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The Casey Anthony Verdict is Not an Endorsement of Our Criminal Justice System
redstate.com ^ | 7/5/11 | Rob Taylor

Posted on 07/08/2011 11:27:44 AM PDT by Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears

When the Casey Anthony verdict was announced I expected celebration from her defense team. I was more taken aback by the celebratory tone taken by pundits like Geraldo Rivera and Judge Andrew Napolitano. Their position is the same one that many liberals, anti-death penalty activists and libertarians are promoting now: this proves the system works.

But it doesn’t.

The American justice system is the greatest legal system in the world but like any other it is fallible. In the interest of liberty we err on the side of caution in criminal cases, but that means that in many cases we do not get justice. Talking heads on Fox were making the point that this was justice, that the verdict is a victory for the Constitution. This is wrong. Criminals getting off is a byproduct of a our love of liberty but it certainly isn’t an endorsement of our system.

Casey Anthony may or may not have killed her child but we know she committed several crimes afterward. She didn’t report her daughter missing for weeks. When police were finally involved she attempted to frame an innocent woman for murder. While her daughter was supposedly missing she was out partying. If not reporting your daughter missing for a month isn’t child abuse – or at least child neglect – nothing is.

(snip)

Little Caylee Anthony was abused, possibly raped according to her own mother who claimed George Anthony was a child molester. She disappeared and her mother did nothing. She died a horrible death and her family hired lawyers. Her body was desecrated, thrown into a ditch like so much garbage and her mother will likely walk free at sentencing. How is this an endorsement of American justice?

(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: anthony; casey; caseyanthony; caylee; cayleeanthony
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To: Bluebird Singing

I know a lot of people closely followed that case and I admit I did not. I can tell you my impression is the woman is guilty, but I don’t know if I could have voted for a conviction on a guilt beyond a reasonable doubt standard.


21 posted on 07/08/2011 11:50:24 AM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: Bluebird Singing

“Some things you must always be unable to bear. Some things you must never stop refusing to bear. Injustice and outrage and dishonor and shame. No matter how young you are or how old you have got. Not for kudos and not for cash. Your picture in the paper nor money in the bank, neither. Just refuse to bear them.”

William Faulkner


22 posted on 07/08/2011 11:52:36 AM PDT by Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears
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Click the Pic

My vicious cat Rocket cruelly cuts one from the herd

It was the one who didn't donate


Become a monthly donor and end FReepathons

23 posted on 07/08/2011 11:55:17 AM PDT by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list.)
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To: Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears

IMHO, this verdict proves the system DOESN’T work. A 2 year old child was murdered. Nobody gives a ****! Just as with the Simpson fiasco, this is the end of it. Justice wasn’t served. The murderers go unpunished.


24 posted on 07/08/2011 11:56:02 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (When the going gets tough, the tough check themselves into "rehab".)
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To: Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears

I read the article and the entire article was based upon the premise that Caylee Anthony was murdered. That charge is only an assumption which has not been proved. To lynch Casey Anthony based upon an assumption is mob rule. The reason we have a Constitution is to prevent idiots from engaging in witch hunts, hangings from the tree branch and street justice. Throwing someone in the river for a float test of innocence is from the Dark Ages.


25 posted on 07/08/2011 11:56:51 AM PDT by jonrick46 (2012 can't come soon enough.)
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To: Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears

What truth? The author actually believes Casey Anthony’s pathological lies? Where’s the evidence that George Anthony raped his granddaughter? That wasn’t even put forth by the Defense (which was forced to drop the whole sex abuse thing, anyway, due to a complete lack of evidence). Something the brain-dead jurors forgot about.


26 posted on 07/08/2011 11:57:06 AM PDT by miss marmelstein (Casey Anthony is guilty as hell)
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To: FReepaholic

“...The courts can’t always dispense justice, it is up to society to protect our children....

Like this perhaps?”<<<<

Ah, the good old lynch-mob reference.

No, if you had the ability to comprehend what was written, you would have completed the thought as the author expressed it, and not added your own hateful comments and incendiary rhetoric:

“The courts can’t always dispense justice, it is up to society to protect our children. We need to bring back public shaming, we need to bring back the idea of moral responsibility separate from legal responsibility.”

You are a jackass.


