Jeff ashton imperfect justice

I find I am ultimately disappointed by this book, though not through any fault of the author.

Don't get me wrong, this is a very good inside account of the travesty of justice that is Casey Anthony. I had a particular interest in reading this book because I was hoping Jeff Ashton could give some insight, with hindsight, as to what brought the jury to deliver a complete acquittal of Casey Anthony of criminal complicity in her daughter's death. That they managed to minimally convict her of lying to police is more a testament to the State's having hours of Anthony on videotape and audiotaape lying her ass off to EVERYONE than it was to jury competence. One wonders if had there not been that much irrefutable evidence on tape directly out of the defendant's mouth, this same jury might have skated her on that too. (More on 'tape' later).


Let me confess, I am a complete trial junkie, and I was UP in Casey's case 24/7. I thought the verdict was a shocking miscarriage of justice. Now, my past trial obsessions do not always have me arriving at the same verdict as the jury, but usually I can see the reasoning behind the verdict. I can understand how the jury applied the law as they understood it to arrive at their verdict. I understood how the jury made it a righteous verdict, if not in my estimation, a right one. Didn't agree with the OJ acquittal, but I understood it. Didn't agree with the George Zimmerman verdict, but I understood it.

In this case, however, short of outright calling the jurors morons (that's me calling them morons, not Ashton), it still seems an implausible verdict, and a disgrace. I read this book hoping for some explanation, some revelation as to how they applied the law, that would explain the acquittal. Maybe through some post-verdict interviews with the jury, or even some off the record comments heard by courtwatchers as the jury skulked off, something that would provide a window into the acquittal. I was disappointed in this. However, ttthe person who may continue to be most mystified by the jury verdict is Jeff Ashton.

Only one juror went on record and indicated the acquittal had to do with CAUSE of death. I guess we are meant to conclude that the jury felt the since the state did not definitively prove CAUSE, the jury could dismiss/abnegate MANNER of death as well. This is reasoning that to me indicates brain-death. Of the jury.

Not if you have a functioning brain should it automatically follow that a lack of a clear irrefutable cause of death lead one to dismiss manner of death, especially in light of strong evidence indicating MURDER (manner of death). Proof: no one puts duct tape over the breathing passages of a child (mouth & nose) under any circumstance, EVER. Not if that child is already dead (as in accidental drowning for instance). And certainly not if one wants that still breathing child to continue to breathe. Just doesn't happen. Duct tape is not an impromptu homemade sort of oxygen mask. It is not an aid to respiration/expiration when placed over the mouth and nose. Nor is duct tape a natural, biological phenomena or byproduct of diseaase or accident. It doesnt fall from the sky and adhere itelf to a little girl's mouth & nose as she just happens to be doubled-bagged amidst a shitload of other garbage in a mucky, snake-infested swamp. Okay, rant over, back to the book:

There were some really interesting disclosures by Ashton of his recollection of the two psychiatric evaluations ordered by the court to determine Anthony's competence for trial. These two evaluations, successfully objected to by the defense and therefore not put into evidence at trial, have now become available to the public through the freedom of information act. What both evaluations reveal is a woman who appeared implausibly UN-traumatized by her daughter's death, with one doctor describing her as strangely happy. Mind you, both of these evaluations occurred AFTER Caylee's body had been uncovered and Casey's latest version was no longer "kidnapped by Zanny the Nanny." Interestingly, now her version as told to the doctors was far more shocking. Casey was now alleging that her father, George, intentionally drowned Caylee as the result of molestation, and subsequently disposed of the child's body. According to Casey, her father George had molested her too till the age of 12 (told to one doctor), or 13 (told to another doctor). Never mind that she had previously told others that she hadn't been sure at the time of her conception of Caylee at 17 whether or not her father George was the actual baby-daddy. Either she forgot that she claimed the molestation stopped at age 12, 13, or she believed semen had a 4 or 5 year efficacy for fertilization.

Even her own defense wasn't willing to rubber stamp this final version from Anthony retrofitted as needed by the Queen of the Pathological Liars, so they edited down the "murder" by drowning to "accidental" drowning. We will never know if the defense had grabbed the bullshit by the bullhorns and went full-tilt-Casey with that murder accusation, the jury might have been shocked out of their intellectual torpor and got a good deep whiff enough to identify the horseshit being served up for their consumption as caviar.

Then again, and more likely, maybe not.