Will this trial suffer the same fate as OJ and Michael Jackson?

[LinasK]

Major reasons OJ got off: star-struck jury who refused to convict, the trial should have been held in Santa Monica- where the crime was committed-with a jury of his rich peers, rather than downtown L.A., Darden should never have had him "try-on" the glove in open court, Furhman's tapes should never have been admitted, and Ito should have recused himself because of a prior association with Johnny Cochran!!!
OJ's own attorneys knew he was guilty, but justified it to themselves under "moral cover".
Michael Jackson was also let off-the-hook by a star-struck jury as well, and the jury not believing the victim's mother.

Casey Anthony is no star or hero and her defense team is far from OJ's "Dream Team"!!!:twocents: She's far closer to Scott Peterson, who got the Death Penalty- yes Californians can get it right!!!

 

[LinasK]

ABSOLUTELY NOT....for the exact reason expressed by Horace above!

I watched the OJ trial from beginning to end, and I am sure we ALL recall the infamous "If the glove don't fit....you must acquit!" demonstration....many speculate this incident of OJ trying on the glove benefited the defense and eventually assisted in acquittal...

Several years after the trial, a member of OJ's closeknit "inner circle" had a final falling out with him, and wrote a book. His name was Mike ? and if I recall correctly, he had been OJ's publicist for years and worked closely with the defense.

Been years since I read that book, but "Mike" relayed several incidents of how the "dream team" covered for OJ.

The one incident that still sticks out in my mind is in regards to this "glove demonstration" during trial.

According to "Mike", OJ suffered terribly from arthritis and was on medication for years. In preparation for the "glove fitting", OJ refused his arthritis medication for several weeks prior to this demonstration. By the time the "big day" arrived, his hands were completely swollen with inflammation....SO THE GLOVE NO LONGER FIT!

The prosecution was probably well aware of this "trick", but could NOT bring it out in open court (arthritis...and whether OJ was currently on meds) during rebuttal because OJ did not take the stand!

Brilliant lawyering...

And JoseAin'tBeThatGood!!!

That wasn't the only reason the glove didn't fit, besides OJ mugging it, the glove had shrunk from the saturation with blood (any liquid would have done it) and he didn't have a latex glove on underneath to help it slide on. Darden made a colossal blunder by having him try it on for the first time in open court, he wanted a Perry Mason moment, but it back-fired!

 

[Softail]

I certainly hope it does not. This case reminds me more of Scott Peterson. Not a celebrity.

I really think she will be convicted. The prosecution has really been impressive. They haven't skipped a beat. IMO

 

[gitana1]

Ok.. I'm watching Roseanne host the Joy Behar Showv (freakin genius.. love her!) and she has Nancy Grace on as a guest.. even more genius! It's great.. she's talking about the twins eating in the bath tub, what they do for fun... fighting back tears... ♥
Anyway, Roseanne brings up the "tot" mom and Nancy weighs in with her opinion of what happened and what she thinks the jury will do..
Nancy thinks she'll be found guilty and get the DP... BUT she goes on to say that she also thought that the jury would find OJ Simpson and Michael Jackson guilty and they did not..
Roseanne then makes a point and says the jury was star struck with OJ and MJ.. and Casey Anthony isn't a star..
That made me think.. NO, she's not a star.. imo, she's an unfit mother/child murderer... Casey thinks she's a star.. we've seen from so many of her jail house letters that some of her "fans" think she's a star....
Do you think it's possible that she could get off on this because of how "famous" (or infamous lol) she is.. or the case, rather....?
Perhaps the change of venue will also benefit the prosecution? You'd have to be from a different planet to NOT have heard about this case.. but maybe?
Thoughts?

In a word, no. No comparison at all to the two cases. And, the evidence that will enrage a jury in this case is overwhelming (note, I almost said "in our case"!). Doesn't matter that it's circumstantial. I predict a finding of guilt, a definite finding of guilt. In fact, I'm betting that the first go around in the jury room, when they begin deliberations, will show a unanimous finding of guilt, unless some random nut gets on the panel. Even then, it will ultimately end in guilt.

Now, will she get the death penalty? That's up for grabs. In fact, I believe that's the only thing really up for grabs. But I'm good with life in prison for casey so I am unconcerned.

