Juror #12 Goes Into Hiding
Juror #12 from the Casey Anthony trial has gone into hiding. The woman quit her job and has fled her home to escape the constant harassment from her friends and neighbors and the frequent death threats she has received. The woman was so scared of her co-workers that she just called into the place where she worked and quit over the phone. This is kind of getting crazy. When people fear for their lives and have to quit their jobs after serving on a jury, there is something wrong. As much as I think Casey Anthony is guilty, these 12 people voted unanimously to acquit. The woman who is in hiding said she would gladly vote for the death penalty. When 12 people can agree on something like this that quickly, you know the prosecution did not do their job. What they should be doing now is asking sure the people on the jury are safe so that people will continue to want to serve on juries and make decisions which may be not what public opinion wants, but are not based on fear of getting hurt or killed if they do something that goes against the prosecution.
38 comments:
Obviously the girl is guilty, but instructions are very specific. If there is reasonable doubt, you have to acquit. Casey Anthony went free, but look at all the people who are on death row or have been executed when they were innocent. Unfortunately, sometimes the system works badly. But better than executing someone who is innocent.
they had other choices besides Death Penalty. I would of been happy with manslaughter.
and this isn't random people going after them. It is freinds and family which is pretty hardcore.
If I had to work with a Casey Anthony juror, I admit it would be a tough pill to swallow. But I would never do anything to make their lives miserable. People are going over the line now with vigalante justice.
I thought she fleed out of fear of what they'd say to her, not that any harassment actually took place?
So many people have gone nuts over this case. It's sickening. At least Jerry Springer has an endless pool of stupid, obnoxious, judgmental people to draw from for his audiences. The way some people are acting over this case is absolutely appalling to watch.
People are incredible idiots these days -- we have a system, we follow the system, even when it fails. because otherwise there IS no system and that would be worse.
Well, that's just ridiculous. It's not the jury's fault.
I think the jurors are a bunch of idiots but I'd never do anything to one, or say anything about it to them, etc. Just trashy behavior. Incidently, I heard a rumor today that a member of Baez' team was looking for real estate here in Palm Beach County - popular idea is that it's for Casey. I can't imagine going to Target and seeing her in the aisle, buggy full of duct tape and stickers.
Good grief! These people were doing their civic duty. It's hard enough to find people who are willing to serve on a jury...it's not the jurors' fault the prosecution couldn't prove their case. Like Ms Snarky said, their instructions were incredibly specific. They all agreed on a verdict. It is what it is. Don't blame the jurors. How is threatening one of them or worse going to give Caylee justice?
People have lost their minds over the verdict.. it is actually scary to watch.
And on some blogs, if you actually post that they did their job and the prosecution didn't do theres well.. it can get ugly quick.
Nobody is saying she is innocent, and people seem to forget they only found her 'not guilty' which isn't the same.
I did find it odd that the only ones speaking out of the jury pool are the alternants. Can you same fame whore?
Personally I would rather have a system that sometimes gets it wrong, than vigilanty justice any day of the week.
I understand why people are angry at the jury. But these folks lodging threats and harassing the jurors are wrong for what they are doing. The jury did its job the right way.
This jury was given a case that the prosecution never handled well in the first place. Some of that has to do with the fact that the police couldn't get all that they needed to put together an air-tight case (after all, Casey Anthony didn't report that Caylee was missing until a month after the event). But the prosecution offered up a complicated motive -- including the use of chloraform -- that didn't exactly match up to the evidence in the case(which one could sort of deduce that Casey got mad at her daughter, suffocated her and then hid her body to cover up the crime), which could have offered a simpler motive that the jurors could actually buy into. Once Casey's lawyers began throwing all kinds of reasonable doubt into the equation, the mom proclaimed that she was the one conducting a search about uses for chloraform, and the defense alleged sexual abuse of Casey by her dad, the prosecution was caught flat-footed and just hoped that circumstantial evidence alone would be enough.
My wife (a criminal defense lawyer) and I paid a lot of attention to the case and we concluded that at best, Casey would get convicted of manslaughter. So if my wife, an expert of a sort, figured that first-degree murder may not happen, what did anyone else think the jury would decide? The jury did the best job it could given what they were given and decided that there wasn't enough evidence to prove that Casey committed murder. It doesn't mean they think Casey's innocent; just that the prosecution didn't do its job. And that's how the system is supposed to work; it's better for guilty people to go free than for innocent people to end up in prison because a jury decided to follow emotion instead of evidence.
