Casey Anthony: Justice Denied for Little Caylee Marie?

Little Caylee Anthony with her mother Casey, who many believe killed her

Little Caylee Anthony was first brought to the attention of law enforcement, the residents of Florida and the whole of the United States on July 15th, 2008. Her maternal grandmother, Cindi Anthony, had made a frantic 911 call insisting she hadn't seen her granddaughter in 31 days and that her daughter Casey's car smelled 'odd', like she had had a dead body in there. Cindi Anthony explained that Casey had given her and Caylee's grandfather a variety of excuses to account for their granddaughter's absence over the previous four weeks. However, things had come to a head that day, when Casey had told her mother she hadn't seen Caylee in weeks either. This started a series of lies Casey Anthony would tell, with the most consistent being she had left Caylee with a nanny, appropriately called "Zanny". According to Casey Anthony, when she returned to Zanny's apartment to pick her daughter up nobody was there. According to Casey, she had been too scared she would be in trouble with the police and her family for leaving her daughter with someone she didn't know very well and so she had kept the disappearance to herself,, She went on to insist she had been trying to locate 'Zanny' herself. Police soon found out that Casey Anthony hadn't mentioned her daughter's alleged kidnapping to anyone, not even the man she was having a relationship with at the time. Soon after, a woman, whom Casey Anthony insisted was the mystery nanny was taken in for questioning by the police. She was released when law enforcement were happy she had nothing to do with Caylee's disappearance. Police were also happy that the nanny called Zanny did not exist and Casey Anthony was arrested and charged with murder in October 2008. She pleaded not guilty. 

On December 11th, 2008, a trash bag containing a Winnie the Pooh blanket and the skeletal remains of little Caylee was found in a wooded area not far from the Anthony family home. The Medical Examiner said, due to the state of the remains, he had no choice but to register the death as a 'death by unknown means'. However, he said that three pieces of duck tape found on or around the skull gave him cause to believe Caylee's death was actually a homicide. 

Casey Anthony's trial began on May 24th, 2011. The prosecution told the jury Casey Anthony murdered little Caylee using a mixture of chloroform and duck tape to free herself of the burden of parental responsibility. Prosecutors also sought the death penalty. The first shock of the trial was when the defence, led by Casey's attorney Jose Baez, countered with a story that little Caylee had accidentally drowned in the pool at the family home and that her grandfather and Casey's father, George Anthony, had disposed of the body.  

Casey Anthony's entire defence revolved around her alleged dysfunctional upbringing and the sexual abuse she had allegedly endured at the hands of her father. The defence team did not produce any evidence of the alleged abuse, nor did they have any evidence to support how they said Caylee really died. The prosecution on the other hand appeared to have plenty of evidence supporting their opinion that Casey Anthony was guilty of premeditated murder. A forensic researcher told the jury how he had found compounds associated with decomposition in samples taken from the carpet, spare tyre cover, wheel well and air in Casey Anthony's car. A hair found in the car was also proven to have come from a dead body. Mitochondrial testing proved the hair had come from Casey Anthony's maternal line, as Casey, Cindy and Cindy's mother were allegedly ruled out - that only left Caylee as the most likely owner. The prosecution also submitted records of several Google searches that had been taken off the Anthony family's home computer, the searches included 'how to make chloroform' and 'neck breaking'. According to the computer investigations expert, the word 'chloroform' had been searched 84 times. However, it emerged that the expert made a mistake and had misread the data produced by certain software he had used. It transpired that the word chloroform had only been searched for once. Still determined, the prosecution revealed that the Winnie the Pooh blanket was part of a set from the Anthony home. Altogether 400 pieces of evidence were entered in the trial. 

The trial lasted six weeks and on July 5th, 2011, the jury returned their verdict. Much to the shock of the prosecution, law enforcement and virtually everyone all over America and the World, Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murder. She was also find not guilty of aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse. She was found guilty of four counts of providing false information to the police for - lying about dropping Caylee of with Zanny at her apartment, lying about working for Universal Studios during 2008, lying about informing two other people that Caylee had disappeared and for falsely saying she had talked to Caylee on July 15th 2008, which had led to police expanding the search area and increasing manpower. Although the defence wanted all four counts to be counted as one, so as the sentence would run as one, the judge refused and instead acknowledged that the July to December 2008 search for little Caylee had cost a significant amount in police time, resources and costs. Casey Anthony was fined $1000 for each count and sentenced to one year in prison. However, she was credited with 1043 days for time served and she walked free on July 17th 2011. 

