Casey Anthony Juror: "My Decision Haunts Me"

On December 11, 2008, the skeletal remains of two-year-old Caylee Anthony were found with a blanket inside a laundry bag in a wooded area near the Anthony family home. Duct Tape was found near the front of the skull and on the mouth of the skull. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide ”by undetermined means.”

Caylee Anthony Reported Missing

Casey Anthony, the horrific monster who birthed Caylee, did not even report Caylee missing. It was Casey’s mother who reported Caylee missing on July 15, 2008, nearly one month after she last saw the girl. She did this after picking up Casey’s car from a tow yard, stating that it smelled like a decomposing body inside.

Casey gave many reasons and excuses for failing to report Caylee missing. She even said a nanny named Zanny was taking care of Caylee.

Anthony did not act like a concerned mother. She was seen partying during the time Caylee was supposedly missing. She even got a tattoo that reads “bella vita,” which translates to “the good life” in English.

Casey was arrested for murder on July 16, 2008. During visits with her parents, Casey seemed uninterested in finding her daughter and was more concerned with being in jail. When her mother told Casey that Caylee was likely dead, Casey responded by saying “You think, mom?”

Anthony Found “Not Guilty”

A seven -woman, five-man juror found Anthony not guilty of first-degree murder after 33 days of testimony examining 400 pieces of evidence. The jurors also heard testimony from 91 witnesses.

No one expected a “not guilty’ verdict in this case. No one. Anthony was convicted of lying to police and released two weeks later.

One of the jurors on the Casey Anthony murder trial spoke to People magazine on the 10-year-anniversary of her acquittal. The male juror said that the case haunts him and that he thinks about itat least once per day.

Most jurors from that high-profile case were publicly named after the case and moved from the area. Most refuse to give interviews. One juror, however, told People magazine a month after the verdict that

“Generally, none of us liked Casey Anthony at all. She seems like a horrible person. But the prosecutors did not give us enough evidence to convict. They gave us a lot of stuff that makes us think that she probably did something wrong, but not beyond a reasonable doubt.”

He told the magazine that prosecutors in the case were “arrogant.”

He said that he gets a pit in his stomach every time he sees Caylee’s photo or hears details of the story. He said the photos of Caylee’s remains shown in court haunt him. He said that he can even remember the smell of the courtroom that he occupied for two months.

About finding Casey Anthony not guilty of murder, the juror said: “We sat there for a few minutes and were like, ‘Holy crap, we are letting her go free,’ and everyone was stunned at what we were about to do. One of the jurors asked me “Are you okay with this?” and I said ‘Hell, no. But what else can we do? We promised to follow the law.”

“I Didn’t Stand up for What I Believed In”

These days that juror says things might be different if it happened today. He told People magazine that he would push harder to convict her of one of the lesser charges, like aggravated manslaughter or child abuse. He went on to say that he did not stand up for what he believed in at that time.

Resources & Additional Information:

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/us/06casey.html

https://people.com/crime/casey-anthony-juror-speaks-out-10-years-later-my-decision-haunts-me/