Casey Anthony (Mothers Who Kill Kids)

Casey Anthony is going to be released from jail today. She may already be released, who knows. It could've happened just after midnight, as many of the news stories are reporting.

I just read an article discussing the issues with the evidence presented in the case. It wasn't "proof beyond a reasonable doubt". What is a reasonable doubt anymore? To the jury's credit, they should've only had what was presented to them by the prosecution and by the defense. That might be the only saving grace, depending on what all was presented to them and what all was not. Some of the evidence, such as the hair in the trunk and even the presence of chloroform, was discredited by some. But even then, not completely discredited, just that it "shouldn't have been submitted as evidence".

Part of the problem that the prosecution had in presenting their case is that the body was so badly decomposed. The body was decomposed and the remains were nothing but skeletal. That left nothing for the medical examiner to use for confirming the way in which Caylee died. The burden of proof was on the prosecutors to prove how she died, what Caylee died from, prove that she was murdered, and what was Casey Anthony's motive?

With many cases this is all well and good because there is a body to examine. The medical examiner can say, "I found bruise marks on the neck," or, "We found traces of _______ in the body," or any other sort of findings they can report. With no body, only skeletal remains, the same reports inevitably cannot be made. There's just nothing to go by.

Casey Anthony didn't report her daughter missing for 31 days. She spent those 31 days partying and hanging out with friends. Eventually, yet prior to the police report finally being made, she posted on MySpace that jealousy took Caylee away. I may not have spent any time with her personally, but Casey Anthony's own writing makes it sound rather ludicrous that anyone would think that she was such a great mother.

It was mentioned many times, including by her friends, that her relationship with her mother, Cindy Anthony, wasn't exactly the greatest. Casey Anthony didn't seem to care much for her mother Cindy and the things that she was quoted saying, as reported by her friends, and even the tone of her own deleted MySpace Post, all imply resentment toward her mother.

People commit murder all the time. Sometimes the reasons seem plausible, sometimes they seem ridiculous. But even some of those ridiculous reasons garner murder convictions. Somehow, the jury didn't come to terms with the idea of a young, single mother who loved to live it up socially might find her child to be a burden. Couple that with the part about being at odds with Cindy Anthony? Jealousy taking her away? It sounds to me like Casey Anthony resented Cindy Anthony and didn't want Cindy to have Caylee. Why did Casey Anthony resent Cindy? Maybe Casey resented the fact that she was a young, single mother still living with her parents. Maybe Casey Anthony hated that her mother (according to interviews with friends) would still exercise control over Casey's life. Casey Anthony stole from her parents and even admitted it in the deleted MySpace post. Her writing doesn't express remorse, either. The tone sounds as though she's flaunting Caylee's disappearance and the lack of respect toward her mother:

"This mother gave chance after chance for her daughter to change, but instead more lies more betrayal. What does the mother get for giving her daughter all of these chances? A broken heart."

It'd be one thing if the sentence immediately following that were something like, "I'm so sorry, I never meant to hurt my mother like this." Instead, Casey writes about all the money she stole from Cindy and ends the post with, "Where did she go? Who is now watching out for the little angel?" In the context of the rest of the text, it absolutely does not speak of a loving Casey missing an adorable little Caylee. I rather envision Casey Anthony posting that with a grin on her face, thinking about how she has ultimately gotten back at her mother for...whatever her mother did to piss her off? In all honesty, it actually sounds more like Cindy Anthony didn't discipline Casey enough when Casey was littler and as she grew up, Casey Anthony became a nightmare child and Cindy tried to put her foot down more. Having a basis of little or no discipline combined with a sudden onset of attempted strict discipline can lead to disastrous results.

Casey Anthony wouldn't be the only mom to kill her child. Lots of moms do it. In some cases they are literally psycho, in other cases the mother is just too overwhelmed with the demands placed on her by the child as well as her other responsibilities. And for others, like Diane Downs, the child just gets in the way of what the mother would rather do. For people to claim that it is unreasonable to believe that Caylee Anthony getting in the way of Casey's social life is a motive for murder, I say - it isn't the first time! Some young moms get frightened, some young moms get stressed, some just don't want the burden of being a mother - plain and simple. Considering that there are people who will cut you up, kill you over something pointless (dumb arguments, cheap items, etc) and even kill and eat you - why is it so difficult to comprehend that she merely wanted more time to party?

I guess what Casey Anthony really did was devised an almost perfect murder method. With the victim being toddler Caylee, there are no obligations that people could notice Caylee missing. No one can report Caylee "not at work". Since Casey Anthony didn't actually have a job, she didn't have to come up with some sort of excuse to her employer. Since Casey was already legally an adult at the time and single, she could technically go wherever with little reason to question her whereabouts. And since Casey neglected to report Caylee "missing" until she was just about forced into it, the prosecution wasn't left with anything to allow them to pin it on her (within the confines of the current justice system).

In the days of fancy DNA evidence and computerized technology, Casey Anthony managed to escape the death sentence by lying and not speaking at her own trial. I guess that's where many of the other moms got it wrong, they 'fessed up eventually. In fact, if it weren't for Casey Anthony still living with her parents using a car that was technically in George Anthony's name, she may have never been caught. If it weren't for Cindy Anthony reporting the car as stolen, it probably wouldn't have come up. Casey Anthony could've just about "disappeared into the sunset".

I have known of many people who withhold permission to visit their children as some sort of a punishment to the person wanting to see them. From what I've read, it sounds like Casey actively did just that. If Casey Anthony lived alone with Caylee, Cindy Anthony wouldn't necessarily have had any reason to suspect Casey or Caylee were missing. If Cindy Anthony never had reason to suspect Casey or Caylee missing, merely that Casey Anthony wasn't allowing Cindy to see her granddaughter, that would've been a non-issue and limited to discussion within the family. If Casey Anthony owned and drove her own vehicle, Cindy wouldn't have called the police to report her own vehicle stolen. If none of that ever happened, Casey Anthony would probably still be out partying with her friends.

Again, with a few exceptions, it looks like Casey Anthony literally "got away with murder". She somehow committed the perfect crime.

Mothers Who Kill Their Children:

Casey Anthony: