Casey Anthony Trial - Defense To Rest/Casey To Testify?

Way overdue for a blog update. Sorry about that, guys. I had to make a choice between Tweeting pretty much non-stop during testimony and updating my blog daily. I've had so many people say the Tweeting is helpful to them, so I chose to keep up with that and just get to the blog whenever I could get to it.

At the close of trial Wednesday, the defense informed Judge Perry they will likely rest their case in chief Thursday. If this is all they've got, they're in worse trouble than I imagined they could be. And that's before the state puts on its rebuttal case.

George: Mastermind Criminal/Abuser/Suicide Faker

Today was disastrous for the defense. George Anthony was credible in his testimony and, thanks to Baez, was able to respond that he "put 1 and 1 together" when he realized Caylee was missing and that Casey was the last to see her. In addition, he testified he didn't think "at that time" that his daughter could've killed Caylee, clearly leaving the impression that he thereafter did come to believe her capable of it.

Jose Baez questioned George about his "alleged" suicide attempt. George corrected him, saying that it wasn't alleged, but that he fully intended on going through with it and would have if not for LE having found him. Baez asserted to the judge (out of the jury's presence) that George shouldn't get a pass and be allowed to act all innocent since "all" he had were some blood pressure pills and beer. Baez totally minimized the issue and said it could've been faked for sympathy or attention.

Apparently, he's unaware how dangerous taking too much BP medication can be. Having sufficient blood pressure is kind of a big deal. But hey, George was just putting on a show because he knew "the walls were closing in" on him and that LE was about to find him out for all his monstrous sexual abuse and his disposal of Caylee, as well as for trying to frame his poor sweet daughter.

This didn't pan out too well for the defense since George held his own and refused to lend credence to the defense's accusations against him. It also allowed Jeff Ashton to storm right through the door Baez opened and question George about the suicide attempt. In fact, the door opened so wide, Ashton will likely be allowed to introduce the suicide note itself in rebuttal.

George was so sympathetic in talking about how he felt it was time to just leave all the madness behind and be with Caylee. He missed her so much, felt guilty because he felt he didn't protect her, just didn't feel he could take this world anymore.

If I were a juror asked to consider that the attempt might have been insincere, I'd figure if that were the case, George was simply trying to get his daughter to FEEL something in hopes she'd END this nightmare for all of them, not because he knew the coppers were hot on his sexually-molesting, body-dumping, daughter-framing trail.

I have some issues with parts of George's other testimony (especially with regard to "River Cruz," his alleged mistress), but he seemed very sincere in speaking of his overwhelming grief. It was extremely powerful testimony.

Can you imagine being in his shoes? Your granddaughter's missing; your own daughter is obviously involved and won't cooperate; your wife runs her mouth in public, covering, lying, making things worse for everyone involved; you have mobs on your lawn, the media breathing down your neck constantly. And then your granddaughter's remains are found and what you suspected all along, but didn't want to believe, is realized -- your granddaughter is never coming back. The only way to see her again is to go be with her.

It's no wonder he felt overwhelmed to the point of wanting to just get away from it all any way he could. When I think of how his daughter pushed him to the brink of suicide, then (after he does all he can to help her) turns around and accuses him of sexual abuse and of framing her for his criminal acts...truly, TRULY despicable and sickening. Maybe she was hoping he wouldn't be able to take it and would check out for good so that her defense team could say his guilty conscience caused his suicide.

Which brings me to this: If the jury doesn't buy the accusations against George, it not only discounts all the defense theories, it leaves the jury wondering WHY Casey Anthony and her defense team concocted such a cruel and bizarre scenario...unless it's all she could come up with to try to overcome the fact that she's guilty. And if they think that, they will absolutely detest not only what she did to Caylee but how she nearly caused her father's death and humiliated him beyond belief for her own hateful, selfish gain.

Of course, the jury still has to find the state proved its case, regardless all that. But if they do, you better believe all those things will be in their heads, maybe subconsciously pushing some of them toward a guilty verdict when they might not have been as quick to go that route otherwise. They are human, after all, and try as we might to consider only what we're supposed to, if the information is there, it's there. And on some level or another, it's always a factor.

Magical Thinking - Good GRIEF!

