Orlando, FL- Exactly three years to the day that Casey Anthony met her former boyfriend- turned- informant Anthony Lazzarro, and whom many observers believe was the reason Casey Anthony allegedly murdered her daughter Caylee Marie Anthony, the trial of the State of Florida v Casey Anthony begins.
Talk about a prophetic date. Instead of a Rapture it is more like a Rupture.
The road to perdition has never been accompanied by lip service to an ideal.
Albert Einstein
Someone is not telling their client that Florida has gotten pretty bullish on sentencing it’s young murderesses to death.
Tiffany Ann Cole, Margaret Allen, and Emilia Carr all have an impending date with a needle, and the ladies of lechery have been sentenced in the last 4 years.
In fact, the second most recent female resident on Florida’s death row, Emilia Carr, accused her Dad of sexual abuse, AND he was convicted of plotting to kill HER years later as a result; the jury gave little weight to either issue.
If Casey Anthony is convicted, and especially if she is sentenced to die by lethal injection, Emilia will be Casey’s new *muffin*.. flush.
I would like to point out that none of these murders were that of a helpless 34 month old at the hands of her own Mother, which in many Floridians minds, is the worst of the worst.
Twelve Jurors, seven women and five men, unless one of 5 alternates is needed, will decide the fate of Casey Anthony.
Depicted affectionately below as monkeys, in dedication to our sister site and forum www.scaredmonkeys.net, but most importantly, to the families living without them so they may serve justice on behalf of Caylee Anthony, www.blinkoncrime.com salutes you today.
Opening arguments begin at 9AM. Without question, outside of deliberation, this is the most important day of this trial.
“Never Forget Almost Every Case is Won Or Lost When The Jury Is Sworn”
Clarence Darrow
Clearwater, FL- This Morning, the 8th day of jury selection Linda Drane Burdick, prosecuting attorney for the State v. Casey Anthony, renewed her argument to use their peremptory challenge to strike a female African American for cause, that she could not “judge others” for religious reasons.
Chief Judge Perry required Burdick to read back the transcript of the Vior Dire exchange, and held the state to task for the “brief questioning” of this juror as compared to the first juror, of over 3 hours. What he neglected to remember, was that immediately after that juror, the judge rebuked both sides that if this was going to take this long, he was going to speed them up whether they liked it or not.
Again, limited the vior dire questioning time for either the prosecution or defense is a reversible error. While the judge did not limit either side, the message was clear.
Attorney for the defense, Jose Baez, objected both procedurally and on the grounds he would wish to receive transcripts of other jurors questionings to respond. Translation: Rule my way or the cans of worms this is going to open will be gushing out the doors of this cavernous courtroom.
It did not even get that far.
Judge Perry decided to let his earlier ruling stand: The State did NOT provide the court with a “Race Neutral” reason for cause, and therefore would not be permitted to utilize it’s peremptory challenge, as to do so would be “discriminatory” and against the Florida Supreme Court .
Here is the problem- Can we say that under Melbourne- a true inquiry or finding as to the reasonableness and GENUINENESS of the State’s motive for wanting to strike the juror for race neutral reasons occurred?
Melbourne Excerpt
No way. A window to how this does not stack up, was Jeff Ashton’s last comment on the matter immediately following Judge Perry’s original ruling.
” .. Does the court not believe the state’s reasoning..?”
-Jeff Ashton
This juror was not the only African American on the panel, not the only woman, and at no time did Judge Perry say why the court did not believe the reasonable basis for the challenge was not racially neutral. (more…)
Pinellas County, FL– Throughout the first week of jury selection, we got our first glimpse of Casey Anthony’s new mitigation specialist and BFF, Rosalie Bolin. She is the wife of convicted killer and rapist Oscar Bolin, currently awaiting execution on death row.
I could not think of a better way to sum up Ms. Bolin’s background, than to let her own daughter tell you. Katherine Martinez, one of four of Rosalie’s daughters she relinquished custody of to marry Oscar Bolin, made a documentary about it, while attending FSU.
Oscar Bolin, in eight seperate trials, has been convicted of the rapes and vicious murders of Natalie Holley, Lyn Matthews, and Stephanie Collins.
While Ms. Bolin through tears, tells her adult daughter that she “started something and you have to finish what you started”, it appears that concept did not apply to her parenting of 4 small children because she thought “they had people around that love them.”
