Monday, July 4, 2011

Jury begins deliberating in Casey Anthony trial

Casey Anthony Trial: Jury Begins Deliberations

PHOTO: Casey Anthony at the defense table at the start of the final day of arguments in her murder trial at the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Fla., July 4, 2011.

Jurors in the Casey Anthony trial have begun deliberating the fate of the Florida woman accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.
Anthony is charged with the first degree murder of her daughter and could face the death penalty if convicted. She sat stone-faced as the judge instructed the jury.
Judge Belvin Perry instructed jurors how to proceed in their deliberations. He gave jurors the option of finding her guilty of a lesser crime such as second degree murder, manslaughter or third degree felony murder. Those crimes do not carry a death sentence.
Along with the first degree murder charge, Anthony faces charges of aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter and four charges of lying to law enforcement.
This morning, closing arguments ended with the prosecution painting Casey Anthony as a pathological liar who diverted attention away from herself by claiming her dead daughter, Caylee, had been kidnapped.
See a Timeline of Major Events in Casey Anthony Case
Red Huber, Orlando Sentinel
Casey Anthony at the defense

Fireworks in the Courtroom
During the state's rebuttal to the defense's closing argument, Prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick played portions of jailhouse tapes of Casey Anthony lying about her daughter being kidnapped by a fictional nanny and the 911 call made by Casey Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, to report Caylee missing. The evidence was meant to show how Casey Anthony continued to spin a web of lies about Caylee's whereabouts even when she was given the chance to tell the truth to her family and authorities.
"When you use your common sense, you can listen and hear that there's nothing that's wrong with Casey Anthony that can't be explained using two words: pathological liar," Drane Burdick said.
"At the end of this case, all you really have to do is ask yourself the simple question, 'Whose life was better without Caylee?'" Drane Burdick said.
The prosecution concluded its rebuttal by showing a picture of a hard-partying Casey Anthony and the tattoo that the young mom got on her back following Caylee's disappearance. The tattoo read "Bella Vita," Italian for the beautiful life.
Prosecutor Drane Burdick sought to debunk defense attorney Jose Baez's closing argument that Caylee accidentally drowned in the Anthony family pool and that Casey Anthony's lies during the 31 days she knew her daughter was dead were a bizarre coping mechanism.More.

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