Not Guilty? REALLY?

So, after being GLUED to my satellite radio and the HLN channel, listening to almost every moment of testimony in the Casey Anthony trial over the past month, I was pretty sure of two things:

1. I probably could pass the bar exam at this point in my life just from what I learned from my round-the-clock obsession with Headline News.
2. Casey Anthony was going DOWN in a BIG way. In FLAMES.

And...I was dead wrong on both counts.

My job affords me a certain luxury. I spend HOURS in the car - every day. And I usually choose to spend those hours listening to books on tape - or the fine programming on the Martha Stewart channel on my Sirius radio. However, over the past month, I have been rivited to my seat listening in on the testimony in this trial and all of the commentary to go with it. Now, don't get me wrong, I am certainly NOT a Nancy Grace fan. And I did NOT listen to or watch her program during this trial - despite running into her at Disney's Polynesian before the trial began. Her kids are super-cute. Anyway - I digress.  I did listen to the other personalities on that network as they analyzed the testimony and explained the law.

So, you can IMAGINE my excitement on Tuesday morning, when it was announced that the jury had reached its verdict. And, because of all of the fine legal programming I had been watching and listening to, and my pending D.J. from the Headline News School of Criminal Justice- I was pretty sure that an 11-hour deliberation could only mean one thing for Casey Anthony...an appointment with a nasty needle.

Picture Busy Momma on the edge of her seat -  awaiting the verdict and hearing NOT GUILTY to Murder One. Can you imagine what was going on in my head? (Imagine me screaming "WTF?" and you pretty much have it crystalized.) So - I calmed myself and figured that they'd nail her on felony murder....and again - a fine WTF moment was had. I was actually in a room with Sookie, my husband and another friend and we were ALL just shell-shocked. How on EARTH had these 12 people listened to ALL of that testimony and come back with a NOT GUILTY verdict? HOW? HOW? HOW???????

Now, while I am certainly no lawyer - I am pretty sure that Sookie is.(At least she has a pretty fancy looking law degree in her office and uses big words and can write one heck of a strongly worded letter.) And she's a damned good one. And according to my Sookie - the jury got it wrong. It seems that the jury was looking for a smoking gun, or some sort of hard and fast proof that Casey did it. And they didn't need it to convict her - and that was their critical and crucial mistake.  As a lay person, I can totally understand wanting that video clip or secret confession or DNA or fingerprint evidence - especially in a death penalty case. But according to the law - you don't NEED that kind of evidence to convict someone of felony murder. And not having it ISN'T "reasonable doubt".

One thing I do have to say is that Jose Biaz is one lucky SOB. Don't TELL me that he BELIEVES that Casey Anthony is INNOCENT. But - he did his job, he defended the process - and believe it or not - I have a lot of respect for him because of it. AND, I think his remarks afterwards proved that he is a class act. I hope he does what he says he wants to do and fight to make the death penalty illegal. Which brings me to my next point...

I wonder if she got off precisiely because this WAS a death penalty case. The two jurors who have come forth have both made comments indicating that they felt that the prosecution did NOT PROVE their case - ESPECIALLY since they were seeking the death penalty. Which makes me wonder - if they were seeking Life-in-prison - would it have been easier for these 12 people to convict? Would they have been able to use their common sense if they weren't faced with condemning someone to death?

I realize that I wasn't there, and that we will never know what really happened. But I do know a few things. I do know what it feels like to lose a child that you love. Even though I had not even gotten to know my Aiden, I loved him and wanted him and I am still mourning his loss. I know what grief feels like, and it can make you do and think really crazy things. By crazy things - I mean lashing out at people who don't deserve it, or using inappropriate humor, or becomming obsessed with cleaning your house. I do NOT mean entering a hot body contest, partying and getting a freaking tatoo. I realize that everyone grieves in their own way...but I take offense to the idea that Casey Anthony was grieving as she was out partying. That is NOT grief. That is psychotic, sociopathic behavior - pure and simple. ( And yes, I got my degree in criminal psychology at the same school that gave me my law degree...)

I also know what it feels like to bury a child, and it is just an awful, awful process. And while it is not polite conversation and I hope NO ONE who reads this blog EVER has to do it - I can tell you a few things about what goes through the average mind. A mother wants her baby to be safe and warm and comforted. And the idea of putting her baby in the cold, hard ground is almost too much to bear. I really think that it is only by the grace of God that grieving parents manage to stay above ground and not climb in the hole with their child.  A loving parent DOES NOT store a child's body in the TRUNK of her car until the stench becomes unbearable and then decides to dump it in a swamp. And one should not need any evidence of that - it's just common sense, people!

And now, to add insult to injury, it seems that Ms. Anthony will be a free woman in less than a week. What then? It's been reported that she wants to have another baby. The blog-o-sphere is a-twitter with reports that she will make millions of dollars on book deals and movie rights. I just can't seem to believe that. What publishing company would take a chance on that? Maybe the same one that published OJ's lovely memoir: "If I Did It". And who would buy and read her book? Who would ever believe a THING that came out of her mouth?

I hope that Casey is up in heaven, bouncing on clouds and sliding down rainbows with Aiden and all of the other babies that were taken from this earth way too soon. I hope that she is surrounded by angel wings and can feel the love that so many people who never met her have for her tonight. If anything good is to come from this - I hope it is legislation that makes it a felony crime NOT to report a child missing and a felony crime to DISPOSE of a child's body without reporting the death to the police. Because apparently, in the state of Florida, it is NOT a felony crime to chloroform a baby, put duct tape around her nose and mouth, smother the life out of her, dump her in the trunk of your car while you party and then dump her lifeless body into the swamp.

To sign a petition to get a law on the books that would make it illegal NOT to report a missing child. visit http://www.change.org/ and sign the petition for Casey's Law.