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South Florida Legal Experts Weigh In On Casey Anthony's Future

MIAMI (CBS4) -On Tuesday, Casey Anthony was cleared of all charges related to the death of her daughter, but she was convicted on four counts of lying to police.

The maximum sentence on those counts is four years.

But most of the legal analysts CBS4 News spoke with believe she will not serve any more time.

CBS4's panel includes four of the top legal minds: former criminal and dependency judge David Young, former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey, criminal defense attorney Jayne Weintraub, and criminal defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh.

CBS4 News asked them if Casey would walk out a free woman Thursday. Florida law requires the court to credit time already served in jail.

"I'd probably give her credit time served, and let her walk out the door," Young told CBS4's Gio Benitez.

"She has been in jail for most of three years, which means the most remaining time she's probably going to be serving is five-six months or less," said Coffey.

"But remember, the Department of Corrections will also have some wiggle room, and they're not going to want her in there as an inmate to protect her, because there's going to be a lot of security issues," said Weintraub.

"If this was not a high-profile case, and they convicted someone for something so minor, they probably would've set her free that day," said Eiglarsh.

But Coffey expects Anthony to serve a little more time.

"I think it's very unlikely that this judge is going to want to let her out," said Coffey.

"What would you do with an average misdemeanor? Would you give her 5 months when she's already served 3 years? You would not," said Young. "I mean look, you cannot punish her for a murder she was acquitted of, I know a lot of people out there want to, they want to get every last bit of vengeance against this woman, but the fact is she was found not guilty."

So after 47 days in court, and years of investigations, what's next?

"For Casey, I hope that somewhere somehow, she finds some peace and finds a new life somewhere," said Weintraub.

"She's on her way to a book deal, movie rights, who knows what the future holds for Casey Anthony," said Coffey.

"There has to come a time where you say to yourself, how much more money of the taxpayers are we going to waste on this? It just doesn't make any sense to keep her in any longer," said Young.

"It's just time to move on," said Eiglarsh.

Even if Casey Anthony walks out of jail Thursday, she still has one year of probation for check fraud. Last year, she pleaded guilty for stealing and using a friend's checkbook.

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