Human Trial

Posted By timothy on July 11, 2011

I never thought I’d see the day when O.J. Simpson would not be the most ostracized person in America. Mel Gibson did his best to unseat him, and the right-wing attacks on Barack Obama (undeserved, I might add) got him close to the top of the list, but let’s face it, when it comes to fuck-ups, O.J. was a one-man fantasy league team. He not only was seen as the coldhearted murderer of his ex-wife and her….heh-heh, “friend,:” but he made Fred Goldman a more sympathetic figure than he was and $33 million richer (at least on paper). On top of that, O.J. followed that up with a Beagle Boys type robbery that landed his ass in prison for at least the next 19 years.

Since as far back as Christopher Columbus, the Fuck-Ups Hall Of Fame has been an all-male club. I thought for sure Leona Helmsley would be the first woman granted admission (however, not on the first ballot), but after being released from prison she straightened up her act. Naomi “El Kabong” Campbell was also thought to be a candidate for the first female inductee, but she was able to plea bargain her way out of consideration and into anger management.

Others thought The Octomom, Nayda Suleman, should have been inducted, especially if she kept fucking and spitting out kids. But she’s merely a confused, overmatched young woman—who is also easy on the eyes, so she got a pass. (In a poll of 47 people by phun.org 72% of respondents who were asked if they would fuck Nadya Suleman responded either “No” or “Hell no!” ¾ of the respondents were in the latter category—lying assholes).

Tonya Harding did her damndest to get in, before the public recognized that she was just stupid. Even baby killers Susan Smith (due to mental illness) and Andrea Yates (ditto) didn’t make the final cut. Then along comes a young lady who not only appeared to be a lying, child murderer, but a self-centered, uncaring party girl to boot. She not only kicked the doors of the FUHOF off the hinges Tony Montana style, but entered doing the watusi and then took a shit in the foyer!

Who is this clueless critter, you ask? Who could possibly erase O.J. Simpson from the hate section of the minds of white Americans? Why none other than Casey Marie Anthony. Like O.J., she was the suspect in a heinous murder and had already been judged guilty way beyond a reasonable doubt. Again, like O.J. she was exonerated by a jury that has been called everything from “stupid” to “brainwashed.” The jury, after six weeks of testimony from 100 witnesses, deliberated only 11 hours before returning their verdict of “Not guilty.” Instead they convicted Anthony on the more obvious counts: four charges of lying to police.

Let me state right now that I think she did it. Those tears in the courtroom during the announcement of the jury’s decision? Fake as Latoya Jackson’s skin tone. In several polls I read, half of those polled believed she was guilty of either murder or aggravated manslaughter against a child. But she’s walking, so for the time being, all that opinion is null and void. The central fact is, however, that Miss Anthony will go through the rest of her life wearing her scarlet M. Her parents have already received death threats and are under a police watch.

But unlike “The Juice” she is unlikely to be hit with a civil suit that will result in her having to pay tens of millions of dollars. This is why I believe that in the court of public opinion, her walk through hell and high water will be much tougher. You see, because of the racial dynamics in the Simpson-Brown case, black folks knew that sooner or later O.J.  would “get his.” And he got his to the tune of $33 million. But who will stick it to Casey (besides her boyfriend)?

As they say in sports, let’s recap. Casey Anthony was the mother of a two-year-old girl named Caylee Marie, who went missing on June 16, 2008 and was gone 31 days before Casey’s mother Cindy became suspicious and called police. In a call to 911, Cindy Anthony claimed, “I found out my granddaughter has been taken, she has been missing. My daughter finally admitted that she’s been missing … 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.” (source: http://investigation.discovery.com)

Four months later, this was later substantiated by crime scene investigators, who also detected the smell of chloroform. Experts who later went through Casey’s computer found 84 references to chloroform. However, Cindy Anthony claimed that she had googled the word. According to the Huffington Post, Cindy Anthony testified at the trial that “…she conducted the computer searches in an attempt to figure out why her Yorkshire terrier was ‘extremely tired all the time.’ The dog was known to eat bamboo plants, so Cindy Anthony said she started out searching for chlorophyll, a green pigment that is found in most plants.” (Source: David Lohr, “Casey Anthony’s Mom: I Googled ‘Chloroform’”, The Huffington Post, June 23, 2011).

Casey lied to her mother and police, telling them that she left Caylee in the care of a babysitter, Zenaida Fernandez Gonzalez, and that the sitter and Caylee gone when she returned. Police went to the address Casey gave them and found that the residence, an apartment, had been vacant for nearly five months.

