deceased, the State sought an indictment on the legally appropriate charges."^[45]

On April 13, 2009, prosecutors announced that they planned to seek the death penalty in this case.^[46]

Evidence

The Anthony case introduced new forensic science that has yet to be peer-reviewed. The University of Tennessee's "Body farm" discovered "hair banding", a phenomenon in which hair roots can form a dark band after death. A hair found in the trunk of the Anthony car exhibited this pattern.^[47] Air samples were sent to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.^[47]

On Friday, October 24, 2008, a forensic report by Dr. Arpad Vass of the ORNL stated that results from an air sampling procedure (called LIBS) performed in the trunk of Casey Anthony's car showed chemical compounds "consistent with a decompositional event" based on the presence of five key chemical compounds out of over 400 possible chemical compounds that Dr. Vass' research group considers typical of decomposition (human decomposition was not specified). Whether or not the decomposition was human is still unknown, but was indicated as a possibility. The process has not been affirmed by a Daubert Test in the courts.^[48] Dr. Vass' group also stated there was chloroform in the car trunk. In evidence hearings, Dr. Ken Furton, a professor in chemistry at Florida International University, stated that there is no consensus in the field on what chemicals are typical of human decomposition.^[49] DNA samples could not confirm whether the source was alive or dead. The only DNA testing by the FBI was limited to 752 base pairs out of 16,569 base pairs (less than 5% of the mitochondrial genome sequence).

Evidence was found that someone had searched the Internet on Casey Anthony's computer for the use of the chloroform and how to make it.^[50] On November 26, 2008, officials released 700 pages of documents related to the Anthony investigation, which included evidence of Google searches of the terms "neck breaking", "how to make chloroform", and "death" on Casey Anthony's home computer.^[51]

Investigators also entered into the body of evidence a photo from the computer of Ricardo Morales, an ex-boyfriend of Casey Anthony, which depicts a joke in which a man is using a chloroform-soaked rag to drug a woman.^[52]

On February 18, 2009, documents released by the State Attorney's Office in Florida indicated that the same type of laundry bag, duct tape, and plastic bags discovered at the crime scene were found in the house where Casey and Caylee resided. Heart-shaped stickers were also recovered by investigators. According to an FBI laboratory email, a heart-shaped outline was originally seen on the duct tape that was recovered from the mouth area of Caylee's skull, but the laboratory was not able to capture the heart shape photographically and could no longer see it after the duct tape was dusted for fingerprint processing. The documents also indicate that Cindy Anthony stated to them that a Winnie the Pooh blanket was missing from Caylee's bed. This type of blanket was found at the crime scene. An entry from Casey Anthony's diary was also released.^[53]

The following diary entry by Casey Anthony is dated "June 21" and reads:

I have no regrets, just a bit worried. I just want for everything to work out OK. I completely trust my own judgment and know that I made the right decision. I just hope that the end justifies the means. I just want to know what the future will hold for me. I guess I will soon see – This is the happiest that I have been in a very long time. I hope that my happiness will continue to grow– I've made new friends that I really like. I've surrounded myself with good people – I am finally happy. Let's just hope that it doesn't change.^[54]

Transfer writing (imprints of writing) from other pages of the diary revealed the mention of a person named Kenneth, whom Casey had dated in 2003. A member of Casey Anthony's defense team, spokeswoman Marti MacKenzie, contends that this entry was written in 2003 prior to Caylee's birth. The defense contends that the opposite page has "'03" written in one of the corners as the date, and the handwriting on the two pages matches. However, there was no authentication that the "'03" signified a date, or when it was entered in the diary or by whom. The prosecution acknowledged that it did not know when the entry was made.^[55] However, an FBI report released in the media stated that the diary in question was not on the market until 2004.^[56]

Criminal trial

On June 30, 2010, Andrea Lyon presented a Motion to Withdraw as Counsel representing Casey Anthony.^[57] Linda Kenney-Baden withdrew in October 2010. Both cited travel costs as a barrier in continuing to represent Anthony.^[58]

Brad Conway, the attorney representing Casey Anthony's parents, withdrew in mid-August 2010, citing allegations in a defense motion that he received special treatment in reviewing records. Conway claimed these allegations were false, but that this now made him a witness in the case, which forced him to withdraw.^[59]

Jury selection began on May 9, 2011, at the Pinellas County Criminal Justice Center in Clearwater, Florida, because the case had been so widely reported in the Orlando area. Jurors were brought from Pinellas County to Orlando.^[60] Jury selection took longer than expected and ended on May 20, 2011, with twelve jurors and five alternates being sworn in.^[61] The panel contained nine women and eight men. It was estimated that the trial would last about two months, during which the jury would be sequestered to avoid influence from information available outside the courtroom.^[62]

