Casey Anthony: Are you ready for more jaw-dropping? - Hal

Casey Anthony: Are you ready for more jaw-dropping?
posted by halboedeker on May, 10 2011 5:57 PM

The Casey Anthony story is giving jaws everywhere a workout. Jaws dropped again today, and her attorneys promised they will drop when they reveal her defense.

But first, the shocker today:

“A bizarre turn of events in jury selection for Casey Anthony,” WESH-Channel 2 anchor Martha Sugalski said when starting a newscast tonight.

“What a crazy development,” WFTV-Channel 9 anchor Bob Opsahl said.

“Jury selection in the trial of Casey Anthony comes off the tracks,” WKMG-Channel 6 anchor Lauren Rowe said.

Gossip about the Anthony case among potential jurors forced Chief Judge Belvin Perry to dismiss about 50 people in Clearwater during the second day of jury selection. Perry, who seemed astounded, announced that a potential juror was also listed as a witness in the case.

Stations focused on defense attorneys’ reactions in the courtroom when Perry asked how many potential jurors had discussed the case. “You can see the shock on the faces of Casey Anthony’s defense team. What you can’t see is more than a dozen jurors who raised their hands,” WOFL-Channel 35’s Holly Bristow said.

Retired Judge O.H. Eaton, who is WESH-Channel 2’s legal analyst, said such juror misconduct was unusual and that Perry released them all “out of an abudance of caution.” WESH’s Amanda Ober noted that about 38 percent of the potential jurors so far had been asked to return, and Eaton said anything over 25 percent was good.

WFTV’s jury analyst, Randy Fisher, noted that people making it through the process are often retirees or students. The likely jurors are those who have the time and won’t lose income, Fisher said.

Who was the potential juror who is listed as a witness? “One member of the jury pool told us off camera this unidentified woman bragged that she volunteered to look for Caylee and even had a confrontation with George Anthony that aired on national TV,” WESH’s Bob Kealing said.

“We’re told she was a Texas EquuSearch volunteer,” Bristow said.

“She then contaminates about 12 other potential jurors by talking to them about the case and, with that, a day of jury selection goes largely wasted,” WKMG’s Tony Pipitone said. “She set back jury selection by at least a day.”

Kealing said, “This is one of the risks you take when you have an out-of-town jury that isn’t that far out of town.”

WFTV’s Kathi Belich talked to a woman, contractor Shawna Rizzo, who had been excused from being a juror. Twenty to 30 people in the jury room said they thought Anthony was guilty, Rizzo told Belich. When Rizzo realized she had been called in the Anthony case, her reaction was: “I want to get out of here.”

Twenty jurors, including eight alternates, are needed. Jury selection could continue Saturday and perhaps Monday to make a Tuesday trial start, Pipitone said. If Perry can’t find a jury in Pinellas County, the process could return to Orange County, Pipitone reminded viewers.

Central Florida News 13 trumpeted reporter Adam Longo’s exclusive interview with defense attorneys Cheney Mason and Jose Baez.

“We suspect there will be some jaw-dropping,” Mason said of the defense that will be mounted. “We’ll have to wait and see.”

Anthony’s attorneys say questions will be answered in just three minutes at trial. “The court of public opinion is the most uneducated court in the whole country,” Baez told Longo.

That court would disagree, but its jaws hurt from all the surprises.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2011/05/casey-anthony-are-you-ready-for-more-jaw-dropping.html