What Do You Think of the Casey Anthony ‘Not Guilty’ Verdict?

After deliberating for ten hours on the case of Casey Anthony, the jury declared her ‘Not Guilty’ of killing her two-year-old daughter, Caylee.

Caylee was reported missing by her grandmother Cindy after 25-year-old Casey had avoided bringing Caylee out to see her. However, Cindy did not call the police until she brought her daughter’s truck home from the tow yard, only to report that it stank of a dead body. It wasn’t until six months after Caylee had gone missing that her decaying remains were found dumped in a forest.

Casey was charged of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter, third-degree felony murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child, aggravated child abuse and four counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer. She was found ‘Not Guilty’ of all charges, but she was found guilty on four accounts of lesser charges, including providing false information to a law enforcement officer.

This false information included fabricating an entire story about a nanny that didn’t exist, as well as an entire other life for her and her child that she told not only law enforcement, but her friends and family.

Prosecutors claimed that Casey drugged her daughter with chloroform and suffocated her by taping duct tape over her mouth and nose. The defense claimed that the girl accidentally drowned and her mother immediately went into denial, pretending that her daughter was still alive.

In the closing statement by prosecutor Jeff Ashton, he claimed that Casey Anthony had to choose between her child and “the life she wanted”. This claim was evidenced by the fact that the mother, shortly after her daughter’s disappearance, participated in club parties, a hot body contest, and tattooed the words ‘Bella Vita’ (Beautiful Life) onto her shoulder.

For more information regarding this case, check out ABC News.

Give us your thoughts. Was the jury right or wrong?