27 posted on 07/08/2011 11:58:14 AM PDT by Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears
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To: jonrick46

I’m going to take a wild guess that you really didn’t follow this case until this trial was all over the news. Am I right?


28 posted on 07/08/2011 11:59:28 AM PDT by Bluebird Singing
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To: Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears

This article is all over the board.First, its about the dysfunctional family and how THAT is injustice. Then the fact that the defendent hired attorneys and THAT is injustice, then the fact that the mother didn’t notify authorities and THAT is unjust.

Then the writer wraps up all these myriad points and says our legal system is not just. Then says the criminal justice system works when someone is not found guilty if the jury finds not guilty, but then titles the article “not an endorsement of our criminal justice system”.

WHEW!

Life is often unjust. Yes, it is not just that children have to suffer at their parents/family’s dysfunction. Yes, it is tragic when a young child dies needlessly.
But NONE of that has anything to do with our legal system. Our legal system is not about obtaining Justice for tragic victims...sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. Our legal system is about the state punishing someone who is found guilty of a crime.

Now, there is work to get a law saying it is a crime NOT to report a missing child. That is good. But it hasn’t been a law yet.

This kind of article does not help understand our legal system, or help us to move forward to better protect children.


29 posted on 07/08/2011 12:00:22 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (where is the Great Santini when we need him??)
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To: jonrick46

>>....engaging in witch hunts, hangings from the tree branch and street justice. Throwing someone in the river for a float test of innocence is from the Dark Ages<<

Nice hyperventilating while throwing out strawmen there, genius. Did you soil yourself?


30 posted on 07/08/2011 12:00:43 PM PDT by Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie

Do you agree or disagree with the following?

“The American justice system is the greatest legal system in the world but like any other it is fallible. In the interest of liberty we err on the side of caution in criminal cases, but that means that in many cases we do not get justice. Talking heads on Fox were making the point that this was justice, that the verdict is a victory for the Constitution. This is wrong. Criminals getting off is a byproduct of a our love of liberty but it certainly isn’t an endorsement of our system.”


31 posted on 07/08/2011 12:07:25 PM PDT by Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears
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To: Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears

It’s odd.

When the LA police officers were aquitted of brutality in the Rodney King case, many—including myself—were satisfied, despite the tape showing them beating him.

We said, truly, that the tape seen on TV had been edited to make the police look worse and King look better. The part that showed batons falling was actually looped by the lamestream misleadia to make it look like it went on much longer than it did.

We said, truly, that the jury saw the *whole* tape, and heard evidence we did not hear.

As we all remember, this verdict resulted in a race riot, during which Korean store owners protected their businesses with firearms, and atrocities were committed by the rioters.

Mark Levin and other experienced lawyers have said that the state simply failed to prove its case against Casey Anthony. They didn’t say that moronic jurors returned the wrong verdict, as in the OJ Simpson case; they said that the state*failed*to*prove*its*case.

If it’s so bleedin’ obvious that she killed the poor child, how is it that they failed to prove their case?

If I understand correctly, she was not on trial for being a horrible mother, for failing to report her child missing, or any of the other stuff that has led many to reason, “A mother that lousy *must* be guilty.”

She was on trial for murder, and for lying to officials (charges I never trust). The jury, who heard *all* the evidence, decided that the state had not proved its case on the murder charge, but they went along with the lying charges.

The system did work. The state is required to prove its case. Period. They didn’t. Period.


32 posted on 07/08/2011 12:07:56 PM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears
FTA:

Casey Anthony may or may not have killed her child but we know she committed several crimes afterward.

That 's the whole problem with this case. she may or may not have, neither one is proveable.

Maybe the prosecutors should have charged the beyotch with crime they could prove, like trying to frame the nanny.

Blame the government prosecutors, not the system.

33 posted on 07/08/2011 12:11:12 PM PDT by Las Vegas Ron (Woah, Obama will appease Trump, but not Lakin? Thanks LSM)
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To: dsc
Let me guess. You didn't even read the article. You saw the headline and immediately started typing. Because if you had read the article, you would have seen what the author wrote: Casey Anthony may or may not have killed her child but we know she committed several crimes afterward. Seriously, please read the article first.
34 posted on 07/08/2011 12:13:00 PM PDT by Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears
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To: jonrick46

Her death was a result of HOMIDICE. Which means: she was murdered.