Casey’s father George is a former cop, and if the child drowned and he and Casey attempted to cover it up, as defense attorney Jose Baez argued, then wouldn’t he have coached Casey to tell a better lie than that? This is my basis for throwing out the accidental death theory. I think her father would have advised her to come clean and face the lesser charges of negligent manslaughter of a child and child neglect, than murder. Second, if he wanted to cover it up, he’s a cop—wouldn’t he have known what other cops would look for?

All the while Casey continued her party girl ways and even participated in a “beautiful body” contest. She never expressed grief for her missing child until after she was arrested, and even then tried to make the issue about herself stating in a recorded jailhouse conversation with her parents, “God, I just want to go home! Every day I wake up, I’m just hoping and praying that I get to go home. I just want to be with you guys. I just want to help find her because I feel a little hopeless. I feel a little helpless here, I mean, honestly, not really hopeless, but more helpless because I can’t do anything from where I’m at.”

My question is, why didn’t she do something before she was locked up? Why did she lie to investigators? Why did 31 days pass before she even acted like she gave a damn?

Guess who was peeping around the corner just itching to fan the flames? You guessed it, Miss Know-It-All herself, Nancy Grace, who abandoned all semblance of objectivity early on. Grace said about Casey’s comments, “I`ll tell you what they prove. They prove that she’s not concerned in the least about her missing daughter.”

I think they insinuated as much, but they didn’t prove anything. There was some argument that Casey is mentally disturbed, so her lack of emotion regarding Caylee could be rooted in that. Again, her comments in that conversation do not prove that she wasn’t concerned, but hint as much. Still, how significant is that? Family courts across America are burdened by cases of uncaring parents, does that make them all potential killers? In my view, the defense (and Miss G) needed something stronger.

At a June 22 bond hearing, investigators announced that cadaver dogs not only smelled human decomposition in the trunk  of the Anthony’s family car, but strands of human hair that were similar to Caylee’s were also found. Six weeks later police announced that they didn’t believe Caylee was still alive, By this time Casey was already in jail for child neglect and on a petty theft charge. She was released four days later.

Nearly two months later Caylee’s remains were found buried in an area where locals illegally dump trash.  It appeared that at some point the child’s mouth had been duct taped. It was reported that the tape had been contaminated by an FBI examiner. Instead of keeping her mouth shut and a low profile, Casey went out and got a tattoo that read, “Bella Vita,” which means beautiful life in Italian. In the eyes of those watching, that act spoke volumes.

Now so far we have a 22-year-old woman whose child has been missing for more than a month and she’s acting as if all she’s done is lost a library card. Second, she has shoveled lies at her mother and the police officers investigating the case. During this time she has been photographed partying and dancing half nude, participated in a “beautiful body” contest, and went out and got tattooed instead of spending all of her time trying to get the truth out to all involved. She was fodder for the tabloids, living it up and unknowingly, turning half of America against her.

Some pundits saw this as a motive. They theorized that Casey killed her daughter because the child was taking up to much of her time and preventing her from living the style of life she wanted. There was speculation that she chloroformed the child, hid her in the trunk and tossed her away like the fat off chitlins. The problem with this theory is that just because Casey was a liar, “wild,” and even a bad mother as some were wont to complain, that did not make her a killer. Sadly, the opposite appeared to be the crux of the prosecution’s argument.

What puzzles me is that, there is no doubt the grandparents love Caylee, so if Casey felt pressured, couldn’t she have given the child to them? Dysfunctional or not, I think she would have gone that route before killing a child that, according to photos shown in the media, indicate that she adored being with. Second, if the death was an accidental drowning, why didn’t Casey alert her mother to this before the trial? 

The prosecution and the TV talking heads, the so-called “legal experts” played it like they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Casey didn’t give a fuck that her child was dead; that she was relieved. If so, this one coldblooded woman, and I’m not going to totally rule that out. But during the ensuing trial, jurors rejected that as a motive. They refused to convict because the Medical Examiner couldn’t determine a cause of death. So how could they say that Casey murdered her, when it could have been an accidental drowning and a botched cover-up, as Casey’s lawyers argued?

Unlike the prosecutors in the Simpson trial, Ashton and crew were competent, just not competent enough. They could not connect all the dots. Second, Baez simply beat them. He threw out enough “other possibilities” that the juror could not say for sure what happened, even though they believe Casey was guilty.

