casey anthony
The trial was moved to a secret location and the judge did not reveal the site of the trial until early this morning. Jury selection will occur in Clearwater, Fla., instead of Anthony’s hometown of Orlando in an effort to find an unbiased jury of 12 members and eight alternate jurors.
“In Pinellas County [Clearwater], it’s got one of the oldest demographics in the state of Florida and has often been referred to as God’s waiting room…you’re going to see an older skewing jury which typically means conservative,” said Nancy Grace on “Good Morning America.”
Since Casey Anthony’s mother reported her granddaughter’s disappearance, public interest in the toddler’s death has mounted.
Caylee disappeared in the summer of 2008. The child had been missing for a month before Anthony told anyone and when she did, it was her mother who called 911.
“I can’t find my granddaughter. There’s something wrong. I found my daughter’s car today and it smelled like there’s been a dead body in the damn car,” said Cindy Anthony in the July 2008 call to police.
Anthony also told investigators that she had been conducting her own investigation into her daughter’s disappearance and claimed that she’d left her daughter with a babysitter who later vanished.
Instead of searching for her daughter, photos showed Anthony partying during the first month of her daughter’s disappearance.
Casey Anthony Trial Gets Underway
“It’s going to be very tough for this mother to explain why she was doing and saying the things that she was in the days and weeks after her daughter disappeared,” ABC News’ legal analyst Dan Abrams said.
Anthony has been criticized for not only partying in the months after her daughter’s disappearance, but for showing little emotion and even laughing in jailhouse conversations with family and friends.
Caylee’s body was found just blocks from the Anthony home. The body was too decomposed for medical examiners to determine a cause of death. Anthony was charged with murder in October 2008 and could face the death penalty.
“Some jurors are going to say I don’t know a cause of death, how do I know it’s not an accident… Others will say, why should I give her a gold star because the body decomposed for so long, we can’t tell a cause of death,” Grace said.
The “guilt phase” of Anthony’s trial is scheduled to begin May 16, and if Anthony is found guilty, the penalty phase would immediately follow.
Sitting front row in court will be George and Cindy Anthony, grandparents of the murdered and parents of the accused. Last week, Casey Anthony refused a jailhouse visit from her mother.
Lawyers for Casey Anthony are trying to convince a judge that the mom suspected of killing her daughter Caylee was not properly read her rights and that key statements by Anthony should be thrown out of her upcoming trial.
Among the remarks that could be at risk are Anthony’s statement to Florida police that her missing daughter was with a babysitter named Zenaida Gonzales. Police eventually determined that Anthony did not know a babysitter named Zenaida Gonzales.
Losing key testimony of this kind could make it difficult for prosecutors to get the conviction of first-degree murder — and the death penalty — that they are seeking.
Anthony’s defense is also trying to rule out jailhouse videos and statements she made while in jail where she talked to her family and visitors in the days while Caylee was still listed as missing, but before her body was found.
