Casey Anthony - did she do it?

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Well by now we all have heard the news, that bitch got off for killing her daughter. I don't try and hide what I think, she's guilty as fuck in my opinion.

What does everyone else think?

[Muddy]

Man I'm all talked out.. I will say though... When is the justice for Caylee?

[Goofy]

Haven't really followed the story tbh

[Godfather]

Hopefully someday she'll be judged by a higher authority.

For the record: I don't watch this kinda stuff, as sad as this and similar cases are.

The Nancy Grace & Jane Velez-Mitchell crap is what I'm talking about specifically. The ridiculous hair and screaming accusations, male-hating, cutting off people who don't support you, analyzing what the accused wears in their hair... all on prime-time TV? It's just daytime drama dressed up to appear as legitimate news... it makes me angry. It's in the same genre as The Bachelor... except it's searching for drama out of real life tragedy.

My mom and a lot of women I know can't get enough of it. To me all you have to do is take a look at the cases chosen and the style of Nancy Grace to seriously question the point of it. They say reality TV doesn't force you to think critically (shows like Jersey Shore), and therefore actually makes you dumber. IMO this kind of thing makes you dumber. Watching case after case of little white girls and pretty wives being murdered and then their accusers hung on CNN... nope. Doesn't do it for me. It's sad, it's illegitimate. Total garbage.

/rant

[Hal-9000]

All I can say is that if she is guilty, hopefully the exposure will incite the public to make her life a living hell...

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I cant believe she walked, not reporting it for 30 days is guilty enough

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I cant believe she walked, not reporting it for 30 days is guilty enough

Exactly....what more evidence do you need?

[Hal-9000]

This reminds me of the Jonbenet Ramsey case.In 1996 she was murdered and the parents were prime suspects off and on until 2008.Finally DNA evidence on Jonbenet's clothing exonerated both parents and proved there was a third person in contact with the child.In that case I believe the parents were/are innocent.They reopened the case again in 2010, to continue the investigation.

In this case though, based on what I've read....Anthony is getting away with murder.

[Godfather]

Brutal. Hadn't heard that part of this case. But it's still only circumstantial, not direct evidence. It's easy to convince jurors that circumstantial evidence leaves reasonable doubt.

Which is a problem... because everyone knows that all be certainly means she did it Jury duty doesn't sound fun...

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Brutal. Hadn't heard that part of this case. But it's still only circumstantial, not direct evidence. It's easy to convince jurors that circumstantial evidence leaves reasonable doubt.

What mother doesn't report her kid missing for 31 days, all the while out drinking and partying and not once acting like anything is wrong? In fact, it was the grandmother that finally called 911 because Casey wasn't gonna do it. Then she made up a story saying she was kidnapped by a babysitter....that never existed.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

This reminds me of the Jonbenet Ramsey case.In 1996 she was murdered and the parents were prime suspects off and on until 2008.Finally DNA evidence on Jonbenet's clothing exonerated both parents and proved there was a third person in contact with the child.In that case I believe the parents were/are innocent.They reopened the case again in 2010, to continue the investigation.

In this case though, based on what I've read....Anthony is getting away with murder.

I still think one or both Ramsey's were guilty

[Hal-9000]

What mother doesn't report her kid missing for 31 days, all the while out drinking and partying and not once acting like anything is wrong? In fact, it was the grandmother that finally called 911 because Casey wasn't gonna do it. Then she made up a story saying she was kidnapped by a babysitter....that never existed.

and where was the child during those 31 days?

[Godfather]

I agree it's enough for us. Having read that, of course I believe she's guilty now.. .. but it's still clearly circumstantial by definition. You have to infer something to connect it to a conclusion. We can't start doing that in courts.

For the legal system, the precedent needs to remain that people cannot be convicted on circumstantial evidence alone. I don't think we need to go into why.... but the justice system needs proper direct evidence, otherwise you create a terrible, dangerous system. Sometimes this system is going to fail... but the onus is on the prosecutors to prove guilt, not the accused to prove innocence. Wrong-place-wrong-time type evidence, even in the extreme, means jurors would have to connect some unknown dots....

That said... I understand how, if the direct evidence (witnesses, dna, testimonies) wasn't strong, they'd be directed to some doubt with the '31 days' piece. The prosecutors would have known it wasn't good enough evidence from the get-go too if they went to law school at all.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

...people cannot be convicted on circumstantial evidence alone....

How do you think they did it before all that CSI style forensics?

And that is exactly what is ruining the legal system...juries all expect it to be just like an episode of CSI with all the fancy forensics and whatnot. Sorry, but it doesn't work that way in real life.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

and where was the child during those 31 days?

Exactly