I was on the beach when I heard of Casey Anthony’s acquittal, the news delivered to me by the woman on the next blanket over. She had just learned of the verdict from her daughter by cell phone and felt compelled to share her shock with a complete stranger. Lips quivering with outrage, she declared, “that poor, poor, beautiful child. If she didn’t want to raise her, she should have let her parents have her; they obviously loved her so. She didn’t have to kill her.”
Unless you’ve been living under a tree stump, you know that the poor beautiful child is Caylee Anthony, dead at the age of two, her mother having been the one accused of killing her and then going off on a partying binge while her baby was missing for 31 days. It was a trial laced with horrible yet riveting details of Internet searches for chloroform and neck-breaking, the smell of a decaying corpse in a car trunk, allegations of child abuse and at the center of it all, a 20-something-year-old who clearly never should have been a mother in the first place.
The woman at the beach encapsulated the sentiment of so many who were transfixed by the case that was billed as the trial of the decade, perhaps century, a crime story that captured the nation’s attention as none has since the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995. And just as in that case, there is a bitter sense that once again, justice has not been done and a killer will go free. The headlines already are trumpeting stories of possible book deals, public appearances, and millions of dollars. The glamorous, hard-partying life Casey Anthony so craved seems within her grasp. There are no words for this kind of travesty.
It is ironic that the verdict was delivered in the same week America celebrated its independence and everything that goes with it –– freedom, justice and the American way –– all of the ideals upheld in the Constitution. After a trial that lasted a month and a half, the jury came back with its decision in just about 10 hours, which in itself seemed shocking, according to the woman at the beach.
“But think about it; it’s really not so surprising at all,” I told her. “Those poor jurors spent their Fourth of July holiday sequestered in a room examining the testimony and evidence in a horrible child murder; they didn’t get to spend time with their own children at a barbecue or pool or beach; they themselves wanted to be free. And it’s summertime. Kids are home from school. Those jurors just wanted the trial to be over and to be home with their families and who could blame them?”
Those jurors who had children, I am sure, went home and gave them an extra good hug. Anyone who loves a child knows how precious and sweet a two-year-old is. Two-year-olds are practically still babies who miraculously have the ability to walk upright. They are like fine-tuned sponges constantly absorbing everything about the world; they ask endless questions, especially “why?” They radiate love and give lots of hugs and kisses and often smell of baby powder. If I could turn back the clock on my own children and hold them in my arms again for just 15 minutes, please just 15 minutes, I might wish that they be two again.
There are several things about this case that I don’t understand and probably never will. Casey Anthony was found not guilty of first-degree murder in her daughter’s death; she also was found not guilty of aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter. She was, however, found guilty of four counts of providing false information to law enforcement. Translation: lying. Oh, come on. Anyone, especially anyone who has kids, knows that a lie usually is invoked to cover up a bigger crime. It usually is not murder.
But why was she not charged with negligence, reckless abandonment, or even child endangerment? Who lets her child go missing for a month and doesn’t report it? If Casey Anthony did not want to be saddled with raising a child, she should have given her up to her parents or up for adoption to any of the countless couples across America who desperately want children but cannot have one of their own.
This case makes clear a sad truth about the state of justice in this country. Sometimes the guilty go free and the innocent do not. Casey Anthony’s jurors said the prosecution did not prove its case. It is obvious that whoever has the best lawyer wins.
There is another sad truth. Caylee Anthony’s short life and death will never be forgotten. But despite all the attention she has received, she is not the only child who died a horrible death. There are so many children who are abused and killed by the people who are supposed to love and take care of them. They suffered quietly and died quietly, and their stories will never be told.
As painful as the death of their granddaughter and their daughter’s imprisonment and trial have been, Casey’s parents have been by her side. No matter what she may have done, she is still their daughter, and it is hard to sunder that kind of love. A parent’s love is, in most cases, unconditional. If there is anything redeeming about the verdict, it is that George and Cindy Anthony, who already lost their granddaughter, will not have to lose their daughter as well to death row. But they already may have lost her in a different way — certainly not as permanent as lethal injection — but just as sad and irrevocable.
