Casey Anthony Verdict ‘Not Guilty’: How Did Baez Win?
The Casey Anthony verdict of 'not guilty' shocked many people, especially given the media coverage that defense attorney Jose Baez was losing it by throwing out crazy theories.
So how did Baez pull it off?
Part of it is probably the barrage of allegation that Baez threw out - including charges for sexual molestation by Casey Anthony's father and that Caylee Anthony drowned in the family pool.
These claims at least give an imaginable alternative scenario of how Caylee Anthony died - i.e. that she wasn't killed and buried by her own mother - and why Casey Anthony lied from day one.
However, these allegations lack evidence - so much so that the judge barred Baez from mentioning his claim of sexual molestation in his closing arguments.
What really gave won the case was reasonable doubt.
Baez drove home to the jury that prosecution had the burden proof and they frankly didn't offer that much. There were no eyewitnesses, no video tapes, no DNA evidence, no fingerprints, and not even a determined cause of death.
The closest evidence was the smell of human decay in Casey Anthony's car, but that relied on newfangled science and contradicting testimonies (the prosecution produced witnesses who smelled human decay while the defense produced witnesses who didn't).
The rest is all circumstantial. Baez characterized these circumstantial evidences as overreaching and attempts to smear Casey Anthony's character.
He also attacked the checkbook prosecution as a team that pulled out all stops and dropped big bucks to win a big case.
This is not about the search for truth, said Baez.
Of course, the public isn't outraged over this decision for nothing. Casey Anthony's lying, her behavior during the 30 days that Caylee was missing, and circumstantial evidence all cast a shadow of guilty on her.
However, in the end, there simply wasn't enough hard evidence.
Casey Anthony is either innocent or lucky. Which is the case, we may never know.
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