The trial began on May 24, 2011, at the Orange County Courthouse, with Judge Belvin Perry presiding. In the opening statements, prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick described the story of the disappearance of Caylee Anthony day-by-day. The defense, led by Jose Baez, presented its claim that Caylee drowned accidentally in the family's pool on June 16, 2008, and was found by George Anthony, who then covered up Caylee's death and made it so that it would be a secret kept between himself and Casey. This, the defensed argued, is why Casey Anthony went on with her life and failed to report her child missing for 31 days. Baez also alleged that George Anthony had sexually abused Casey since she was eight years old, and also claimed that Casey's brother Lee had made sexual advances toward Casey; he was even given a paternity test to see if he was Caylee's father.^[63] However, the defense offered no proof of any sexual abuse of Casey by either George or Lee Anthony; consequently the defense was not allowed to mention claims of sexual abuse in their closing arguments.^[64]

The prosecution, led by Burdick and Jeffrey Ashton, alleged an intentional murder and sought the death penalty against Casey Anthony.^[65] Prosecutors alleged that Anthony used chloroform to render her daughter unconscious before putting duct tape over her nose and mouth to suffocate her, and left Caylee's body in the trunk of her car for a few days before disposing of it.^[64] The prosecution painted Anthony as a party girl who killed her daughter to free herself from parental responsibility and enjoy her personal life.^[66] The fact that Casey Anthony was told about the drowning theory in jail by her own mother and that this is where she got the idea for such a defense was also brought up by the prosecution.^[64]

To combat the chloroform evidence issued by the prosecution, Cindy Anthony was called to the stand. She told jurors she was the one who used her family computer to search the Internet for "chloroform" in March 2008 — not Casey Anthony. When asked by prosecutors how she could have made the Internet searches when employment records showed she was at work, Cindy Anthony said she went home from work early during the days in question.^[67]

On June 30, the defense team for Casey Anthony rested, with Anthony not testifying in her own defense.^[68]

Closing arguments

Closing arguments were given on July 2 and 3. Baez contended that there were holes in the prosecution's forensic evidence, saying it was based on a "fantasy". Baez told the jury that the prosecution wanted them to see stains and insects that did not really exist. Baez claimed that the prosecution did not prove that the stains in Anthony's car trunk were caused necessarily by Caylee's decomposing body there, but rather from a trash bag found there. He added that the prosecutors tried to make his client look like a promiscuous liar because their evidence was weak.^[66] He said the drowning is "the only explanation that makes sense" and showed jurors a photograph of Caylee opening the home's sliding glass door by herself. He stressed that there were no child safety locks in the home and that both of Casey Anthony's parents, George and Cindy Anthony, testified that Caylee could get out of the house easily.^[64] Although Cindy Anthony testified that Caylee could not put the ladder on the side of the pool and climb up, Baez alleged that Cindy Anthony may have left the ladder up the night before. "She didn't admit to doing so in testimony", he said, "but how much guilt would she have knowing it was her that left the ladder up that day?"^[64]

Baez told jurors his biggest fear was that they would base their verdict on emotions, not evidence. "The strategy behind that is, if you hate her, if you think she's a lying, no-good slut, then you'll start to look at this evidence in a different light", he said. "I told you at the very beginning of this case that this was an accident that snowballed out of control ... What made it unique is not what happened, but who it happened to." He rationalized Casey Anthony's behavior as the result of her dysfunctional family situation.^[64] At one point as Baez spoke, Ashton could be seen smiling or chuckling behind his hand. This prompted Baez to refer to him as "this laughing guy over here". The judge called a sidebar conference, then a recess. When court resumed, he chastised both sides, saying both Ashton and Baez had violated his order that neither side should make disparaging remarks about opposing counsel. After both attorneys apologized, the judge accepted the apologies but warned that a recurrence would have the offending attorney excluded from the courtroom.^[64]

Once allowed to continue, fellow defense attorney Cheney Mason then followed with an additional hour-long closing argument. Addressing the jury to discuss the charges against Casey Anthony. "The burden rests on the shoulders of my colleagues at the state attorney's office", Mason said, referring to proving that Casey Anthony committed a crime. Mason said that the jurors are required, whether they like it or not, to find the defendant not guilty if the state did not adequately prove its case against Casey Anthony.^[66][69] Mason emphasized that the burden of proof is on the state, and that Casey Anthony's decision not to testify is not an implication of guilt.^[66]