Today, almost seven years after little Caylee Marie Anthony died, Casey Anthony allegedly lives the life of a virtual recluse. An apparent 'victim' of her own notoriety, only the odd picture and interview has surfaced in the press since her trial ended. While some people will show her some sympathy, many more believe the real victim, Caylee Anthony, was denied justice and that her mother literally got away with murder. 

I have to say the Caylee Anthony case frustrates me. The prosecution dropped the ball more than once. The defence were able to counter the prosecution's claims about the chloroform found on the carpet of Casey Anthony's car because the prosecution's expert used a technique never before used in a homicide investigation. Add to that the Google searches mistake and the fact that the hair found in the car, that was said to have come from a dead body, was not 100% reliable, and it is no wonder the jury could not convict beyond a reasonable doubt. Considering the mountain of evidence, it almost feels like the prosecution jumped the gun and they ended up paying for it, or Caylee Anthony did. Her story just did not make sense. What sort of mother waits 31 days to tell police and her family that her 2-year old daughter is missing? I tell you what sort, a guilty one! A mother whose child has a fatal accident calls for help! A mother who has something to hide, comes up with one ridiculous excuse after another in order to cover up what really happened. 

What are your thoughts on the Casey Anthony case? Was she really just a compulsive liar who lost her young daughter to a tragic accident? Or was she really guilty of premeditated murder, driven by a need to have no responsibility in her life? 

Casey Anthony Today

Jodi Arias - Does she Deserve to Die for her Crime?

Jodi Arias mugshot from 2008

The Jodi Arias case has been a constant source of frustration for me, and I am in no way related to the case, live 1000s of miles away and have never met any of the individuals involved. Convicted of the first-degree murder of her ex-boyfriend in 2013, the jury were unable to reach a unanimous decision whether Arias should live or die during the penalty phase. The penalty phase retrial, initially scheduled for July 2014, began on Monday September 29th 2014 and, to this day, is still being heard. 

The toxic, troubled and deeply obsessive love affair between Jodi Arias and her Mormon on/off boyfriend, Travis Alexander, ended in his murder on June 4th, 2008. As the prosecution in the Arias trial would later say, Mr Alexander was murdered three times over - after being stabbed 30 times, shot and having his throat cut from ear to ear. Travis Alexander's body lay undiscovered in the shower at his home until concerned friends broke in and found him. Arias initially denied all knowledge of Travis' murder, instead playing the distraught friend and former love. Unbeknown to Arias, her name had already been mentioned to police by Travis' friends, as early as the 911 call from his home on June 9th. Arias was formally questioned by police on June 14th where she stuck to her story of knowing nothing. However, the physical evidence at the crime scene was beginning to tell a different tale, and Arias knew her game was up when police revealed they had found her hair and blood mixed in with Travis' at the crime scene. Rather than confess any wrongdoing, she told her second set of lies. Weaving a some what elaborate tale of how she and Travis were attacked in his home by two masked ninjas. Travis, she said, had desperately fought for his life. Probably the only true sentence she uttered in her deceitful web of lies. After learning from friends of Travis, his own emails and texts and Arias' own emails and journals, a picture of a beyond obsessed jilted lover soon emerged. She had manipulated Travis Alexander into taking her into his bed by conforming to his Mormon faith and acting like the demure girlfriend in public and a slut in the bedroom. Arias was indicted by Grand Jury for first-degree murder on July 9th 2008 and arrested on July 15th. Following her extradition to Arizona, Arias officially pleaded 'not guilty' on September 11th, 2008. 

The object of Jodi Arias' obsession
Travis Alexander

Due to a number of delay tactics by the defence, including having Arias submitted for an IQ test to assess competency, it was the summer of 2011 when Arias submitted a request to represent herself at trial. Judge Sherry Stephens,presiding over the upcoming trial, agreed to this although she specified that Arias' defence counsel (Victoria Washington and Kirk Nurmi) stay on in an advisory capacity. Later in the same year, Arias requested letters sent to her by Mr Alexander in the weeks leading up to his death be admitted into evidence. According to her, these letters were proof that Travis Alexander was not only a paedophile, but he was also abusive, controlling and violent towards her. Judge Stephens denied the request. She also denied the defence's motion to have the death penalty removed as potential punishment. Shortly after, Victoria Washington's request to step down as Arias' defence counsel was accepted and she was replaced by death penalty qualified attorney, Jennifer Wilmott. Around Christmas 2011, Jodi Arias' sister Angela appeared on a special edition of 48 Hours. During the programme, Angela Arias said her sister's claims of being attacked by ninjas was false and that Jodi Arias herself had killed Travis Alexander in an act of self defence after an abusive Alexander had attacked her. It was, therefore no surprise, when Arias' trial finally opened on January 2nd that she claimed she was guilty of killing Alexander but only because she was defending her own life. It was also no surprise that she had decided to hand over her representation to her attorneys. 

