Casey Anthony The Inside Story

[intellectualammo]

Presumed Guilty: Casey Anthony The Inside Story by Jose Baez and Peter Golenbock

 

Let me preface this by mentioning that though the trial is over and a Not Guilty verdict rendered, it can still be tried in the courtroom of peoples minds where they weigh the case, pronounce their own judgments, comments, thoughts, and feeling on it.  It’s such a fascinating case to me in a number of ways.  I feel so compelled to read and watch whatever I can right now on it.  It’s so engaging to me.   Deemed the trial of the century, and the accused dubbed the most hated woman in America. 

 

I now will review this book, as I did the prosecutors book before, Jeff Ashton’s Imperfect Justice: Prosecuting Casey Anthony

 

In the dedication, I came upon this:

 

To the seventeen men and women who served on our jury. I am ashamed at how our system has treated you. May this book shed light on why your decision was not only the lawful but true verdict.

J.B.

 

After reading the prosecutors book, this dedication becomes that much more meaningful.  I’m glad he’s givin’ a shout out to the jury, showing them the kind of respect they deserve.

 

Now let me start things going here…

 

This really read like an Inside Story.  You really get an inside, firsthand account of the defense, so much I didn’t know about, mainly why the defense defended her in the ways that they did.  Well, this book helped me to understand as it explained it well.  I do not think that they threw everything and the kitchen sink at the case just to see if anything would stick, they had reasons for including what they did.  This books details that, he’s open, explicit, seemingly candid about things in the book. 

He goes on to speak and comment on the cops, media, protestors, and occasionally made several digs about each, which I thought were completely warranted. 

There is a really good description I must share in regards to the law school he had went to:

 

One of the most important traits I learned, one that I carry with me to this day, is the mentality of a fearless warrior. We were taught to fear no one—not the cops, not the judge, and certainly not the prosecutor.

 

But in this high-profile case, he was up against much more than just that…

 

Speaking of, protestors were an example.  This comment of his is perfect, straight to the issue, in regards to them:

 

we saw signs. One said, “Burn in hell, bitch.” Another read, “You killed Caylee.” Others said, “I hope you die.” So much for innocent until proven guilty, I thought.

 

Seemed like the trial by media, many millions thought she did it and she should die, before due process. 

 

I find interesting enough to note about his evaluations of Casey’s intelligence and how you hear in the media about her wanting to go into law, paralegal, etc. and get a big chuckle out of that one:

 

I bought a book about the landmark case of Miranda v. Arizona, the Supreme Court case that gives each person the right to remain silent. I wanted her to read it so she could educate herself as to her constitutional rights, where they come from, and why they’re important.
Basically, I gave her a homework assignment. I gave her the book and asked her to write an outline of it. When I came to visit her two days later, not only had she read the book but her report was so intelligently written, I doubt a seasoned lawyer could have written it better.
I remember thinking to myself, Wow, this girl could have been anything she wanted to be in life. Instead, she’s here in jail and in the running for Most Hated Person in America.

[intellectualammo]

Part 2

This passage about what they did inside the jail, which may have just been done only in order to videotape Casey’s reaction to the information that they knew was being released that they think her daughters remains had been found, is worth quoting here:

 

It was only later that I found out why the police wouldn’t let me see her when I first arrived at the jail. As soon as the police got to the site where Caylee’s remains lay, Commander Matt Irwin, the head of the missing person’s unit, came up with the bright idea of calling the jail and asking if there was a room where they could take Casey and videotape her reaction to their finding Caylee’s remains.
“We can take her into the medical unit,” he was told. “There’s a TV there. We can turn on the TV and record her reaction to their announcing they had found Caylee’s remains and hopefully she’ll say something, maybe flip out and confess.”
This was the “medical care” I was told she was getting that prevented me from seeing her.
They sent someone to Casey’s cell. They shackled her legs and hands in chains, marched her to the medical unit, sat her down where there were several correctional officers and a couple of nurses standing around watching her, and forced her to watch the breaking news that police had found Caylee’s remains so they could record her reaction.
On the tape you can see Casey start to breathe heavily and start to hyperventilate, see her double over a couple times, and see she was in tremendous, tremendous mental and emotional pain.
For ten minutes they sat her there watching the horrible news made more horrible by the sensationalist media until one of the nurses said, “Okay, I think she’s had enough.” And that’s when they took her back to the classroom.
Meanwhile, oblivious to what they were doing, I was outside trying to get in while they were torturing her. Clearly this was a violation of her right to counsel and what two of the correctional officers would later testify to be cruel and unusual punishment. It was another end around, where the police were trying to get something from her. In my opinion, it was one of the cruelest stunts I have ever seen the police pull on someone. They made her watch the worst tabloid channel—WFTV Channel 9, the local ABC affiliate—a channel so inflammatory it was just a notch below Nancy Grace. To this day it was one of the cruelest and most disgusting things I have ever seen the cops do.