That’s not all. Rosalie Bolin is the owner of Criminal Specialist Investigations, Inc, and is currently suing the State of Florida to get paid in a case where the judge called her work as a mitigation coordinator “overpaid”. She recently won an appeal to quash that order, and is seeking funding from the JAC.
That would be the same JAC distributing the state’s funds for the defense of Casey Anthony.
Defending the State’s position on the issue, is none other than Terence M. Lenamon, former counsel to Casey Marie Anthony.
On Saturday evening, Central Broadcasting Service, the second major affiliate to pay Anthony family members for “licensing”, $20,000 for the 48 hours segments, aired what was labeled as a pseudo mock trial with a pseudo mock jury.
CBS 48 Hours also STATES THEY COMMISSIONED the focus group. Are we clear on that? CBS has outright admitted to contributing to the costs of the defense expenditures of Casey Anthony. That is a source of income to this defendant, period.
It was not until one tuned into the program that we learn what was billed as a mock trial of sorts, whereby previews show jurors would acquit Casey Anthony based on the evidence to date, of 1st degree murder, that this is actually a "focus group" where the moderator, Richard Gabriel, President of Decision Analysis, actually works for the Anthony defense team.
Richard Gabriel is the President of Decision Analysis. Since 1985, Mr. Gabriel has been a leader in the field of jury research, jury selection, and litigation communication in nearly a thousand trials in both the civil and criminal arenas across the country. Mr. Gabriel has assisted counsel in the O.J. Simpson, Heidi Fleiss, Phillip Spector, Enron Broadband, and Whitewater trials, and is currently working with attorneys in the Casey Anthony matter. Three cases he has participated in have resulted in United States Supreme Court rulings.
Judge Perry denied Jose Baez's request for payment to Richard Gabriel as a jury consultant to the defense. In some fashion, we must assume he is paid.
I say that facetiously- this man is the Jack Welch of jury consulting and influence. During the broadcast, host Troy Roberts discloses that CBS is footing the bill, as a thinly veiled disclosure of sorts. (more...)
George sees the light… Baez Light Brigade that is… and yes, I do believe that jurors will think they are all drunk for such a strategy.
Not new, not novel, not nouveau. You have read my predictions that George Anthony will willingly serve up his lily liver with fava beans and a nice chianti, for years.
Well, looks like the bus he is laying down for has left the station.
If I am being honest, ( Editor’s note: I have a few Aussie friends, and they constantly say this to preface some sort of heinous insult that you forgot by the time this passed you by) I have no earthly idea why anyone would be surprised or remotely piqued from your Cheerios over such baffoonery.
Almost 3 years later, you would think that at some point the injustice this family has shown Caylee Anthony would cease, or at least dawn on them like some sort of loosely based Lifetime *movie*of *the*week* scene finale.
Let’s face it. George is the perfect patsy in this case. Let’s review a short list:
1. He flat out lied about seeing Casey and Caylee leave on June 16th, 2008. We know this because Casey’s cell phone records tell us she did not leave the house until after 4PM. George called her at the house earlier first, and then her cell, so again, he expected her to be at the house, not “at work” as he told invetigators. Contrary to recent reports on WFTV espousing that George described exactly what Caylee was last seen wearing as the clothing found with her remains, let me clear this up, courtesy of www.blinkoncrime.com contributor Kleat, from George Anthony’s deposition by the State of Florida, in pertinent part:
[Whereupon, the document referred to was
marked for identification as Plaintiff's Exhibit
Number 9.]
BY MR. ASHTON:
Jeff Ashton: Let me show you State’s Exhibit 9 and just ask you if you recognize that photograph? [Handing]
George Anthony: [Examining] Yeah. It’s a photo of Caylee.
Jeff Ashton: Have you ever seen that photo before?
George Anthony: No. I don’t remember if I have or not. I don’t believe so. No.
Jeff Ashton: The shirt that she’s wearing in that photograph, do you recognize — from what you can see of it, do you recognize that shirt?
George Anthony: Not off — no. I don’t recognize that shirt. I don’t know if it’s a pajama or if it’s a T-shirt. I’m not really sure. I’m not — I don’t know.
Jeff Ashton: Could that be the shirt she was wearing when she left?
George Anthony: No. She wasn’t wearing this one.
Jeff Ashton: Okay. So it’s a pink shirt, but a different pink shirt?
George Anthony: Yeah. It definitely wasn’t this one right here.
Jeff Ashton: Okay. Thank you. All right.
