The 'social media trial of the century' nears its climax

Did she or didn't she? Jury to decide without hearing directly from Casey Anthony

 

As for Casey, she will sit in her jail cell and wonder if she did the right thing. Should she have testified? Should she have tried to tell her story herself?

Did she or didn’t she? Casey Anthony decided she will let the jury in her murder trial decide that without hearing directly from her.

Viewers who have dipped in and out of the coverage, often unaware what testimony the jury was in the courtroom to hear, and what was presented out of their earshot, may believe it’s an open and shut case.
But before you conclude Casey Anthony, 25, is guilty of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, put yourself in the jury box.

There are 12 jurors, and five alternates who were chosen in part because they knew nothing, or next to nothing, about the case.

The jurors have heard prosecutors say Casey put three pieces of duct tape across her daughters nose and mouth to kill her. And they've heard she used chloroform to poison her child.

Video: Watch Casey Anthony decline to testify

The motivation? State prosecutors say because Casey wanted to live the life of a party girl.

Cause of death unknown What jurors did not see were Casey Anthony's fingerprints on the duct tape. They did not see any evidence of chloroform in Caylee's remains.

What is clear is: the jury in this trial will never know for sure how the toddler died.

The medical examiners conclusion is this was "a homicide by undetermined means."

In a murder case, prosecutors are not required to show how someone was killed, but there's a human desire to want that answer. The jury doesn't have the evidence to know.

But at the same time, the defense promised in openings to show Caylee was not a murder victim, but rather, she drowned in the backyard swimming pool.

The defense evidence of that? A few photographs of Caylee swimming and a photo of her opening the sliding glass door to the backyard without help.

The jurors may well ask: How is that evidence?

The only witnesses to what the judge calls "the defense theory of what happened" were allegedly Casey and her father George.

George took the stand six times during this trial and denied he saw Caylee's body in the pool. He denied he covered up the death. He denied he sexually abused Casey, which is why the defense says he held unusual sway over his daughter’s actions.