Casey Anthony reacts after the jury acquitted her of murdering her daughter, Caylee, during Anthony’s murder trial at the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, July 5, 2011. ((AP Photo/Red Huber, Pool))
The highly publicized Casey Anthony trial came to a close Tuesday afternoon. When the jury declared Anthony not guilty of murdering her daughter, the American public responded with outrage at the verdict.
For those following the highly emotional case for the past three years, no punishment for the death of then two-year-old Caylee Anthony was simply unacceptable.
However, in contrast to the general population’s reaction, SMU Associate Law Professor and former prosecutor Jeff Bellin was not surprised by the result of the trial.
“This was a difficult case for the prosecution due to the absence of evidence of what actually happened to the child. The prosecution’s theory that Casey Anthony suffocated her daughter using chloroform and duct tape was, in the end, just that, a theory,” Bellin said. “The jury was asked to answer the question, did the prosecution prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Casey Anthony intentionally killed her child in this manner. They answered no, and my sense is that it was a reasonable application of the applicable legal standard to the proven facts.”
The televised trial has been at the top of mainstream media headlines since May and many avid viewers and followers of the Anthony trial seemed to feel that they knew the case better than the legal teams on either side.
Bellin found fault with much of the media’s coverage of the trial, saying that television pundits appeared to have forgotten the real job of the jurors.
“I thought the coverage of the case was misleading,” Bellin said. “Many of the pundits seemed to assume that the jury would react emotionally and overlook the legal failings of the prosecution’s case. I even heard pundits on TV suggesting that the jury would convict because ‘someone has to pay’ for the death of a child…Juries are instructed to put emotion aside in rendering a verdict based on the facts and the law, and the jury seemed to follow that instruction in this case.”
The general public, however, reacted emotionally. Within minutes of the verdict’s announcement, nine of the top ten Twitter trending topics were related to Casey Anthony, including, “#NotGuilty.” Some tweets even went so far as to call the trial, “O.J. Simpson No. 2.” However, Bellin says that the focus of these statements is off base.
“It is important to view the criminal justice system as a system and not as defined by any single case,” Bellin said. “People may disagree with the result in this case, but they should recognize that the result is a function of a jury conscientiously applying a widely-accepted legal standard — requiring the prosecution to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
This undated photo released by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Orlando, Fla. on Friday, July 18, 2008, shows Caylee Marie Anthony. ((AP Photo/Orange County Sheriff’s Office, File))
Isaiah James McCoy, 7, holds a sign if front of George and Cindy Anthony’s home, background left, in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, July 5, 2011. Casey Anthony was found not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse. ((AP Photo/Alan Diaz))