During opening arguments, Maricopa County Prosecutor Juan Martinez pointed out the many lies Jodi Arias had told before settling with her self defence motive. He highlighted the fact that, up until then, she had told many lies and two other versions of the events of June 4th 2008. He pointed out that, not only did Mr Travis Alexander have significant self defence injuries, he had actually been killed three times over. He concluded his opening argument with a segment of interview from July 2008, before Arias claimed stories of ninjas and self defence, where she said "I did not kill Travis. Mark my words, no jury will convict me". Arias' defence team told a much different tale. Telling the jury that Travis Alexander, who appeared wholesome and devoutly Mormon to his friends and loved ones, was actually an aggressive bully who bullied Arias into having both anal and vaginal sex. On June 4th 2008, Alexander had become violently outraged when Jodi Arias accidentally dropped his new camera. Warding off his violent attack, Arias had been left with no choice but to fight back, seemingly to the death. During the trial, Juan Martinez brought several female friends of Travis Alexander to the stand. All testified that Alexander was kind, devout to his religion and that they all felt safe in his company. Police Detective Esteban Flores who had interviewed Arias way back in 2008, remembered her calling him in the days after Travis Alexander's body was found. He told how Arias had said she and Travis were 'friends or buddies', she said they had once had an intimate relationship but that they had broken up as she suspected him of 'cheating...plus he got upset real easy'. He also recalled Arias telling him that she had been told the crime scene was a bloody one and enquiring whether a weapon had been recovered at the scene. Finger print experts, the Medical examiner, forensic firearms experts and blood spatter specialists all took the stand to explain the physical evidence. On January 9th 2013, Ryan Burns a once potential new love interest for Arias, took the stand and revealed how he and Jodi Arias had enjoyed an intense make out session on the day after Travis Alexander was killed. Burns also testified how Arias showed up at his home several hours late and with two fingers covered by bandages. He concluded his testimony by stating that Arias was 'fit' and 'much stronger than she may appear'. Jodi Arias would also take the stand, in fact she testified for 13 long days. During this time she appeared confident, almost emotionless. She was not swayed by the fact the Alexander family were in court,nor was she bothered when she revealed how she had been physically abused by her parents as a child. All this as her mother sat in court in support of her.

The long  trial came to a close in May 2013. The prosecution had painted her as manipulative, obsessive and absolutely determined to 'have' Mr Alexander at any cost. When it looked like he was potentially thinking of marrying someone else, her plan to murder him was put in place. Her active cover up both before and after the murder were proof of premeditation and the prosecution had no doubt if she were to be set free it would only be a matter of time before she killed again. The defence painted an altogether more different person. Jodi Arias, who had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder since the murder, was deeply in love with Travis Alexander and only ever sort to please him. Her testimony that he was a paedophile and that she had caught him getting aroused over pictures of young boys, was proof that she loved him. She had kept his secret, hoping to help 'cure' him. She put up with abuse and violence from Travis because she saw the good in him. Why, she even chose to enter his religion, because she loved him. Of course, she was actually scared of Alexander and complied with his sexual requests, which she actually found debasing, because she was too scared to say no. The day of the murder, says Arias, Travis flipped and, although she couldn't remember a lot of what happened due to a 'brain fog'. She knew Travis was going to try and kill her.

The jury found Jodi Arias guilty of First Degree murder on May 9th 2013. While the same jury panel found Arias guilty of committing murder in an especially cruel and unusual manner, they could not reach a unanimous verdict on the appropriate punishment - death or life without parole. The jury was dismissed and Judge Sherry Stephens ordered a retake of the penalty phase with a new jury. And that brings us to today, January 5th 2015, some seven years after Travis Alexander's death. The retrial of the penalty phase, which began in October 2014, was originally scheduled to be over by December,2014. However, due to the long list of mitigating factors introduced by the defence, secret testimony by Jodi Arias and a plethora of witnesses still to give evidence it looks like we won't be seeing a verdict soon. 

So, what is your view? Is Jodi Arias guilty of cold, calculated murder and therefore should receive the death penalty? Or does her self defence story have a ring of truth to it, can a jury be happy beyond a reasonable doubt that she DID kill Travis Alexander in cold blood or is there an element of doubt that means she should be sentenced to life without parole?

Update

On April 13th 2015, following a second hung jury, Judge Sherry Stephens sentenced Jodi Ann Arias to life in prison with no chance of parole. 

Jodi Arias refused to give any interviews without makeup or
in her prison stripes.