35 posted on 07/08/2011 12:13:32 PM PDT by bonfire
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To: jonrick46

No, that is not what the article stated, go back and re-read it.

Also don’t forget when the court justice system does not hand out justice over and over again then witch hunts, hangings and street justice will take over.

Casey had her day in court and it is over. I don’t agree with the verdict and listening to the two jurors who spoke I don’t agree with their thought process at all.


36 posted on 07/08/2011 12:14:32 PM PDT by outpostinmass2
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To: Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears

Seems to me in an ideal world you’d have a process that attempts to determine the truth, and appropriate punishment doled out. Our system isn’t set up that way, the prosecution takes it’s best shot at what it thinks can be proven, and they person is found not guilty, they go free without fear of being charged again. No system is perfect but that’s the biggest flaw in the one we have, IMHO.


37 posted on 07/08/2011 12:15:32 PM PDT by bigbob
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To: Las Vegas Ron

Please read the article. It seems people are jumping in and commenting while COMPLETELY MISSING the author’s point.

for example:

“Casey Anthony may or may not have killed her child but we know she committed several crimes afterward. She didn’t report her daughter missing for weeks. When police were finally involved she attempted to frame an innocent woman for murder. While her daughter was supposedly missing she was out partying. If not reporting your daughter missing for a month isn’t child abuse – or at least child neglect – nothing is.

But a quirk in the law makes it so that that the same child abuse that can get your children taken away by CPS can’t put you in jail when that child turns up put in a garbage bag and thrown into a swamp. The best legal system in the world cannot bring justice to Caylee Anthony’s killer. This is the price we pay for liberty but it is hardly an endorsement of our system.”

And there’s even more.


38 posted on 07/08/2011 12:16:32 PM PDT by Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears
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To: Las Vegas Ron
That ‘s the whole problem with this case. she may or may not have, neither one is proveable.

Maybe the prosecutors should have charged the beyotch with crime they could prove, like trying to frame the nanny.

Blame the government prosecutors, not the system.


They did charge her and convicted her of lying to police specifically the fake nanny. She received 4 years and will be out in two weeks. Justice has been served.

39 posted on 07/08/2011 12:18:27 PM PDT by outpostinmass2
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To: Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears

I haven’t read the article yet. I will comment first then go read it and make another comment.

These facts are on the record.

1. The mom says the child died accidentally
a. She admits no other person was involved

2. The mother lied to the police, so they would search for the child

3. There was duct tape over the child’s mouth.
a. why was it necessary, if the child died accidentally

4. About three weeks after the child went missing, mom got a tattoo
a. this ‘mourning’ mother got a tattoo saying, “The Good Life”

5. She was known to have been going out partying soon after her daughter went missing

6. She executed internet searches that sought information on chloroform and breaking necks
a. why look up this stuff at all, but particularly just prior to your child ‘having an accident’

7. The mother’s father, a detective with ten year’s experience noticed the unmistakable smell of a dead body in the mother’s car trunk
a. at least one other person with experience in such matters, also picked up on the unmistakable smell

8. How do you explain all this away, without murder being the core vehicle?
a. keeping in mind mom says it was an accident on her watch, who else is to blame
b. I know mom said a baby sitter was the last to see the child
c. that was dis-proven
d. mom fell back on the accident story
e. that’s the ultimate explanation.

9. How can you rule for innocence? Well, you can’t.

10. It’s my take that there is clear evidence of massive jury misconduct here.
a. not doing due diligence
b. discussing the issue early on against instructions not to
c. ignoring the only logical conclusion to be made
d. using flawed logic to come to preposterous conclusions
I. method of death not ascertained (can’t convict)
II. no motive (can’t convict)

11. How could anyone else have done it?

12. Does it matter what method was used?

13. Isn’t wanting desperately to be free, then celebrating freedom, and heralding ‘the good life’ a completed circle? Yes.

14. There are grounds (IMO) to prosecute the jurors.

15. If they were prosecuted and found to have been guilty of jury misconduct, a mistrial could be declared.

16. If a mistrial were declared, the mother could be charged and prosecuted again.
a. someone with more knowledge than I may see this as ‘not an option’, but I’d like to get the concept on the record


40 posted on 07/08/2011 12:19:10 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Muslim Brotherhood (renames itself) the Liberty and Justice Party. NOT A JOKE.)
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