Casey Anthony: Fox News did not pay jury foreman, Greta Van Susteren says - Hal

Casey Anthony: Fox News did not pay jury foreman, Greta Van Susteren says
posted by halboedeker on July, 12 2011 10:41 AM

Greta Van Susteren will continue her interview with the jury foreman in the Casey Anthony trial tonight.

As the first part ended last night, Van Susteren promised that the foreman will take viewers inside the jury deliberations room. ”On the Record,” Van Susteren’s show, airs at 10 weeknights on Fox News Channel.

Casey Anthony was acquitted last week of the first-degree murder of her daughter, Caylee. The verdict has angered many people. But we only learn how the jurors reached their decision through the interviews, and so it was a coup for Van Susteren to get the jury foreman, a physical education teacher in his 30s. In an interview Monday, she told me it was the responsibility of people in the media to help the public understand the process and not inflame passions.

On her blog posts, Van Susteren has told viewers: “I know everyone is very upset about the Casey Anthony verdict … but can we get one thing straight? Fox did NOT pay him for an interview.”

Van Susteren also wrote: “We did NOT compensate the juror foreperson for his interview. He did NOT ask for anything and we did not offer him anything. We pushed him to do the interview since we figured that many Americans would like to hear from the foreperson. To give you an idea of how he felt about the interview, and his desire not to be famous, he would not let us show his face. The interview was shot over his shoulder.”

Van Susteren talked to the foreman in Pinellas County on Saturday. He revealed that he had taken 400 pages of notes during the trial.

The foreman, Juror No. 11, revealed last night that the panel had suspicions about George Anthony, Casey’s father. Those suspicions ranged from George’ s being involved in covering up Caylee’s death to George’s being involved in an accidental death to George’s being a murderer. ”We don’t know. The suspicions were raised,” the foreman said.

The foreman also said that George had selective memory and that the testimony of Krystal Holloway, who said she had an affair with George, raised more questions. But Jose Baez’s allegations that George sexually molested Casey were never an issue in deliberations, the foreman said.

Van Susteren told me that the short deliberation time showed greater certainty about the verdict. “The linchpin to the verdict was the prosecution had to prove murder,” she said. “They hadn’t proved the cause of death was murder to the satisfaction beyond a reasonable doubt of these jurors. If you’re thinking it could be an accident, that was a reasonable doubt. You don’t have an unlawful killing.”

Van Susteren said she would like to interview Casey Anthony. Sample question: “What were you thinking? Going out and dancing and partying? My cat disappeared for a week in December. I spent days putting up posters. I’d go door to door and get choked up.”

Her cat later came home.

But Van Susteren doesn’t expect to get the Casey Anthony interview. “Fox won’t be spending any money,” she said. “I got the first O.J. Simpson interview, and I never called for it. I was at CNN. He called me out of the blue.”

And what of an Anthony interview? “I don’t think I have a shot at it,” Van Susteren said. But she added: “I would interview her.”

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2011/07/casey-anthony-fox-news-did-not-pay-jury-foreman-greta-van-susteren-says.html