Casey Anthony trial begins

Casey Anthony trial begins

Casey Anthony trial begins. In Orlando this morning, after eleven days of jury selection proceedings, opening statements have begun in the trial of Casey Anthony, the woman accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie, nearly three years ago. If convicted, Anthony faces the possibility of the death penalty for the crime. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and claims that a babysitter kidnapped Caylee.

The prosecution is expected to rely heavily on the forensic evidence for their case, namely substances present in the trunk of Anthony’s car that indicate a decompositional event occurred around the time of the murder. The defense are then likely to claim there is no evidence that the decomposition was human in nature, and that a bag of garbage taken from the trunk of Anthony’s car was responsible for the signs of decomposition. Pings from Anthony’s cell phone on June 17, 2008 indicate movement near the wooded area where Caylee’s remains were eventually found, strongly implying that she was in or near the woods on the date in question.
The length of the trial will depend greatly on the angle taken by the defense in their opening statement. If Anthony continues to maintain that a babysitter is the one responsible for Caylee’s disappearance and death, then the prosecution will have to take the time and effort to try to prove via forensic evidence that Casey Anthony’s car had a dead body in it at some point, which would strongly suggest that she was at least involved in the toddler’s death. If Anthony’s defense team claims in opening statements that the death was an accident, as some analysts have predicted, that will not only relieve the prosecution of having to prove that Casey Anthony was involved in the death, but it could also shorten the trial by several weeks.
Source:gamutnews