Should Casey Anthony testify? - CNN

Should Casey Anthony testify?
By Ann O'Neill, CNN
June 22, 2011 8:54 a.m. EDT

Excerpt:

CNN) -- Should Casey Anthony testify?

That is the burning question making the rounds at the courthouse in Orlando, Florida, where Anthony is on trial for murder.

Seasoned criminal defense lawyers are split down the middle: Some see huge risks and questionable benefits; others say Anthony's lawyers have little choice but to put her on the stand.

It is always a defendant's decision whether to testify or remain silent. A lawyer can only offer advice. And that advice is one of the toughest calls a defense attorney has to make.

In Anthony's case, defense attorney Jose Baez has not said whether she with take the stand. But he laid his cards on the table in a strong opening statement: He said 2-year-old Caylee drowned in the family's backyard pool, and that her grandfather, Casey's father, helped cover it up. He said his client had been sexually abused by her father since she was 8 and trained to "lie, lie, lie."

George Parnham, best known for defending Andrea Yates, the mentally ill woman who drowned her five children in the bathtub in 2001, says that opening statement "boxed the defense in." He says Anthony has to tell her story.

"She needs to get up there and defend herself," he said. "The jury is going to want to hear from her."

More: http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/06/22/should.casey.anthony.testify/index.html