All that these threats and acts of harassment are doing is making it harder for our legal system to work properly and justly. It will make it harder to get people to serve on juries in an objective, just and impartial manner. I'm angrier about that threat to our civil liberties than Casey Anthony going free to face karma's wrath.
If people would lose their mind like this over every child that we lost due to violence and negligence, maybe the world would be a safer place for them.
I thought the jurors' names were confidential. Did this woman go around boasting that she was on the jury, and then found that people were against her? But no one should ever be threatened for serving on a jury.
What I find more offensive is the money that the jurors are (or are going to try) going to make off this case, be it from book deals or interviews, etc. Even if Casey seemed as innocent as pie, money shouldn't be made off the death of someone.
I agree Anita, and from what I can tell none of the networks paid the chef/juror 5 figures for an interview. I just hope people put their negative feelings (mine included) in shunning any juror or Casey on cashing in. But Casey will have her sycophants pay her way for a long time I think.
That is insane that a juror has had to go into hiding. Most sane people would not want to hurt them. Now that Bitch Casey is a whole different ballgame. There is a nutjob out there already planning to take her out. It is almost a given unfortunately.
Friends and neighbors? That's not the public's fault as a whole. They must be pissed for more personal reasons -- maybe the next damn jurors will spend, you know, more than half a second on their deliberations. Or ask a f*cking question.
Sorry, SusanB, but I think you are demonstrating why the woman fled: While she may not have received any direct harassment, she probably did not want anyone to be judging her for doing what she was asked (and did correctly). And while you can easily call her and the rest of the jury idiots, others might have acted much worse.
Of course everyone at her employer's and her neighbors knew she was on the jury: "Don't mind me while I disappear (yet keep my job) for about 6 weeks off in another county."
Harrassing jurors is just wrong. I don't think their identities should be released. I also don't think that jurors should be allowed to profit off of the case on which they served. Ever.
I don't think the jurors are idiots, but I haven't really been impressed by the ones who have been interviewed. It seems like they buy the whole drowning theory, despite zero evidence proving that. And, they think George Anthony was in on it. But why would he want to see his daughter up for the death penalty? The jurors say the prosecution's theory just didn't add up, but seriously, the defense's theory really doesn't add up. But, I totally understand the burden of proof is with the prosecution, therefore, Casey is free.
Casey Anthony probably killed her child but the standard is beyond a reasonable doubt so "probably" doesn't cut it. Apparently, some people have a hard time grasping that concept. Anyway, I think the jury could have come down either way, guilty or not guilty, given the lack of direct evidence and the crazy family shenanigans during the trial. The mom lied. I don't fault the prosecution, either. It's so funny that everyone was piling on Baez and Co. during the trial, for being crappy lawyers (and some of their cross-examination was fairly bad) but now everyone is blaming the prosecution. The prosecution had no choice but to go for 1st degree. What, Casey Anthony accidentally or in a fit of emotional upheaval smothered her child? Not bloody likely. If she killed the child she did it in cold blood and that's 1st degree. The evidence was always going to be circumstantial and the prosecution made the most of what they had. The family was a disaster area, the mom lied and changed her story. What are you gonna do? The prosecution took their best shot. It didn't work. Next.
Total word, Amartel. I think the prosecution did a great job. The defense seemed bumbling at best half the time during questioning.
It's a shame that the police department didn't follow through with the first tip on the remains. That did the prosecution no favors. Ditto to the cray cray family.
Oh cdan posters, you so crayzee.
Nothing is ever a secret, including jury servers. The amazing thing with this WHOLE CASE is, there are other cases like this, but they never gathered the attention like Caylee/casey Anthony. Why? The Press loved this story and NANCY GRACE carried this story almost EVERY NIGHT for OVER A YEAR...... TOO MANY PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT THIS CASE... TOO MANY..... and formed a verdict years before the trial. Thank Ted Turner for this.
If people en masse put one tenth of the energy they've put into this verdict into something like holding Wall St. accountable for its criminality or holding elected officials accountable for actually caring for their constituents, the US wouldn't be in the shitty shape it's in.
