Having worked SEVERAL innocence cases in Virginia, cases where we actually got people out and found the real killer, I feel like putting my two cents in here.
The constitution and the justice system are in place for a reason. You cannot, under any circumstances chip away at our constitution in any way. Even for someone like Casey, unfortunately.
As far as this man's points, Baez, in my legal opinion (and I am not a lawyer, just have a lot of experience with them and what your rights are in criminal cases) had no right to ask that the testing be stopped. There have been no charges filed thus far, and therefore there is no right to discovery for him in that regard. That was just defense attorney garbage or what did Jose say..."grandstanding"?
The bail WAS excessive. There is no getting around that. One could argue it must not have mattered much because she got out twice! And you could also argue that bail is set to guarantee that you will be there in court and not flee. There is NO WAY this woman could flee unless she decides to take advantage of that 10 foot privacy fence and decides to tunnel to Mexico! In which case she better keep tunneling. They would send her butt back, I am sure! Clearly she is being watched at every turn. For future reference for other individuals who may not be as guilty as I believe that she will be found, that is a problem and sets a precedent for future cases. I don't know what to say about that...Casey should be assumed innocent until she has her day in court, like every other individual, but considering there is video of her cashing checks she wrote her own name on, seems she has been caught a little red handed. I have a hard time admitting that any of her constitutional rights have been violated because I feel after finding out they have the video of her on the checks, she will lose her rights anyway, as all criminals do. So that one tears me apart to admit, but it was very high for what she was charged with and it was not a victory for us that the appeals court upheld it. It set a bad precedent for others who really may be innocent.
As for stopping the tapes and the docs from being released, that is just silly! In any criminal case, once discovery has been filed with the clerks office it is PUBLIC RECORD!! You can't argue both sides of the constitutional argument. You can't say the bail should be set lower because of her rights being violated and then try to stop the public from exercising their constitutional rights to review discovery. Jose can't have it both ways.
Fair trial? Change of venue, hello!! I was just trying to explain this whole saga to someone last night who had NEVER even heard of it. There are places she can go for a change of venue and there are lots of people who don't know what we do and very few people, I would assume, outside of the few sites like this one that would actually sit down and read all of the discovery. Nancy Grace always covers big cases and they all get fair trials. I can just about guarantee you there will be a change of venue in this case and that is fine. She is an American. That doesn't mean she is a good person, just that she has the constitution to protect her and it will for as long as it should.
The founding fathers believed that it is better for 100 guilty to go free than for an innocent person to spend one day in prison. I have seen first hand what wrongfully convicted people go through. I have seen outrageous laws that never should have been passed hurt people beyond what normal people can comprehend. For example, Virginia has something called the 21 day rule. Rule 1.1 of the Virginia Supreme Court states, in a nutshell that if you are innocent and you are convicted of a crime, if there is any evidence out there that could clear you, that you know about or not, you MUST have your friends, family or defense find and obtain it within 21 days of your conviction. Anything found after that 21 days is inadmissible in ANY court and forever barred from judicial review...all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Even they aren't allowed to look at it. We had a guy who got into a fight with his brother. Brother 2 was going through a hard time, they both went out and got drunk together, started to fight. Everyone saw them fighting and broke it up. They left after they calmed down in the same car. Next day, brother 2 was gone. Disappeared. No one could find him. Blood from the fight was in the car owned by brother number 1. Brother number 1 was tried and convicted without a body to life in prison. Brother 2 decides he is ready to face the world again and comes back home from Carolina. We drag Brother 2 into court to get Brother 1 released...denied!! Took intervention from the governor to get him out...2 YEARS LATER!!
Infringing on Casey's rights can infringe on your own and anything can happen. Just look at poor Zanny, not the nanny and everything that has happened to her! Look how we could connect ZG to Laura R and then to WW and then Casey. Look how easy it is now with the internet to connect bad people with good ones and how we all looked down on her partying friends until they came here and talked to us. Birds of a feather, right? That is a bad way to look at things. Look what could have happened to Zanny, not the nanny had Casey told the truth about everything but her!! With all of the things that could happen, I feel that our constitution must be protected at all costs. If I saw Casey's rights being violated, I have to admit that I would speak up. Not because I have any sympathy for her in any way, but because nothing that they do to her is going to bring Caylee back and I am not willing to give up my constitutional rights for her!! Or the rights of my children for the future, or any of my fellow WSers rights. It's too bad no one was looking out for Caylee's rights.
I have faith that justice will be served. Sometimes it takes a while. When we got Earl Washington Jr. out we found the real killer...it had been 18 years, but it happened. They think now they may have found out who the Zodiac Killer was (granted, again). That has been what? 40 years? Chipping away at rights and appeals are cause for mistakes to be made. Look how many innocent people have been released thanks to DNA and the Innocence Project. If an innocent is locked away because of a mistake, it not only ruins his life and that of his family, but it also give the public a false sense of security while a murderer walks the streets. It is my opinion that she is guilty as sin and should spend the rest of her life in prison thinking about what she has done, but her rights should not be violated. And from what I can tell, other than the bail, they have not been and ours have been protected in allowing us to see the discovery. I will wait however long it takes to see her locked up for good. I think the death penalty is too easy for her. I have experience with watching people who have spent years and years in prison. Most pray for death. I'd like to see her in that position, personally, with all of my rights intact and I believe I will. LE has more than they are giving us. They will do what is right and she will be convicted. Peterson was convicted on just circumstantial evidence. No sane person, whether they read what we have or not could possibly set her free. I see no need to infringe upon her rights at all. But the only one I see infringed upon so far is the bail. Not good, but not this list which is more than ridiculous.
