No Justice For Caylee

I haven't been following the Casey Anthony trial.  It was a blip on my radar, another mom on trial for a horrendous killing of her child.  If I paid close attention to all of these cases, I'd lose my freakin' mind, and there's already precious little of it left.  So, I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be some robo-legal-analyst or anything by dissecting the trial.  What my goal here is.. is to offer a personal reaction to what a friend called "another OJ verdict."

There are things I don't understand about our justice and trial system.  I mean, yes, when someone's life is on the line, regarding life in prison or a capital punishment case, it's imperative that things are done right.  But every system fails at some point, every machine eventually breaks down.  A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and let's face it - we humans are quite often very weak links. 

In reading the summaries of the case and the trial, I can't help but think - there was duct tape with the remains.  How the hell could this not be evidence enough?  What reason has been given for this?  What was the objection to how it got there?  Only a precious few are going to have the opportunity to sit down with Casey Anthony and ask her why she was out clubbing just a few days after the death of her daughter?  Where is her grief, where has it taken flight to? 

See, I don't believe in heaven nor hell as destinations.  I believe that suffering the 'hell' we see, and experience, on earth is what gets us to a better place, and if we're smart we'll recognize 'heaven' as it comes along.  But suppose I'm wrong.  If there is this heaven that people speak of, what I'd like to know is, where are the angels that I'd imagine have their wings wrapped around little Caylee?  Everything happens for a reason - why this verdict?  Is it that Casey did not, in fact, kill her own daughter for the reasons we assume - this is where the circumstantial judgment comes in - and Caylee's angels guided the jury to their decision so that she wouldn't be watching above and shedding tears upon her mama's imprisonment? 

This is why the idea of God doesn't work for me.  I have too many questions - there is no way on earth that I can just sit idly by and cast it all off as "God knows what He's doing."  Maybe so.  I happen to think my husband is a smart guy and always has a master plan, too, but that doesn't mean I won't ask a lot of questions of him when he pitches ideas to me. 

I... question.. things.  And I suspect I'm not the only one who is wondering why the jury voted the way they did.  I'm sad to say that I just can't imagine little Caylee sleeping peacefully on her cloud tonight, because whether she was brutally murdered by suffocation with that nasty duct tape, or if she innocently drowned but everyone disrespected her memory by covering it up while Mama went out and had herself a good ol' time, something is just wrong. 

“I am happy for Casey,” Defense Attorny Jose Baez said after the verdict. “I am ecstatic for her and I want her to be able to grieve and grow and somehow get her life back together.”  He added that if there was any lesson from the long legal saga it related to the capital punishment. “This case is a perfect example of why the death penalty does not work and why we need to stop and look and think twice about a country that tries to kill its own citizens,” he said. “I think if this case gets any attention it should focus on that issue.”  Baez added: “The best feeling I have today is that when I go home and my daughter asks me what did you do today I can say I saved a life.”

In my line of work, I have no such confidence.  Hence the questions.  I considered a career in law, but there was always a voice that told me "which side would you work for?  What if you tried or defended someone, and were wrong?"  There are no absolutes in this world.  Nobody will ever know the truth - including Mr. Baez - because even in our own minds we bend and twist it into something we can live with.  Casey will do just the same, and likely has from the beginning. The defense team might feel they did their job adequately, but that doesn't prove anyone's innocence.  It just means they sold a hell of a story to the jury.

The truth died with little Caylee as her tiny heart gave its last struggling beat, as the last breath carried her soul from her body. 

Nancy Grace finally may have gotten something right:  "As the defense sits by, and has their champagne toast after that 'not guilty' verdict, somewhere out there the Devil is dancing tonight."

Nancy Grace reacts to the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial

Sarah McLachlan sings "Angel"