 

[gitana1]

A couple of important things to keep in mind. KC is not famous. She is not a star. She is infamous. She has no built in dedicated fan base or preconceived notions as one of the centuries greatest entertainers or athletes. She is instead somebody that we all, and all the possible members of the jury have seen before in our own lives and families. Just taken to horrible extremes. She is the black sheep. The problem child. Your sisters kid that steals money, parties, gets pregnant and dumps the kid on grandma while running off with bikers, etc. She is not something new or unfamiliar. She is not something different. In fact people pay attention because it does hit so close to home. This is not a good thing for KC.

Now further take note of where this is happening. All or most of these celebrity aquital's. California. Los Angeles. Hollywood. The one true place in this country where "privilege" does still maintain its old meaning of "private law for the wealthy and powerful". But KC is not in California. She is in Florida. And Florida's legal reputation and the reputation of its citizens in this regard is about as far opposite as you can get from California... except maybe for Texas. Florida convicts murderers. Florida sentences murderers to death. Florida sentences female murderers to death. And Florida does in fact execute them.

She is literally in a different world from OJ, Robert Blake, Michael Jackson, etc in ever conceivable way.

Hey, really intelligent points here. Especially the one about how casey is nothing new - everyone has had someone like her in their lives - and that that fact is bad for casey. That made me think. And you are right - that's very bad for casey, because everyone has had someone like that in their lives and has felt anguish and anger as a result. Their worst nightmare would be for such a person to take it to the limit as casey did. This case allows people to imagine the possibilities when it comes to their own relations and that scares them. Thus, sending a harsh message that such behavior will not be tolerated through a harsh sentence for casey is how they deal with that fear. Thinking about it this way solidifies my feelings about the outcome of this case even further.

 

[Reality Orlando]

Eh hem, and Virginia....

Florida also has lot of splainin to do about the many, many, many crimes against children in their state. I have always thought that KC would be the perfect conduit to make the statement that they are over it and they are not going to take it anymore. I know the citizens of Florida want to put a stop to it, and I hope the jury selection turns out that element.

Bolded by me.

Actually, Virginia has a higher missing/abused children rate at 361 http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=usMapSearch&missState=VA&searchLang=en_US than FL at 278 http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=usMapSearch&missState=FL&searchLang=en_US according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. This is even more so when you look at missing/abused percentage per population.

Not to trivialize these facts as even one missing or abused child is too many, but to point this out lest some lose sight of the fact this is an ongoing problem across the U. S. and not just in any one locale. Keep in mind that FL has the fourth largest population in the country. We also have the Sunshine Laws. These allow every nuance of a case to be continuously spread through the news media unlike many states that release nothing. We need to keep the focus in the national spotlight and not on any one state. I applaud Florida LE, such as Yuri Melich and his associates, for the constant fight to keep our children safe and bring those who do them harm to justice.

 

[strawberry]

Hmmm, maybe Roseanne Barr reads here too....or at least she was up to date on the GA development which had JUST happened when this aired:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1103/29/joy.01.html

BARR: She`s completely -- they`re saying that like, they`re saying that one of the things is that they might -- her best defense or something is that George Anthony, that they might try to blame it on him, that he snapped and killed the little girl. Have you heard about that?

GRACE: I`ve heard it. I`ve heard pointing the fingers at so many different people. I would predict that she`ll throw a lot of things at the jury and hope that one sticks. And using her own father as a scapegoat is one. In other words, he tried to commit suicide, which he apparently did, because he was guilty of killing the child. Nobody`s going to believe that. She`ll blame former boyfriends, former lovers, next-door neighbors, the meter reader that found the body.

 

[eileenhawkeye]

It may seem like there are more crimes against children in Florida, but the reason it seems that way is because many high profile cases involving children happened in Florida. I would take a guess that each state's rate of child murders is probably proportional to their population. We have high profile child murders/disappearances in Florida (Haleigh, Caylee, Carlie, Jessica) and high profile child murders in California (Polly, Danielle, Samantha). Someone might look at that and think that California and Florida are pretty messed up places for kids, but it just happens that the cases the media decided to pick up were located in those states. Also, since California and Florida have very high populations, they are going to have more child murders than say North Dakota, therefore, there's a better chance that the crime the media decides to pick up will be located in one of those states.

