The Casey Anthony Verdict and Our Legal System
Not since the O.J. Simpson verdict has a court case grabbed such world wide attention as that of Casey Anthony. The verdict is in, "Not Guilty on Murder Charges" and everyone has an opinion. Hollywood talking heads and "the beautiful people" are Tweeting about the gross miscarriage of justice.
The media and pundits had her convicted before jury selection had even started. Now that they are wrong, they blame the legal system and the jurors themselves. "How could this happen? A little girl is dead! How could this be?"
Well folks it happened. And it happened because the State couldn't prove it's case "beyond a reasonable doubt", the legal standard in THIS country. The jury sat through this case and heard all the evidence. Not Nancy Grace, not Aston Kutcher and certainly not Kim Kardashian!
Twelve civilians from our community were sworn to follow the law and they did just that. The
State proved the Defendant was a liar and the jury convicted her of those charges. There simply was no evidence to connect her to the tragic death of Caylee, not enough to prove the Defendant guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt".
Surely something bad happened but by whom? The Mom? The Dad? The Brother? The Defendant? Someone else? Who knows and we will never know and therein lies the reasonable doubt.
Like it or not, the system worked. As a former Supreme Court Justice once said, "better to free 100 guilty men, than convict one innocent one".
That is the way our legal system works. It was created by a group of our founding fathers who, by all accounts, were much smarter than we are.
Brian F. LaBovick, Esq.
Esther Uria LaBovick, Esq.
Mark R. Hanson, Esq.
Joseph R. Fields Jr., Esq.
Marcie Dodson, J.D.