I'd just gotten done watching the TGI Fridays waitperson get sentenced to jail for flipping the bird at one of the prosecutors in the Casey Anthony courtroom, and here came this guest post from our buddy Looserobes.


CASEY ANTHONY TRIAL

The defense blew this case the moment they opened their mouth. When Anthony’s lawyer announced to the jurors in his opening statement that they would show the tot died accidentally in the family pool and that the defendant’s father buried the body, that was nothing less than a monumental gaffe. By doing that, he effectively switched the burden of proof from the State to the defense, and they would have had to put the defendant on the stand to accomplish that. As everyone who has watched this trial unfold knows, putting the known liar Casey Anthony on the witness stand would have subjected her to withering and deadly cross-examination. She would have convicted herself.

Had the defense, instead, relied on the time-honored strategy of simply arguing that the State had failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, they would have had a shot. The case, wholly circumstantial, left plenty of room for a reasonable doubt argument. Now, jurors have to wonder, what happened to the promise by the defense attorney regarding the drowning claim?

The jury has yet to get the case, of course, and anything could happen. The prospect of State rebuttal and defense surrebuttal remain. But when juries get cases, weird things have happened (can you say OJ?). Remember Johnny Cochran’s mantra? If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit. In the Casey Anthony case, the prosecutor’s gambit could be: duct tape on the mouth, her case goes south.