 

There was many things Baez observes and comment on in regards to things being done for the sake of as he refers to it as, “The Casey Anthony Reality Show“, things cops and media were doing. 

 

Also I want to mention that Casey gave permission to him for things in this book, so you can hear her through him in here, which I definitely don’t  in the other book.  It just adds more in why the defense took up the position that they did.  Remember he has a job to do and he is working for her, so he works with what he’s allowed to do by her as well and what she tells him and works by what they call good faith.  That all said, I think he does a great job with all that.   I was able to understand more about the sexual abuse allegations and so forth, why they were included, and so forth.  Again, the burden all lies with the prosecution.

 

The defenses attack begins:

 

Garavaglia (who gained fame as “Dr. G” from the Discovery Health Channel show, Dr. G: Medical Examiner) then announced that the cause of death was “undetermined,” and the manner of death was “homicide.”
“What the hell does that mean?” I asked Linda Baden.
“Hell if I know,” she replied.
“That’s a first for me.”
We knew right there that something was very fishy.
What that means in plain English is that they don’t know how she died, but they know it was murder. They were going to try to say they knew the who, but not the when, how, or why. None of it made any sense to me, and I knew if I had trouble with it, so would a jury, so that’s where the center of our attack of the prosecution’s case would begin.

 

Who, when, where, how, why -  You kinda need to know those things. Remember it’s a capital case - she lives or dies upon your verdict. 

 

Later after much much detail of the case, we get to the trial itself.  Baez does a fantastic job in his closing especially which I want to focus the rest of the review on, but his opening certainly is remarkable as well:

 

I had gone over my opening countless times. My detractors always talked about my swagger and my cockiness, but my confidence came from being prepared. It was nothing more than that. I knew going in that I knew the case better than anyone in that courtroom, and it was only through hard work that you get that way.

 

Here is his comment on the prosecutions opening:

 

the prosecution was going to do exactly what I was sure it would do: appeal to the jury’s emotions.

 

Her approach was no surprise. The prosecutor’s number-one card, one that they always play, is to try to appeal to the jurors’ emotions, trying to get them angry about the crime. After all, isn’t that what the television news does all of the time? That’s why the prosecutor and the TV news reporters work so well together. While the prosecution was appealing to the jurors’ emotions, I knew that I was going to have to appeal to their intellect.

 

And he did.

 

In his closing:

 

“We could have sat back, not questioned one single witness, and done absolutely nothing throughout the course of this trial, and the prosecution still had the burden to prove every element and every charge.”

 

“Mr. Ashton started out showing you a video of little Caylee, started talking to you about parenting, about what a mother should or should not do. He went on for a great length of time talking about this beautiful child. They gave you two weeks of testimony that was completely irrelevant and served only one purpose, and that was to paint Casey Anthony as a slut, as a party girl, as a girl who lies, and that has absolutely nothing to do with how Caylee died. And you would dishonor the law, and even Caylee’s memory, if you were to base your decision on anything but the evidence—to use emotion to get you angry is improper.”

 

Her behavior, her independence, etc. was being used in various ways in trying to appeal to their emotions to win, etc:

 

  there were more questions than answers. Fantasy searches, phantom stains, all of this nonsense and no real hard evidence. No DNA. No fingerprints. Nothing but Casey was a liar and a slut. Convict her on that. And she lied. And she didn’t act the way she needs to. She made some stupid decisions, but let’s make her pay with her life.
That’s what the case was all about.

 

After the prosecution closed with its usual rant about Casey’s bad character and how badly she behaved during the thirty days after Caylee’s death, it rested.
The case would soon be in the hands of the jury.

 

He goes on to give more of the inside story here, like what happened after the verdict, how and where they had taken Casey to, etc. which is something I didn’t know anything about before.

 

To me, this is a great book in the defense of the defense, through and through.