Casey Anthony after the trial

[Seattle1]

In your opinion why was Casey Anthony acquitted?

Actually, the jurors long ago told us why they acquitted CA -- their very first vote when they returned to the jury room to begin deliberations was 10-2 not guilty-- simply because they expected the prosecution to "prove" Caylee's cause of death and/or how she died.

This was a death penalty case, a charge of first-degree murder, and the Jurors incorrectly believed they were following the law looking for a certain cause of death. They wanted the who, what, why, and when! IMO, the prosecution also erred by focusing solely on first-degree murder.

And this is very important: Judge Perry tells us he'd pre-drafted a special jury instruction prior to deliberations, which would've seen him (the presiding judge), stress to jurors that establishing how Caylee was killed was not an element for the prosecution to prove, BUT THE PROSECUTION NEVER ASKED FOR IT.

Perry explained: "There have been numerous cases before where the body hasn’t been found or has been too decomposed to determine how someone was killed or how they died, but you know they died by homicidal means, so how she died was not an element to prove."

IMO, the lack of clarity on the law from the prosecution did appear to impact the jury's eventual decision to acquit.

Another faux pas on the part of the prosecution, Perry says, was focusing too heavily on the first-degree murder charges in their closing arguments.

"The prosecution chose to hammer home ‘first-degree murder.’

"Usually what you would do is say if you do not believe we’ve proved murder in the first degree, this is why we’ve also proved manslaughter, or second-degree murder or regular manslaughter.

"You give them the evidence to support those, which are known as lesser included crimes.

"But again, that wasn't done."

"This was a crab bones case - which means there was no tissue or traditional thing that you could’ve used to confirm the cause of death - you don’t know if they were stabbed, strangled, shot, or whatever," he said.

"In that context, it may have been admissible to show that she did a search for suffocation as the state made the argument she died that way.

[Prosecutors went to trial unaware of 98.7 percent of the Firefox browser history records created that day by CA].

"Researching how to murder someone goes to the element of premeditation.

Retired Judge Belvin Perry Jr. was shocked, too.

Exclusive: Casey Anthony Juror No. 3​

Jul 6, 2011
Jennifer Ford speaks out for first time about what led to the acquittal.