{"id":3644,"date":"2011-07-05T19:59:59","date_gmt":"2011-07-05T23:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/?p=3644"},"modified":"2011-07-05T19:59:59","modified_gmt":"2011-07-05T23:59:59","slug":"the-anthony-verdict-in-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/2011\/07\/the-anthony-verdict-in-perspective.html","title":{"rendered":"The Anthony Verdict in Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Anthony<\/a>Casey Anthony was acquitted today of both murder and manslaughter charges, thus concluding the highly publicized and emotionally charged trial concerning the death of her 2-year old daughter. This outcome is both outrageous and satisfying.<\/p>\n

The outrage is pretty easy to understand judging by most any social media feed.\u00a0 People all over Facebook and Twitter feel young Caylee Marie Anthony was not properly avenged because now no one will be held accountable for the atrocities she endured.\u00a0 Further, the popular perception was that the conviction of Caylee’s mom was a slam dunk.\u00a0 That’s certainly how the media portrayed it. And it was certainly my personal expectation as well.\u00a0 From the news reports and analysis I wasn’t certain they’d get a Murder 1 conviction, but manslaughter seemed a sure thing.\u00a0 In this respect, there’s a feeling that a guilty person is walking away.<\/p>\n

But maybe in its own curious way, this can be viewed as a satisfying outcome.\u00a0 By all accounts, it seems the justice system worked the way it should.\u00a0 The difficult thing to keep in mind is that “the way it should” isn’t the same thing as “the way I wanted”.<\/p>\n

Anthony was convicted in the court of public opinion long before the trial started.\u00a0 Despite this, and all the TV cameras rolling in the courtroom, a jury of her peers deliberated the evidence presented and unanimously decided there was reasonable doubt.\u00a0 That was not the easy decision.\u00a0 It certainly wasn’t the popular or expected decision.\u00a0 However, our judicial system is founded on the idea that 1000 guilty people should go free rather than a single innocent person be convicted.\u00a0 Doubt, any doubt, about the certainty of guilt, is supposed to be a reason for acquittal.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind, this was not a celebrity trial.\u00a0 Anthony didn’t buy a dream team of lawyers, and she didn’t get off on any legal technicality.\u00a0 She didn’t prey on the emotions of the jury because of her stardom; she had none. Instead, she came off cold, aloof, and decidedly unsympathetic.<\/p>\n

Still, with all that against her, 12 people unanimously<\/em> decided there was reasonable doubt.\u00a0 Please pause and give that word its due weight.\u00a0 Unanimously<\/em>.\u00a0 This was not a case where one or two bleeding hearts couldn’t be persuaded.\u00a0 They all agreed.\u00a0 Furthermore, they agreed to bear the probable scorn of those who had convicted her from their living rooms.\u00a0 They agreed to go home and face their family and friends, and explain ad nauseum, why they did what they did.\u00a0 They agreed to not take the easy way out.<\/p>\n

And this, whether you like the outcome or not, is how our system is supposed to work. It’s not about vengeance or spleen venting.\u00a0 It’s not about emotion or empathy.\u00a0 It’s not about popular opinion.\u00a0 It’s about truth and justice… the American way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a way, this can be viewed as a satisfying outcome. By all accounts, it seems the system worked the way it should, which is sometimes different than the way you might have wanted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[134,133],"class_list":["post-3644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-courts","tag-judicial-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3644"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3651,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions\/3651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}