Not Surprised

I was going to wait to write this blog post until things had calmed down and I had time to gather my thoughts. However, I am in a blogging mood and I need somewhere I can channel my energy and comments. It's so hard for me not to comment on people's Facebook statuses or Twitter comments. I am afraid I may say something completely asshole-ish and sever ties completely or something like that. Plus, most of the things would just be repetitive and I don't want to sound like a broken record. So here it goes.

I, like a lot of the country, was glued to my T.V. once I found out that a verdict had been reached in the Casey Anthony trial. I didn't really watch the trial. I read some stuff about it, but I didn't follow it all that closely. I hate that the media makes such a circus out of things like this. I guarantee that if the child was Black or Hispanic, there would not be such a frenzy around the trial. But, that's not what I came on here to talk about.

I am not surprised at all that Casey Anthony was found not guilty on the murder and manslaughter charges. Not even a little. The burden of proof lies on the prosecution. It's their job to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Casey Anthony murdered Caylee. That just didn't happen. Too much of the evidence the prosecution provided was circumstantial. She may have planned to kill Caylee; Caylee may have drowned in the pool and then Casey may have made it look like murder. Caylee's body, when found was too decomposed and mangled to conclude a cause of death. That's a HUGE key piece of evidence missing. Yes, the defense's case had some missing parts as well, but the burden of proof does not lie with them. Their job is to show reasonable doubt in the prosecution's case. Which is exactly what they did.

The jurors did their job. They looked at the evidence and saw the holes in the prosecution's case. They saw all the what-ifs. All the probabilities. Whatever feelings they have toward Casey, they checked at the door. Yes, she partied, got a tattoo, and failed to report her daughter missing for a whole month. It may be because she was celebrating her new freedom (what a horrible thing to think. I can't imagine anyone being able to do that, but you never know) or that could have been her very strange way of grieving.

I'm not saying I believe she is innocent. I am just saying, that, legally speaking, I believe the verdict is right. Morally, I am not sure. I would be surprised if she wasn't involved somehow. If she is, that's something she has to live with for the rest of her life.