In an USA Today article, Marisol Bello and William M. Welch pointed out the reason for the acquittal: “…that despite the seemingly endless hype surrounding the investigation and trial, the prosecution’s case simply didn’t hold up. There was no forensic evidence — such as DNA or fingerprints — directly linking Anthony to her daughter’s death… They introduced controversial forensic techniques, such as an air-sampling method never before used in a criminal court case. The researcher who pioneered the technique said the smell of decomposition filled the trunk of Anthony’s car. A defense witness countered that the smell could have come from food that had been found rotting in the trunk.” ((Source: Bello and Welch, “How The Casey anthony Case Came Apart,” July 5, 2011,  www.usatoday.com/news/ nation)

Still, the fact of the matter is, the public thought she was guilty—just like with O.J.—and anything less than the death penalty for this heartless woman would itself be criminal. I suppose that with the imminent cancellation of soap operas All My Children and One Life To Live, TV viewers felt starved for drama. In The People of the State of Florida v. Casey Marie Anthony, they got a show centered on a murdered child and her pretty, footloose girl- mother. Co-starring were CSI and private investigators. This was followed up by lurid accusations of incest and child molestation.  

Casey was being torn a new ass from so-called talking heads from every side, including Prosecutor Jeff Ashton (who wore a cocky smirk during final arguments, which brought out an angry response for Casey’s lawyer Jose Baez), noted perjurer and liar Mark Fuhrman (hired by Fox News as an analyst), and the Queen of Legal Hyperbole, attention -gobbler Nancy Grace.

 Grace has literally made a living being wrong. She is to legal analysis what George W. Bush is to sound economic policy. She missed the boat on the Duke Lacrosse rape case (“I’m so glad they didn’t miss a lacrosse game over a little thing like gang rape.”) In the Duke case, the blond bomber supported lead prosecutor Mike Nifong, who was later disbarred. Nifong dropped the charges after the alleged victim declared that she was unsure as to whether she had actually been penetrated. After the state took over the case, all charges were dropped.

During Michael Jackson’s molestation trial, Grace tried him in the media. She wonde3red if it was “normal” for a man his age to sleep with children who weren’t his, which I think was fair. But according to NancyGrace,net, she “…would frequently take out a book found on Jackson’s property, The Boy: A Photographic Essay, which contained nude pictures.” Assuming Jackson had the presumption of innocence until proven guilty (something which Grace and others should know), she was trying to manipulate public opinion against him.

After Jackson’s death, Grace made this baseless accusation based on tabloid assertions:  “Someone doped up this dope addict. They enabled his death.” The latter part of that statement might be true, but the accused has yet to go to trial. As for the first part, have allegations that Jackson was an addict ever be proven?

Apparently she likes to have it both ways. Observe her comments regarding the Robert Blake/Bonnie Lee Bakley murder case: “Once, just this once, I will forgo an analysis of facts supporting guilt or innocence in a high-profile murder trial, this time California v. Robert Blake. Guilt or innocence aside, the case has already morphed from a single murder count into a double murder. Bonny Lee Bakley was murdered and buried along with another victim, her reputation.

“The defense is having a field day with Bakley even though obviously, she’s not present in the courtroom. So why bother with a defense alibi, forensic duels, DNA battles, or preparing Blake for the stand to tell the truth. They have Bonny Bakley to blame!”

Showing her true nature, Grace turned around and did the same thing to Casey Anthony, basing her opinions on evidence that the prosecution admitted was circumstantial. After she was proven wrong, Grace snarled “I absolutely cannot believe Caylee’s death has gone unavenged…they [the jurors] get on their bus and leave town, literally, back to Pinellas County. It’s over.”

Did not the media and the prosecutor play fast and free with Casey Anthony’s image? What about her reputation? Not like I think Casey Anthony is innocent. After all, she could have taken the stand and defended herself. I think she got away with murder—period, as do several of the jurors interviewed post-trial. But in America you get tried by your peers (at least, if you’re white), and you take your chances. Just because things don’t turn out the way Ms. Grace and others predicted does not make the jurors incompetent, stupid or brainwashed, They’re just people who made an unpopular decision, like the people who voted for George W. Bush twice.

One of Anthony’s lawyers, Cheney Mason, summed it up this way: “Well I hope this is a lesson to those of you who have indulged in media assassination for three years, bias, prejudice, incompetent talking heads saying what would be and how be. I’m disgusted by lawyers who have done this. And my colleagues have condemned this whole process of lawyers getting on cases that they don’t know a damn thing about.”

