Casey Anthony Case

Casey Anthony

Upon first reading our assignment and trying to decide which case to choose, I decided that the best thing to do would be to read about both cases. OJ Simpson was a famous football player who was accused of killing his ex-wife and her boyfriend. The controversy in this case was that he was 1) a celebrity, 2) an African American male, and 3) allegedly murdered a white woman and her white boyfriend. Totally cliché, but he was acquitted because there wasn't enough evidence. Casey Anthony was a young mother accused of covering up the disappearance of her young daughter, and then when the body was found, she was accused of murdering her. Her case brought about national attention when she didn't report her daughter missing for a month. Then the controversy began with what seemed like a snowball of lies that soon became an avalanche.

Casey Anthony was the young mother of Caylee, a beautiful 2-year-old, who was last seen alive on June 16, 2008 (Escherich, 2011). The timeline of events leading up to Casey Anthony's arrest were disheartening and horrifying. In many reports, it was said that Casey went into a downward spiral, was partying and living life to the fullest. The most shocking event was the fact that she did not report her daughter missing until July 15, 2008, almost a month after her daughter was last seen. One lie turned into another and police fit the discrepancies together. Casey Anthony was arrested on July 16, 2008 and charged with child neglect (Escherich, 2011). From the time that she was first arrested until her trial began, Casey was in and out of jail multiple times. December 11, 2008 the remains of a young child were found a half-mile from the Anthony's home. After an autopsy and DNA testing were performed, it was confirmed that Caylee Anthony was dead on December 19, 2008 (Escherich, 2011).

Almost a year later, prosecutors announced that they were going to seek the death penalty in Casey Anthony's case, even though it was previously stated that they would not. From April 2009 until May 2011, evidence was collected, a case was made, and a jury needed to be selected. On May 9, 2011, jury selection began. After reading about the jury selection process for the Casey Anthony trial, it profound me that it took them 10 days to select 12 jurors to listen to the case, they started out with 200 possible jurors.

The first day alone, over half the possible jurors were excused by judges due to personal hardships. Day two was no better for the attorneys; more than two dozen more possible jurors were dismissed because they were discussing how she allegedly killed her daughter while seated in a private room. Day three found a male juror in contempt of the court and was fined for discussing the case with television producers. In the days following, more possible jurors were dismissed for various reasons ranging from disturbing behaviors to posting parodies on the Internet (The Huffington Post, 2011). The whole process was made a spectacle of; nothing was taken seriously in the process. Finally, ten days into the selection process, they had twelve potential jurors, 5 white males, 5 white females, 1 African American male, and 1 African American female. The statement