I believe it was the State, not the Defense that levied the charges against Caseyu Anthony, forcing her to go to trial and spend the thousands and thousands of taxpayer dollars to prove her "not guiltyness". As it has been pointed out ad infinitum even if she had told the State the accidental drowning story on the day she was arrested and charged, State wasn't just going to say: "oh, she drowned. You might as well go home now, we'll drop all charges. Our bad."
As a Florida resident and taxpayer, I find the State accountable for all costs incurred. They rushed the case to court, did not look at the entire range of charges they could have and should have made, and made mistake after mistake in the process.
Okay, let's say she did tell them it was an accident. THEN, she would have had to lead them to the body. THEN, the state STILL would have seen a dead two year old with duct tape over her face, and enough of the body would have been left to do testing to prove that Casey was lying about it being an accident. Ergo, it STILL would have been a capital murder case, except Casey certainly would have been convicted a lot faster (or even accepted a deal) and probably be on death row or at least in jail in some capacity right now.
Let me state, THERE IS NO WAY IF SHE COPPED TO AN ACCIDENT THAT THIS WOULD HAVE JUST GONE AWAY. Just saying it's an accident is NOT enough. The state would have required the body to close the case. And it costs money to do an autopsy, and then bring charges against Casey. The state and LE are not ignorant people that would have let her go, have a nice day, if she said it was an accident. The state and Le's reaction is NORMAL. Seriously? Just let her go without a body because she says it's an accident? Wow. That is NOT how the law works. No one gets to say it was accident with no body and/or no proof of an accident and just go home and live their lives. Wow. I would be terrified of a world where what was acceptable for law enforcement to do. TERRIFIED.
No, the state didn't waste money going after someone that everything that came out of her mouth PROVED to be a lie. It was her defense that delayed, delayed, delayed with ineptness for three years while she sat her on butt in jail for three years. And heck, all she had to do was tell her defense she wanted to make a deal at any time or cop to the accident. SHE NEVER DID THAT. And honestly, even if she DID cop to an accident, the defense would have done their darndest to delay, delay, DELAY again. So still, it would have probably been three years or more of waiting to get to trial.
The only difference, IMO, is that the case wouldn't been have started with Casey's lies, would have nothing to do with Casey's lies had she copped to the accident. So therefore, the state couldn't sue her for the money spent on her case if she got an acquittal in the event she had admitted this was just an accident. It's naive to think state wasted money because they wouldn't just let Casey cop to an accident three years ago, and okay, go on your way, Casey, sorry we inconvenienced you. With no body. No proof of an accident. I don't want to live in a world where THAT is suddenly okay to do in law enforcement. Good freaking GOD.
And three years is not rushing. Good Lord. The state just wanted the darn case to GET INTO COURT in the first place. Anger should be directed at Casey and her defense which made this into a three year fiasco, not the state.