Casey Found Not Guilty Of First-Degree Murder

http://www.wftv.com/news/28445941/detail.html

Posted: 5:25 am EDT July 5, 2011Updated: 3:18 pm EDT July 5, 2011
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Casey Anthony was found not guilty Tuesday of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony, in a case that captivated the nation as it played out on national television from the moment the toddler was reported missing three years ago.
"As to the charge, first-degree murder, we the jury find the defendant not guilty," read the court clerk.

Casey, 25, wept after the clerk read the verdict, which jurors reached after less than 11 hours of deliberation over two days. She was charged with first-degree murder, which could have brought the death penalty if she had been convicted.

Instead, she was convicted of only four counts of lying to investigators looking into the June 2008 disappearance of her daughter Caylee. Her body was found in the woods six months later and a medical examiner was never able to determine how she died.

Casey will be sentenced by Judge Belvin Perry on Thursday and could receive up to one year in jail for each lying count.

After the verdict was read, Casey hugged her attorney Jose Baez and later mouthed the words "thank you" to him. Prosecutor Jeff Ashton, meanwhile, shook his head in disbelief.

Casey's parents, Cindy and George Anthony left the courtroom without speaking to her as the judge thanked the jury.

"While we're happy for Casey, there are no winners in this case," Baez said at a news conference after the hearing. "Caylee has passed on far, far too soon and what my driving force has been for the last three years has been always to make sure that there has been justice for Caylee and Casey because Casey did not murder Caylee. It's that simple. And today our system of justice has not dishonored her memory by a false conviction."

Casey's attorneys claimed that Caylee drowned accidentally in the family swimming pool, and that her seemingly carefree mother in fact was hiding emotional distress caused by sexual abuse from her father.

Prosecutors contended that Caylee was suffocated with duct tape by a mother who loved to party, tattooed herself with the Italian words for "beautiful life" in the month her daughter was missing and crafted elaborate lies to mislead everyone from investigators to her own parents.
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