My first thought when I read, "Jury #12 Goes Into Hiding" was
...so she could knock out a book about serving on the Anthony case.
No one wanted to see someone rot in a jail cell more than me and as much as I am astounded by the verdict...I do not wish harm on anyone involved w/ the case. Except maybe Casey...I pray that karma will take care of that for me.
This photo might explain why the juror chose to go into hiding:
http://cscdn.celebuzz.com/pictures/casey-anthony-florida.jpg
Yeah, People are Ker-Ray-Zyyy!
I blame Nancy Grace for all this - as BJ mentioned above, Nancy focused on this story for a long time before the trial started.
After the verdict was rendered, she said "I have total respect for juries," and then went on to tear them a new one. NG is entitled to her opinion, but her lack of respect for this jury's verdict could not have been more clear.
The other day, Steven Brill, who hired her for her first TV job, called her a monster and said he regretted hiring her.
She's not the only former prosecutor on TV, but she will never, ever entertain the possibility that a prosecutor did not prove their case. She could have been gracious and taken the high road, but chose not to. Personally, she's the one I think should go into hiding!
Also, I wish she would stop bringing up how she was a victim of crime. No, she wasn't. Her FIANCEE was murdered more than 30 years ago (!), and she somehow finds a way to slip it into every conversation.
A few years ago in an article Stephen King called Nancy Grace the devil.
If Stephen King calls you the devil, then yeah, you must be the devil.
Nancy Grace? High road? She has no concept. She thinks she does take the high road. She's scarily self-righteous.
NG has been milking that dead fiance shit for years. A basic online search of police reports from that situation will prove her version of those events false.
I tell you Jason, if something happens to Casey or any of the jurors, it will be (or at least should be) on Nancy Grace's head. She is filled with such rage, that she alone is getting people all riled up.
Remember a few years ago NG was interviewing a mother whose child had gone missing (I think her name was Melinda Duckett)? Nancy had pre-taped the interview; the day the show aired, the mother killed herself. Her family believed that the way Nancy interrogated her, threw her over the edge. The family sued Nancy; the case was settled for $200,000.00.
I cannot stand that helmet-haired shrieking harridan.
Phew, that feels good.
I remember that Melinda Duckett debacle. That should have ended Nancy Grace's TV career. Or at least shamed some sense into her. Sadly, though, that didn't happen.
@Shiny -- "If people en masse put one tenth of the energy they've put into this verdict into something like holding Wall St. accountable for its criminality or holding elected officials accountable for actually caring for their constituents, the US wouldn't be in the shitty shape it's in."
You are so right I could weep, honestly.
I call b.s. on this. The woman never even returned to work, so how can her coworkers have been harassing her? She's afraid of what they might do, not what they did.
And if she believe so strongly that the prosecution hadn't made its case that she was willing to vote to acquit, then she should have the courage of her conviction and stand up to her peers. Or is she now starting to second-guess her decision?
All the Nancy haters, don't hate me for what I'm about to say, b/c I get some of your points....BUT...
I thought Nancy Grace became a prosecutor/lawyer b/c her fiance was murdered? I'm not sure it's quite fair to say you have a time limitation for how long something so horrific would have an affect on your life? I mean..that changed her career path, after all.
I remember the Melinda Duckett case...it is sad that she killed herself but wasn't that a VERY similar situation to Casey Anthony?? Did they ever find her son?? Didn't she tell a whole bunch of lies about his whereabouts? I sure remembering thinking she seemed pretty guilty. And I CANNOT get on board that she killed herself soley b/c of Nancy's broadcast. Combination of that with the fact she killed her son? Sure!
I haven't really watched her show in a few years. I know she is annoying as hell and maybe she does do things to exploit people in these cases BUT I do feel at the heart of it that she is for victims rights. And more importantly when it comes to missing persons cases, she sheds light to them and for some families that has been what helped find kids or at least located their remains due to tips.
And morons sending death threats to jurors aren't JUST doing it b/c Nancy Grace made this a media shit storm. They'd do that anyway.
It costs money to be stupid. There are risks to being stupid. It's really much better to educate yourself so you make good decisions. Cuts out lots of nonsense in your life. Don't expect to make bad decisions and not be held accountable for them in some way. The only way evil can survive is for good people to do nothing.
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