The jurors acted by the letter of the law, which was to convict Casey only if proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecution’s case did not meet those criteria. As outsiders, most Americans who weighed in on the case got caught up in the hoopla and speculation. Those things reign supreme in the absence of facts, and they will spawn a helluva backlash. Already there is a debate brewing in Florida over whether or not the jury selection process should be revamped. Again, just like with O.J.

As for Ms, Anthony, she will never escape the stares, whispers, public denunciations and the merciless media that will hound her every footstep asking if she did it. Yes, she brought her woe upon herself because she has been proven to be a liar who makes O.J. sound credible. The only way she could make things worse is if she announces that she’s going to sell pussy and “Use the money to find the real killer.”

One writer weighed in at yahooanswers.com with this gem: “Who else had a motive to get rid of her. Did you see the paper where Casey practiced her name over and over…..Casey Lazzaro…Casey Marie Lazzaro…Mrs Anthony Lazzaro. Too much! Casey Anthony is evil and needs to be in prison for the rest of her natural life!”

This is the type of person that Casey Anthony will have to contend with the rest of her life. If she’s photographed going into or coming out of a club, she will be called a whore. If she goes to dinner somewhere, management will politely ask her to leave. Woe unto her, should she be desperate enough to use a public restroom, and God forbid she should get pregnant again. The bad outcome that people will wish upon her!

Dyeing her hair, changing her name and moving to a tiny, gutbucket town where she thinks no one will recognize her won’t work. Her face will be recognizable even if she wears it under a Nixon mask.

She will probably try and parlay her notoriety into a fortune by doing a reality show or writing a book. Unless either one is titled “How I Got Away With It,” I don’t see public interest in either. You see, I think the real killer stares her in the face every time she looks into a mirror. America is waiting for her to admit as much, to fulfill the voyeur in us, to relish in the downfall of someone who “thought she was slick.”

Yep, Casey’s lies have made her America’s number one scapegoat and that takes some doing.

O.J. must be breathing a sigh of relief.

With this in mind, here is my poetic interpretation of events (with apologies to Ernest Thayer)…

Casey On Trial

 

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for Casey A, the pundits said

Fox News, MSNBC, CNN—all had talking heads

When someone mentioned “O.J.” there was hardly an audible gasp

As it marked the official end of having no more straws to grasp.

A straggling few watchers mumbled, “Innocence until proven not”

As if Miss A’s lies and circunlocution they’d thoroughly bought;

They thought, if only Miss Casey could get a trial that was fair…

But they dared not hold their breath with Know-It-All Nancy on the air.

Casey told her mom she’d taken Caylee to a babysitter,

Grandma Anthony wondered aloud when she was going to get her

But Casey lied and partied; and after 31 days went by

She wouldn’t say were Caylee was nor tell her mother Cindy why

Casey told her mom she was in Tampa, Florida working hard

But later mom and dad found her car impounded at a a wrecking yard.

There were complaints that the trunk smelled like something decomposed;

It rumbled through Grandma’s innards all the way to her nose;

So Grandma dialed 9-1-1 and made a tearful admission,

That Casey had confessed to her that the child was missing.

Police took her in, thinking the young mother was up to no good

And just six weeks later Caylee was found dead in the nearby woods

Folks saw Casey’s lack of remorse and thought, “Something here’s amiss”

Her trail of lies were plentiful and more twisted than licorice

And she resumed her partying; she went out and got tattooed,

There were photos in the press of her drinking and dancing half nude,

How the pundits did analyze; they all called her guilty as sin

None was more vociferous than Miss Nancy Grace at HLN

And when the trial started and the defense attorney changed his tune;

“She’s guilty!” was the song Nancy and the other know-it-alls crooned

Millions of eyes were on Antrhony as she heard the state dish dirt

And her own attorney tell the world that her dad was a pervert.

And when they flashed still photographs hinting that Casey lacked remorse,

She sat next to her lawyer and refused to testify, of course.

Twenty five thousand pages of data, 8 dozen took the stand

The jurors received their instructions; a decision was at hand

After six weeks some thought the deliberations would last a while

But eleven hours later they came back to court single file.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land O.J. couldn’t feel higher

And folks are stumped, ‘cause he’s no longer the nation’s top pariah

And Americans from all walks of life trudge on with solemn looks

Because the jurors were “brainwashed” and let Miss Casey off the hook.

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