As for the "grief expert" allowed to testify today, I'm sure she's a wonderful, caring person and capable grief counselor and teacher, but she proved to have no expertise in making a distinction between which behaviors are grief related and which aren't. She offered absolutely nothing for the defense beyond the obvious - that different people grieve differently and can do some odd things. Well, thanks for that. I had no idea. Now I know that anyone I encounter might be suffering from grief...or not.

On cross exam, she in fact bolstered the state's case by agreeing that she really can't say anything is inconsistent with grieving because, to her, everything is consistent with it. She even agreed that in Ashton's "hypothetical" Casey scenario, all the things he ticked off would be indicative of something different than grief and said that would indicate that the "hypothetical" person would need help of the not-grief-counseling kind.

This witness was intended to testify in Casey's stead, basically. Here was someone who could explain the "why" behind the 31 days (which would've been "infinity" days had Cindy not intervened), all the lying ("magical thinking") and the carefree, happy "bella vita" existence Casey led after Caylee died. But it fell so far short that there isn't a unit of measurement tiny enough to quantify how little it helped. It actually went well into the negative for the defense - just the opposite of what they needed.

Will Casey Take The Stand?

I've mentioned before that she can't get on that stand because she'd not be believed even on direct and would be absolutely decimated on cross. But the defense has done such a poor job showing their theories are plausible enough to raise reasonable doubt that they're now up Shit Creek without a paddle.

Again, we all know the defense doesn't have to prove a thing. But when you throw these salacious, severe accusations out in opening and you don't offer a damn thing to back ANY of it up, it looks bad. Really, really BAD. It looks like the defendant and her team are heartless liars who don't give a damn who they hurt, whose lives they ruin -- everyone and everything is fair game so long as it gives the princess a shot at avoiding the consequences for her actions.

So do you risk leaving the jury with that impression, with contempt and disdain (even if subconscious) for your client for having put so many people through so much to save her own hide (not the least of whom, the jurors themselves!)? Is that what you want them to carry back into deliberations with them?

All you can do in closing argument is regurgitate the same accusations about drowning, George Anthony and Roy Kronk. But you got practically nowhere with any of it during trial. So what do you do? Delude yourself that you can pull it off? Hope the jurors will employ "magical thinking" and buy what you weren't able to sell?

Showing that the family are willing to lie for each other and claiming Cindy lives in denial (I knew there was an underlying, deceptive reason she claimed Caylee was still alive at pretrial hearing) may demonstrate some family dysfunction, but it hardly excuses or even mitigates Casey Anthony's actions. There are plenty of families far, far more dysfunctional who don't end up with dead babies and moms who lie their asses off about where their babies are/what happened to them while they go on to live "the good life" or "beautiful life."

So what do you do if you're the defense attorney in this situation? The only way in the world for there to be even a scintilla of a chance that a juror - just one - buys any of part of your theory is to put someone on the stand who can testify to at least some part of it. Remember, though, you're up Shit Creek -- and your only paddle is Casey herself. Do you try to use that paddle or let the current carry you downstream and hope for the best?

I still feel they're better off going with their unproven (and I mean "NO-proof" unproven) accusations. They can't hope Casey would ever be able to explain herself on direct, much less withstand cross. The most they could hope for is that a juror would think she's nuts and maybe feel a little sympathy for her, but that's its own can of worms.

We've already seen this defense is incapable of controlling what happens with even fairly benign witnesses on the stand. They are completely outmatched in examining them, especially on cross. Just imagine all that could go wrong with Casey testifying. At least an attorney can control what happens during his/her closing.

I think it's best to do what they can without risking putting Casey on the stand. Focus on the penalty phase and appellate issues instead. If she's convicted, and if she can successfully argue for reversal/new trial, I'm sure the next defense team would appreciate Casey's not having locked herself into testimony in the first trial.

But... Casey has the right to testify if she wants to, regardless how stupid a decision her attorneys advise her it may be. She was all smiles Saturday morning after learning she'd been deemed competent by 3 psych evaluators to continue assisting with her defense. Could that motion for incompetence have been made as a CYA by her defense because she is insisting on taking the stand?

As we've seen over and over, there's just no way to predict what will happen in this trial. So stay tuned...let's see where it goes.