Also, we have Zahra in North Carolina, Kyron in Oregon, JonBenet in Colorado, Hailey in Texas, and Lindsay in Washington. Crimes against children aren't limited to one state.

 

[nssherlock]

ICA may not get the dp :maddening:, but my exposure to the Florida justice system says no way will this case suffer the same fate as OJ & MJ. Conservative (read belief in personal responsibility) jurors being the major difference. MOO

 

[sharpar]

This is laughable - KC is a ZERO and her attorney has suffered poor peer reviews in the media.
I believe the state is going to present a briliant logical well thought out CIC.
Caylee will speak loud and clear to the jury and KC will meet her fate.

 

[Solace]

I think that the State will show that KC is a hustler and has been doing so for years and that the George did it and threatened KC is not going to make it. Because if it were true and George did put Caylee in the trunk and KC knew George did that and he threatened her, then I sho don't believe for a nano second that KC would have come back to the house to steal money and get clothes.

That tells me that she was not afraid of George and also did not mind stealing the gas. She was not afraid.

That blows that argument. I think.

 

[Aedrys]

Well let's see. If the cosmic catastrophe happened of the SA and HHJP dropping dead, all evidence being lost or tossed out, the DT morphing in Perry Masons, and the jury box being full of lobotomized cadavers - then and only then would Casey walk.

No worries here. None at all.

 

[Reality Orlando]

Well let's see. If the cosmic catastrophe happened of the SA and HHJP dropping dead, all evidence being lost or tossed out, the DT morphing in Perry Masons, and the jury box being full of lobotomized cadavers - then and only then would Casey walk.

No worries here. None at all.

Lol, excellent summation!!! I agree.

 

[Jolynna]

Baez isn't Johnny Cochran. Cochran was likable.

Baez, Sims and Mason aren't Barry Scheck either. But, Ashton is. Like Scheck, Ashton is comfortable with science and will get the best from his forensic experts.

I predict the jurors will hate KC from the get-go. But, they will want to be fair. Barry Scheck's brilliance during his scientific examinations gave the jurors leeway to follow their hearts and vote the way they wanted to vote.

I predict Baez will do the same. When KC's jurors all vote guilty they will know in their heads as well as their hearts that they have done the right thing.

 

[Just Jayla]

Bolded by me.

Actually, Virginia has a higher missing/abused children rate at 361 http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=usMapSearch&missState=VA&searchLang=en_US than FL at 278 http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=usMapSearch&missState=FL&searchLang=en_US according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. This is even more so when you look at missing/abused percentage per population.

Not to trivialize these facts as even one missing or abused child is too many, but to point this out lest some lose sight of the fact this is an ongoing problem across the U. S. and not just in any one locale. Keep in mind that FL has the fourth largest population in the country. We also have the Sunshine Laws. These allow every nuance of a case to be continuously spread through the news media unlike many states that release nothing. We need to keep the focus in the national spotlight and not on any one state. I applaud Florida LE, such as Yuri Melich and his associates, for the constant fight to keep our children safe and bring those who do them harm to justice.

Thx-And I have no qualms about saying that Virginia ought to be ashamed of those stats and we should make an example out of the next creep that comes down that pike.
I participate in every vote here....Dear God, put me on one of those juries...
It is not to say that one individual, or LE or any one county etc., is to blame for what's happening in Florida-But the fact remains, that if you ask anyone else around the country to name a state where there have been several high profile cases of child abuse, murder, abduction, etc...they're gonna name Florida before they name any other state-It may just be a perception, and that perception may stem from the Sunshine Law, but the good people of Florida can kill that perception easily, IMO-Pardon the pun.

 

[Just Jayla]

It may seem like there are more crimes against children in Florida, but the reason it seems that way is because many high profile cases involving children happened in Florida. I would take a guess that each state's rate of child murders is probably proportional to their population. We have high profile child murders/disappearances in Florida (Haleigh, Caylee, Carlie, Jessica) and high profile child murders in California (Polly, Danielle, Samantha). Someone might look at that and think that California and Florida are pretty messed up places for kids, but it just happens that the cases the media decided to pick up were located in those states. Also, since California and Florida have very high populations, they are going to have more child murders than say North Dakota, therefore, there's a better chance that the crime the media decides to pick up will be located in one of those states.

