Casey Anthony: How did expert do with chloroform testimony? - Hal

Casey Anthony: How did expert do with chloroform testimony?
posted by halboedeker on June, 6 2011 6:40 PM

Did Dr. Arpad Vass’ testimony help the prosecution build its first-degree murder case against Casey Anthony?

WESH-Channel 2’s Bob Kealing saw a “devastating one-two punch for the state” when Vass, a scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, described acetic acid found in the car trunk that could be a byproduct of human decomposition and a byproduct of manufacturing chloroform.

“This chloroform testimony helps prosecutors with premeditation — that Casey used the knockout drug on Caylee,” Kealing said.

WKMG-Channel 6’s Tony Pipitone said the most important topic was the chloroform in the trunk, which stunned Vass. “The chloroform was shockingly high, unusually high,” Vass testified. “We had never seen chloroform in that level in environmental samples … in 20 years.”

Piptone added that when that information is coupled with computer searches on chloroform that the “jury is going to begin to wonder whether perhaps there was chloroform in that trunk to drug Caylee Anthony.” Casey Anthony is charged with first-murder in Caylee’s death.

Vass’ testimony was “very damning,” and ”the defense tried to shake him from his conclusions, but often that just resulted in even more damning testimony,” WFTV-Channel 9’s Kathi Belich said. “Jose Baez tried to cast question on Vass’ groundbreaking testimony today by pointing out to the jury this is the very first time it has been used in a criminal case.”

Judge O.H. Eaton Jr., WESH’s legal consultant, said that Vass “established an extremely high level of chloroform” that is much higher than the normal decomposition of a human body. Eaton noted that the prosecution in its opening statement had alleged that Anthony chloroformed her daughter, put duct tape over the child’s face and that is was premeditated murder. “But they’re going to have to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt,” Eaton said.

WOFL-Channel 35 legal analyst Diana Tennis said : “I always said this is going to be a very tough premeditation case because they’ve got to make good on the promise of their opening, which was death by duct tape.” Everything else is child neglect or maybe child abuse, but not first-degree murder, Tennis added.

WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer and reporter Belich were surprised that defense attorney Baez asked Vass a question that made the case worse for Baez. Vass had found some compounds in the trunk after the liner was removed. Sheaffer said that Baez hadn’t asked the question in Vass’ deposition. “Never ask a question you don’t know the answer to. It’ll blow your fingers off when it blows up in your face,” Sheaffer said.

Shannon Butler of WOFL said the Baez seemed to be more on target with his questions after lunch. But she said she was bothered by Baez’s suggestion that Vass would make money off the case. “So many people are going to make money off this. You think everybody does this for the fun of it?” Butler said.

WKMG legal analyst Mark NeJame said Baez scored a few points but overall was flat. WKMG legal analyst Mark O’Mara said Baez “did a fairly decent job” because Vass was promoting “a fairly new science” without a lot of support.

The WKMG team gave Baez a C plus for performance and a C minus for his overall trial performance. But NeJame wanted to grade Baez a D or a D minus for the trial so far.

The WKMG team gave Vass an A grade for importance, a B plus for credibility, an A minus for helping the prosecution and C plus for helping the defense.

Sheaffer praised Vass as “very conversational” and said the expert “takes complicated scientific principles and reduces them to the everyman’s understanding.”

WESH’s Eaton agreed that Vass came across as “easily understood” unlike many forensic experts and added that Vass lasted a long time on the stand without becoming rattled.

And what of the defendant?

WFTV’s Belich said that “Casey sat stone-faced as she listened to him [Vass] testify that he believes there was a body in her trunk.”

WESH’s Kealing said that Casey Anthony “appeared calm and emotionless” during “sometimes gruesome testimony.” George and Cindy Anthony were in court as well, and Cindy spent a lot of time reading her Bible, Kealing added.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2011/06/casey-anthony-how-did-expert-do-with-chloroform-testimony.html