2. He ommitted entirely 2 jobs he was working at the time of his resume and interview for Andrews International, on June 17th, 2008.
3. He has a propensity for shall we say, ladies that require service fees, and that non-existant credit card he did not have according to Cindy’s deposition, at the time of George’s deposition had a nearly $11,000 balance.
4. He purchased a handgun while Casey was on bond.
5. His attempted suicide could be construed as “guilt driven”.
To be honest there is plenty more where that came from, but I doubt the defense in this case even got this far considering they are attempting to add witnesses four months late, whose allegations were cleared by OCSO in the first place.
At the March 3rd motion hearing, where George alledged he was an agent of the State, he faced Casey from the witness stand.
Casey, full glare ahead and adorned in her her gas can red sweater with the henkel silver jacket on top, and George in his “will someone take me seriously” lavender.
He flat out testified he will even “not show up” to court if it would help his “baby”, Casey Anthony.
Jose Baez: ..”Now if I gave this hypotthetical, if I told you not showing up to court next Wednesday, and I am not telling you to not come to court, it would save your daughter’s life, would you show up to court?
George Anthony: “..If you asked me to stay away from the proceedings, if it was going to save my daughter’s life I would not be here..”
Late this afternoon, as I was prepared to ask again where in the world is George’s counsel, finally, George Anthony’s Attorney, Mark Lippman, fired back:
In the statement, Lippman said, “George Anthony had nothing to do with the death of Caylee Marie Anthony. He has been investigated, deposed, examined and cross examined by both the prosecution and the defense, and neither the defense team nor the state of Florida have maintained that he is at fault in any way.”
I will sum it up this way. George has a better shot at drinking a 5th, than pleading the 5th in the criminal trial against his daughter.
Orlando, FL- Occurrences yesterday afternoon had me checking my Google Earth maps to double check that the Orange County Courthouse was not next door to NASA doing their ignition checks. The flare ups were numerous and loud.
"I'm Winning.."- Jose Baez (borrowed from Sheenster)
During the motion for exclusion and Frye hearing, Jose Baez, lost it.
Avid readers and contributors here know I am not about the drama. This was actually that baaaaadd.
FRYE'S WIT DAT?
Shy of jumping up and down or retreating to a fetal position with thumb-sucking involvement, Jose Baez, counsel for defendant Casey Anthony, needed a time out, several time outs, and was granted one after his co-counsel's requests, and another, courtesy Chief Judge Belvin Perry.
Because I value your time, and will not subject you to the H O U R S of innocuous banter we witnessed, my highlight reel for your review-
Let's say Jose Baez does not hold any advanced Science degrees. In the interest of disclosure, neither do I.
I do however understand that blaming the State, in this case, Jeff Ashton, for the reason that Mr. Baez missed deadlines requiring him to agree to a stipulation whereby he can no longer subject the "hardware" of Dr. Arpad Vass to the "Frye" test, is a no-n0.
Chief Judge Belvin Perry: ..Mr. Baez.. it sounds like to me, you entered into an agreement that you are trying to rescind.. If you questioned the results then, why did you agree to it?...
Jose Baez: ..It is the easiest thing in the world to hold a contempt charge over a lawyers head, Judge..
Chief Judge Belvin Perry: "...Your co-counsel is trying to speak to you."
Jose Baez: "Judge, can we have a 5 minute recess?"
Chief Judge Belvin Perry: "You may have a 5 minute recess."
This exchange came near the end of what can only be described as a window to the strength of the State's case against Casey Anthony for the murder of her daughter Caylee, and the utter lack of preparation and skill the defense team has by comparison.
Photo Credit Gary Kazanjin
While it is true that much of what we hear in pre-trial motions is not always what will be admitted at trial, which is the very reason for them in the first place, the defense's lack of knowledge of their own case is not a valid reason to deny something into evidence.
It is abundantly clear from this editor's perspective that neither Dorothy Clay Simms nor Jose Baez sufficiently understood the scientific subject matter they are requesting to be rendered inadmissible, or in effect, "junk science".
Devoid of strategy, repetitious and largely irrelevant, with several pending motions still to be heard, the defense ate up two straight days. As a result, all parties are back in court next Friday and possibly Saturday.
By far the most important witness to take the stand yet , Dr. Arpad Vass, research Scientist of "The Body Farm" fame and globally respected, peer-reviewed author of two separate studies on odor analysis in human remains, NAILED IT.
