Shu7 what do you think they could have done to do a better job? Help me understand why you think they did not do a "fantastic job". Do you think "fantastic" is just an overstatement and that they did a "good" job. How would you rate the performance of the state in handling this trial?
Sure, I will give this a try. Let my put out some of my self opinion here. And make a plus-minus total of 10.
On the minus side.
1 - The State over charged Casey. Death should not have been on the table. This over charging made the State bring in outside Florida specialists for help. That looked weak to the juror.
2 - The State chose the wrong means for convincing a juror for a conviction. Going for a motive here over a means of death would have worked far better.IMO The Cindy-Casey fighting of money was more understandable and realistic to a juror to comprehend.IMO
3 - The States decision to bring in new unproven court technology was a mistake. All that testimony time on electronic sniffing technology lost the jurors. And the forensic evidence. "DUCT TAPE" forensics? What is that???
4 - The Prosecutions opening statement was badly directed. Trying to prove duck tape as the means for murder was not ever going to be conclusively proven. They knew that. And leaving out the endless money Casey stole with checks, cash and even quarters was a HUGE mistake.
5 - The prosecution during the presentation make a mess of easy communications evidence from the whole family. A nice time chart for phone and text calls would have cleared up the were people were at key times. And impeached Cindy massively as well. No phone call to George on the 16TH, as she claimed for example. And the easy technical stuff like even work records for Cindy's job was messed up. That never should of have to be done on rebrutal. It should have been part of their case in main. You can be sure the juror did take note that her company was not notified to come to court until the trial was in process. Talk about reeking of a State desperation situation. They were just unprepared in several areas.
6 - The prosecution made a confusing mess of the computer search of the Anthony's computer for chloroform. 1 search, or 84 searches??? A recovery program ran in 2008 that got the 1 search. Then another computer search about 18 months later with a new recovery program got 84. One that took days for the expert to set-up. That is not clear evidence. That reeks of going back to evidence and testing until you get the results you want at any cost.
7 - The processions "jury readers" blew their assessment big time.
8 - Aston vs JB physical presence in the court room? JB won that easily. Just how much damage did a simple item like Aston not saying good morning and good afternoon to the jury every time do? Plenty. JB not only said a nice "hi" to the jurors every chance he got, he played to them in a friendly fashion. Up close and personal. The prosecutions being aloof from the jurors just re-enforced the human jurors natural slight distrust of "big brother". And Aston laughing at JB was also a big mistake. Some professional he is. He could not even control his smirks during the trial. But the laughing was one of the last items the jury got to remember in the case. And JB made the most of it. That emotional picture of the police/prosecution laughing at the poor defense/accused was devastating.
9 - Linda's summation was bad. Very bad. Boring. With lots of jumping around. And to finish with a picture of Casey partying was a dumb idea. A picture of Caylee should and must have been used. It was Caylee who died. It was justice for Caylee that the trial was about. Not Casey's partying behaviour after the fact.
10 - The prosecution fell into JB's trap of making it a long trial. That also lost the jurors. They wanted to go home.
11 - The prosecution did not do their own job of laying out that Murder #1 was was JUST AN OPTION! And that all the charges were a separate issue to be deliberated.
On the plus side for the Sate???
1 - Thinking here.......................................... Heck, Aston did not even have a nifty pop tart in his pocket. So please help with the positive's of the State case please. The State lost an easy case to win after-all.
I rate the prosecution as a 2/10 at best.