Casey Anthony: truTV analyst warns, ‘No case is a slam dunk’ - Hal

Casey Anthony: truTV analyst warns, ‘No case is a slam dunk’
CBS, Caylee and Casey Anthony, Court TV, The Early Show, WKMG — posted by halboedeker on February, 26 2011 12:07 PM
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Casey Anthony attended a court hearing last month. Photo credit: Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel
“The Early Show” on CBS this morning provided excerpts of WKMG-Channel 6’s reports on the Casey Anthony depositions. WKMG’s Tony Pipitone introduced the segment and summed up his reports: “The documents gave a good idea of the strategies the defense may use, including discrediting the official manner of death and the possibility of staged evidence.”

Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, 2-year-old Caylee. The trial will start in May.

The Pipitone report was an introduction to a discussion between CBS’ Russ Mitchell and Beth Karas, legal correspondent for truTV. You can expect many more trial previews in the national media over the next few months. I appreciated the Karas warning about how busy the trial will be.

Karas scoffed at the belief that the case is a slam-dunk for the prosecution. “No case is a slam dunk,” former prosecutor Karas said. “Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is a hard burden. Convincing 12 people beyond a reasonable doubt is a high and hard burden. It’s not a slam dunk. But right now the evidence certainly seems to point to Casey Anthony.”

The depositions highlight the defense’s focus on tape found on the toddler’s remains. “The tape is everything, and that’s why the defense, as revealed in these depositions, is going after the tape,” Karas said. “This case is all about that tape.”

Karas stressed that Dr. Jan Garavaglia, the medical examiner, couldn’t determine the cause of death. Mitchell said the defense seems to be telegraphing that it would go with accidental death.

But Karas sniffed at that idea and noted that the defense isn’t saying Casey Anthony did it. “There’s a lot for the defense to work with just to raise reasonable doubt just because of this meter reader Roy Kronk,” Karas said.

Mitchell wanted to know how tough the trial will be for the Casey Anthony defense.

“Good for the defense that the judge is going to pick a jury in another city and then ship them into Orlando and sequester them,” Karas said. ”The trial is going to meet six days a week. It’s going to be a very busy trial for two and a half months. But this is tough row to hoe for the defense because Casey lied to the police. She’s charged with four counts of lying to the police. She never reported her baby missing for 31 days. Her mother did when her mother realized it. Casey has some explaining to do — or her defense has some explaining to do.”

What do you think of that analysis?

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2011/02/casey-anthony-trutv-analyst-warns-no-case-is-a-slam-dunk.html