Also, we have Zahra in North Carolina, Kyron in Oregon, JonBenet in Colorado, Hailey in Texas, and Lindsay in Washington. Crimes against children aren't limited to one state.

We have our share of whack jobs in the Old Dominion, but most of our publicized cases tend to be federal in nature. Hey, God hates all sins equally.

In some ways, I am glad that Florida's Sunshine Laws do shed light on these things...If Virginia had such an open policy, perhaps Sofia Silva, The Lisk sisters, Lisa Triggs, and many,many others would have had their justice sooner if ever. Florida has a great opportunity here to set the bar higher.

ETA-I wish Florida would execute on a tighter schedule as well, but hey, I'm not a Floridian so my griping is just that...In Virginia, the last woman executed committed her crime in 2002 and was executed by 2010. John Mohammed was sentenced to death in 2003 and finito by 2009. Yes, everyone deserves due process, but my view is that unless an egregious error has been made, a jury's conviction should stand paramount and be carried out with expediency. I don't always like it (Campean and Ramos being kept because GW Bush did not want to stampede on the jury's convictions really, really sucked), but I won't be hypocritical about it, either.

ETAA-Sorry for the O/T....so, how's ole OJ doing these days?

 

[Just Jayla]

In the hopes of putting myself back into the good graces of the On-Topic gods...

I cannot find the WFTV poll, but if you Google "casey anthony sentence poll," it's not looking good.

Now, do the same for Michael and Orenthal. Here's what I found:

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1484427/poll-mtv-viewers-think-jacksons-guilty.jhtml
People think Michael is guilty, but they don't care or are otherwise ambivalent!!!

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Simpson/polls.html
Race, Class and good defense played a part in OJ polls.

 

[aeli2468]

My biggest concern about KC getting acquitted is the data and stats going into this trial. There will be a lot of them with the chloroform, hair banding, time of death. I was extrememly concerned after Dr. Vass's testimony that many online new reported completely mistated some of the stats that Dr. Vass used (the chloroform levels in comparison to the test sample). Being a statistician and knowing how hard it is to get people to comrehend what statistics mean, I worry that a lot of the technical evidence (and the implications of that) may go over the juror's head.

I think that was a big obstacle in the OJ trial that the prosecution couldn't overcome.

On the flip side though, there is a lot of non-technical evidence as well around her behavior at that time which will hopefully help.

 

[2goaliemom]

Look at the caliber of attorneys representing MJ and OJ...then look at the defense team...I think that's our answer. They're so unorganized and disconnected from one another it's a joke.

Exactly. There is no comparison between "The Dream Team" and Baez et al. In the Jackson case, Tom Mesereau was simply brilliant cross-examining all prosecution witnesses. He proved beyond a reasonable doubt that there was a greedy family at the core of the prosecution's case, looking to extort money from an extremely wealthy celebrity. With all of the resources at Sneddon's hand, there wasn't a single witness who could verify any of his allegations---the FBI report released in November, 2009 (Sneddon had them investigate Jackson for 16 years) put that to rest.

The Anthony case won't go the way of those two high-profile cases---the overwhelming circumstantial evidence is with the prosecution and the ineptitude and arrogance of a strategy-less defense will insure that Casey is convicted.

 

[LinasK]

Exactly. There is no comparison between "The Dream Team" and Baez et al. In the Jackson case, Tom Mesereau was simply brilliant cross-examining all prosecution witnesses. He proved beyond a reasonable doubt that there was a greedy family at the core of the prosecution's case, looking to extort money from an extremely wealthy celebrity. With all of the resources at Sneddon's hand, there wasn't a single witness who could verify any of his allegations---the FBI report released in November, 2009 (Sneddon had them investigate Jackson for 16 years) put that to rest.
.

Mmmmm...:hand: I disagree that he proved that. I will 'till my dying day believe that Michael Jackson was a child molester who handsomely paid off his victims. Unfortunately Gavin's mother wasn't a good character witness, doesn't mean he wasn't victimized!:snooty: