Wednesday, July 6, 2011

The verdict on my verdict about the verdict is in.

We have a greatly flawed judicial system. I just wanted to get that out there right off the bat.

We had a pretty good discussion about the Casey Anthony trial/verdict today in class, and some good points were made. Let's start by looking at some of the facts.

1. What mother on the face of the planet would even WANT to cover up her child's "accidental death"? If a child drowns (as Casey claims she did), wouldn't the first move be to call 911? It seems a bit odd to just bag up the body and try and stage it as a homicide. NO mother who's child accidentally drowned would simply bag it up to rot, and wait a month before doing anything about it.

2. Proof that chloroform was purchased by Casey herself, was found on her computer.

3. If your child dies, would it be very appropriate to go out partying that same night?

4. This might be the most critical point. If you're facing either potential life in prison, or even the death penalty, wouldn't you DEMAND to take the stand and defend yourself? She already lied to the police and her defense attorney was fully aware of this. They knew that if she did take the stand, the prosecution would tear her apart.

Pop culture and the media's influence in today's society is just sad. Somewhere along the line immediate physical evidence and DNA samples has surpassed common sense. I think we have shows (like CSI) that flood people's minds to thank for that. Our modern society has this skewed perception that "if there's no DNA, gosh darn it, there's no case". I find it hard to fathom that these 4 points can be so quickly thrown out simply because the case wasn't presented in a "CSI-like" fashion.

An innocent child was murdered and there were 12 people who were somehow incapable of using common sense to bring the killer to justice. Having 12 people picked at random to decide the fate of someone they know nothing about is a horrible idea in my opinion. We need a total revamp of the judicial system. I'm not sure how, but the current state in which the courts are run is a joke.

Do I think think she did it? Absolutely.

The hardest thing for me to learn in all of this (especially from the perspective of the field I will soon be entering), is once you've brought your case to court, it's out of your hands. I can work as hard as I can to present the facts to the court. After that, the actors (the PA & the DA) take stage and woo the audience with their smoke and mirrors. Justice doesn't seem to be at the heart of the courtroom anymore. There never was any interest from the defense or prosecution for Casey or her daughter, it was all about putting on an act for a dozen strangers. The game was played, and the defense made better moves.

3 weeks later, a woman walks and shows the world that people can be easily manipulated - that if you play your cards just right, you can get away with murdering your own child.

In the end, life goes on. We keep doing our jobs and say "hey, hopefully we'll get the next one". But is this really the attitude we should have towards justice? In the end, NOBODY wins, because a 2 year old has died and NO ONE is held accountable for it.

End rant.

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