PTSD from the abuse triggering a psychotic break. The belief that her abuser was about to get custody of Caylee as CA has discussed. leading to the decision that Caylee was better off dead. As I have figured as a defense tactic from the day we all started discussing it here.
I doubt if it will work, even if it were true. I covered a trial years ago, a young man and his brother brutally murdered two men, their uncle and another man who lived with the uncle.
The older boy had just gotten out of adult prison, where he had been sent when he was only 16 for breaking into a store. He had just turned 21.
During his trial, it was shown he had been subjected to all kinds of abuse, not to mention that all the agencies that should have protected him didn't. The words of the social services worker who testified were that he "fell through the cracks."
They showed photos of him as a little boy, around 6, a skinny little kid smiling into the camera with huge bruises all over his torso. That photo had been taken by his teachers and given to social services.
At the age of seven, he was put into a juvenile detention center. According to testimony, at that age he was showing sexually inappropriate behavior. His mother brought men home and had sex in front of him and he testified that he was physically and sexually abused by family members, including the uncle that he murdered, starting when he was 4.
He hadn't been out of juvenile detention long when he was arrested at 16. The kid had spent most of his life in jail in one form or another.
It was also revealed that he was conceived when his mother had sex with his father, who was on a chain gang at the time and slipped away long enough for quick sex.
Defense experts also testified that he suffered from borderline personality disorder.
I think most of the people in that courtroom felt sorry for the hideous childhood he had endured. I heard several people comment that his mother should also have been facing charges. But he was found guilty of capital murder and was given the death penalty. He was put to death a few years ago.
One juror told me they felt they had no choice, that he had been made into such a monster, they had to make sure he would never be out in society again.