I voted Guilty of First Degree Murder w/Death Penalty.
I see a lot of people are having a hard time giving Casey anything more than LWOP because they are unsure if it was premeditated. Premeditation is not the only aggravating circumstances the State went with putting the Death Penalty back on the table. Some of those circumstances include the fact that Caylee was under the age of 12, and that Casey Anthony was her mother, that the crime committed was especially heinous. Even if the crime was not premeditated (which I do believe it is) the jury will be instructed to look at all the aggravating circumstances when handing down their verdict. I know there were a few more, but I can not recall them at this moment. I think there were two more aggravating circumstances.
I am a firm believer in the Death Penalty for certain cases. Especially cases that involve the most vulnerable victims. Children are one of our most vulnerable victims. Caylee was still just a baby. She was not even three years old yet. She could not protect herself against Casey. Even if Caylee fought with every inch of her soul to stay alive on June 16th, 2008... she would not have won.
The premeditation is a very sticky situation. And you have to put the searches into context to really get a grasp of what was going on.
On March 17th - St. Patricks Day - Casey made the initial searches for chloroform, alcohol, acetone, peroxcide, and shovel.
On March 19th - Casey's Birthday - Casey searched the 100th episode of the television show "One Tree Hill." The episode was about a nanny kidnapping a child (which makes me wonder if this is not when the story of Zanny the Nanny surfaced... not at the beginning of the year like the Anthony's have stated!).
On March 21st - a random day? - Casey makes her final searches on "How to make chloroform", self defense, household weapons, neck breaking, shovel, and making weapons out of household products.
The interesting thing, imo, about these searches was that they were done on Casey's favorite holiday, her birthday and then again a few days after her birthday. What was going on that week? Were the Holidays and Casey's birthday becoming more about Caylee than herself? Which is a natural progression when children become a little bit older and they understand birthdays and holidays more. They want to be involved! They want to help blow out candles and want to help open presents!
I know that my sister and my bro-in-law's birthdays are just as much about their children than it is about themselves. Instead of romantic dinners and movies (they do still do these things too... just not on birthdays and holidays) they have a big party at a park and play soccer, kickball, etc... The children sit on their laps and help them blow out their candles. The children sit on their laps and help them open presents. The children are incooperated into everything they do during birthdays and holidays. That is what happens when you have children.
Something is telling me that Casey could not handle Caylee always being there. Caylee wanting attention on her birthday and her favorite holiday and that the snot head had the nerve to even try and blow HER candles out and open HER presents! Something made Casey mad enough to start her thought process into murdering Caylee in mid-March. Maybe Casey didn't even get a birthday cake? Yet, Caylee got one on her birthday! Maybe Casey didn't get presents to open? She was stealing enough money as it is. Yet, Caylee got presents on her birthday. There is something with these searches falling on these days that took Casey to this thought.
Casey, between January 2008 and her birthday on March 19th, 2008, stole $2,186.99. Another interesting point is that Cindy shut down her BOA account on March 14th, 2008 and the reason Casey went on to steal from her grandfathers account in order to pay for her phone bill.
I believe that when you add the searches for.... chloroform, alchohol, acetone, peroxcide, shovel, neck breaking, household weapons... to the searches of that One Tree Hill episode and the missing children seaches... and add that these searches were done when Casey was supposed to be celebrating life (fav. holiday and birthday) and instead was looking at ways to end one (Caylee's) it all clearly equals... premeditation. It also doesn't hurt or help that Casey was cut off financially from Cindy's account.
MOO