Because the defense used up a significant amount of time in their closing argument, the judge decided to hold off on the prosecution's closing argument until the following day. He wanted the jury "fresh" when hearing the other side. On July 3, 2011, Jeff Ashton told the jury, "When you have a child, that child becomes your life. This case is about the clash between that responsibility, and the expectations that go with it, and the life that Casey Anthony wanted to have."^[66] He outlined the state's case against Casey Anthony, touching on her many lies to her parents and others, the smell in her car's trunk — identified by several witnesses, including her own father, as the odor from human decomposition — and the items found with Caylee's skeletal remains in December 2008.^[64] He emphasized how Anthony "maintains her lies until they absolutely cannot be maintained any more" — and then replaces [them] with another lie, using "Zanny the Nanny" (Zenaida Gonzalez) as an example. Anthony repeatedly told police that Casey was with Zenaida. Police, however, were never able to find the nanny. Authorities did find a woman named Zenaida Gonzalez, but she denied ever meeting the Anthonys.^[64]

Ashton reintroduced the items found with Caylee's remains, including a Winnie the Pooh blanket that matched the bedding at her grandparents' home, one of a set of laundry bags with the twin bag found at the Anthony home, and duct tape he said was a relatively rare brand. "That bag is Caylee's coffin", Ashton said, holding up a photograph of the laundry bag, as Casey Anthony reacted with emotion.^[64] He further criticized the defense's theory that Caylee drowned in the Anthony pool and that Casey and George Anthony panicked upon finding the child's body and covered up her death. He advised jurors to use their common sense when deciding on a verdict. "No one makes an accident look like murder", he said.^[64]

Lead prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick told the jurors that she and her colleagues backed up every claim they made in their opening statement six weeks ago, and implied that the defense never directly backed up its own opening-statement claim that Caylee drowned and that George Anthony made the death look like a murder.^[66] "My biggest fear is that common sense will be lost in all the rhetoric of the case," she said, insisting that she would never ask the jury to make their decision based on emotion but rather the evidence.^[70] "Responses to guilt are oh, so predictable," she stated. "What do guilty people do? They lie, they avoid, they run, they mislead...they divert attention away from themselves and they act like nothing is wrong." She suggested that the garbage bag in the trunk of the car was a "decoy" put there to keep people from getting suspicious about the smell of the car when she abandoned it in front of a dumpster in an Amscot parking lot. "Whose life was better without Caylee?" she asked, stressing how George and Cindy Anthony were wondering where their daughter and granddaughter were in June and July 2008, the same time Casey was staying at her boyfriend’s apartment while Caylee's body was decomposing in the woods. "That’s the only question you need to answer in considering why Caylee Marie Anthony was left on the side of the road dead." Burdick then showed the jury a split-screen with a photo of Casey partying at a night club on one side and a close-up of the "Bella Vita" (beautiful life) tattoo that she got weeks after Caylee died on the other.^[70]

The jury began deliberations on July 4.^[71]

Verdict and sentence

On July 5, the jury found Casey Anthony not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter, and aggravated child abuse, but guilty on four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer.^[72]

On July 7, Anthony was sentenced to one year in jail and $1,000 in fines, the maximum penalty prescribed by law, for each of the four counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer, with the sentences to be served consecutively. Anthony received three years credit for time served plus additional credit for good behavior, resulting in her release date being set for July 17, 2011.^[73]

The individual guilty counts are specified in the Judge's sentencing as the following:

• Count Four - Casey Anthony told law enforcement officials that during 2008 she was employed at Universal Studios. This information was given during an investigation of a missing persons report.

• Count Five - Ms. Anthony informed authorities that she had left Caylee at the Sawgrass Apts with a babysitter causing law enforcement to pursue the missing babysitter.

• Count Six - Ms. Anthony told law enforcement that she informed two associate employees, Jeff Hopkins and Juliet Lewis, at Universal, where she later admitted she had never worked, of the disappearance of Caylee.

• Count Seven - Ms. Anthony told law enforcement that she had received a call and actually spoken to Caylee on July 15, 2008 at approximately 12 p.m., causing law enforcement to expend resources on this lie.^[74]

Publicity and aftermath

Before the trial

The case attracted a significant amount of national media attention, and was regularly the main topic of many TV talk shows, including those hosted by Greta Van Susteren, Nancy Grace, Geraldo Rivera, and others. It has been featured on Fox's America's Most Wanted,^[75] NBC's Dateline, and ABC's 20/20.

Nancy Grace referred to Casey Anthony as the "tot mom"^[76][77][78] and urged the public to let "the professionals, the psychics and police" do their job.^{[16][79][80][81][82]}

Casey Anthony's parents, Cindy and George, appeared on The Today Show on October 22, 2008. They maintained their belief that Caylee was alive and would be found.^[83] Larry Garrison, president