Jury Selection Gets Underway Monday In Casey Anthony Trial
ORLANDO (CBS4) - Jury selection gets underway Monday in the trial of Casey Anthony, the Orlando area mother accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. Because her case has drawn so much attention and has made national headlines for months, the judge will keep the location where jury selection will be held secret until its underway.
Jurors selected in the case will have to put their lives on hold for almost two months. They will be transported to Orlando and sequestered at a hotel. The estimated cost is $300,000.
"I'm not naïve enough to think we'll encounter no one who has heard of this case," said LeRoy Pernell, dean of the Florida A&M University College of Law in Orlando. "But the goal is to find people who have not been oversaturated with media."
Anthony, 25, could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder. She also is charged with aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and providing false information to law enforcement. She has pleaded not guilty and maintains a baby-sitter kidnapped Caylee.
Anthony waited a month before telling her mother that Caylee had disappeared in the summer of 2008. Anthony's mother then contacted authorities. Over the next several weeks, hundreds of volunteers scoured central Florida in search of any clues to Caylee's whereabouts. Meanwhile, numerous photos surfaced of Casey Anthony drinking, some of them allegedly taken during that first month.
The heart-tug of a missing apple-cheeked girl contrasted with images of the hard-partying, single mother and proved irresistible to talk-show hosts and bloggers. The Anthony case became a media sensation, as HLN talk show host Nancy Grace gave her the moniker "Tot Mom." Protesters suspecting Anthony had a role in her daughter's disappearance demonstrated outside of the home Anthony shared with her parents.
Caylee's decomposed remains were found December 2008 by a municipal meter reader in woods not far from where the little girl lived with her mother and grandparents. Detectives said residue of a heart-shaped sticker was found on duct tape over the mouth of her skull. The local medical examiner, Jan Garavaglia, who once had her own national television show, "Dr. G: Medical Examiner," ruled that a cause of death could not be determined. The autopsy said that Caylee's bones didn't suffer trauma.
Some outside experts said the lack of a cause of death could make it hard to get a first-degree murder conviction
"If you can't say how she died you're kind of hamstrung on saying what the defendant's intent was," said David Hill, an Orlando criminal defense attorney. "What the state has going for them is the emotional, visceral appeal that the jury digs but if the jury is doing their job, and the defense attorneys are doing their jobs, I would predict a conviction on the third-degree felony of neglect."
Prosecutors will have to make strong links for the jury between the circumstantial evidence and Anthony, if they are to succeed, said LeRoy Pernell, dean of the Florida A&M University College of Law in Orlando.
"Failure to show exactly what is the cause of death is a challenge, but it's not necessarily a fatal challenge," Pernell said.
In their arsenal, prosecutors have physical evidence and Anthony's own misleading statements to detectives, such as claiming that she worked at Universal Studios when she didn't. Prosecutors want to use evidence from the car Anthony was driving in the days before Caylee disappeared.
Forensic testing found in the car's trunk traces of chloroform, which is used to induce unconsciousness and also a component of human decomposition. In a 911 call, Cindy Anthony described the vehicle as smelling "like there's been a dead body in the damn car."
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