Casey Anthony defense team wants trial moved to South Florida

CASEY ANTHONY CASE

Casey Anthony's trial is set for October but is more likely to start next year.
Amy L. Edwards and Sarah Lundy |Sentinel Staff Writer7:46 PM EDT, May 4, 2009
Casey Anthony's murder case is so widely known in Central Florida that her
trial should be moved to Miami-Dade County, where she can get a fair
and impartial jury, her defense lawyers say.

"The local coverage has been so constant and at times so inflammatory
that members of the local community have already formed their opinion
without hearing one piece of evidence," Anthony's lead defense
attorney, Jose Baez, said Monday after filing the paperwork at the
Orange County Courthouse.

The defense team announced its plans Monday morning on NBC's Today show
-- praising coverage of the case by national media while blasting local
news reports.

Orange Circuit Judge Stan Strickland doesn't have to decide right away.
The trial is set for October but is more likely to start next year.

Prosecutors will review the motion and file their response, said State
Attorney's Office spokesman Randy Means.
Anthony, 23, is charged with killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee
Marie. The toddler's remains were found in woods less than a mile from
her home on Dec. 11, five months after she was reported missing.

The case garnered national attention days after it broke in the local
media. The coverage grew more intense as the search for Caylee widened
over the next few months. A grand jury indicted Anthony on a charge of
first-degree murder; a meter reader discovered the girl's remains; and,
most recently, the state announced its intention to seek the death
penalty for Anthony.

In a 17-page legal motion, Baez listed examples of media reports on the
case -- ranging from protesters staged outside the Anthony family home
to audio files of law-enforcement interviews. The defense is pinning
its hopes to move the trial on the sheer volume of reporting about the
case, combined with community reaction to the missing toddler.

Baez cited how local news outlets continue to report "on all
aspects of this case and public opinion continues to be heated and
negative toward Casey Marie Anthony."

The motion includes a study by a broadcast monitoring service, which
states that 14,235, stories mentioning the "Caylee Anthony case" aired
between July 15 and Nov. 18-- a month before Caylee's remains were
found.
Of those, about 46 percent were in the Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne
area. About 24 percent were in the Tampa-St. Petersburg metro.

The study found the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market came in seventh, in
terms of exposure to the story.
"Moving this trial to a location far enough away from the local media
will not end the coverage, but it will have a chilling effect on the
barrage of media coverage that a local trial will bring," Baez wrote.

Moving a trial is uncommon, but judges do it when they consider it necessary to get a fair trial.

Last fall, a murder trial from Miami-Dade County was held in Orlando.
The suspect, Michael Hernandez, was accused of killing a 14-year-old
classmate. The judge, prosecutor, witnesses, clerks and defense team
traveled to Orange County for the case.

There is another way – but some say it's fairly rare. If Strickland
doesn't want to move the case, he could select a jury someplace else
and bring them to Orlando.

That's what happened in the 1994 trial of Oba Chandler, a former Port
Orange man accused of killing a vacationing Ohio woman and her two
daughters.

Pinellas Circuit Judge Susan Schaeffer, traveled to Orlando, selected
14 jurors -- including two alternates -- and returned to Pinellas
County.

Because moving a trial is expensive, Strickland likely will make a good-faith effort to find a local jury first.

Two years ago, Volusia Circuit Judge William A. Parsons, had attorneys
question local residents about becoming jurors in the trial of six
suspects accused of beating and stabbing sex people in a Deltona home.
After four days, Parsons decided to move the case. It was later tried
in St. Augustine.

Some lawyers, including Baez, could argue that the Anthony case has received far more attention than these cases.

"It is in the center of this media frenzy that Casey Anthony stands
trial for her life," Baez said. "The reason I am standing before you
right now is because both sides -- the State Attorney's Office and
Casey Anthony -- are seeking justice. It is essential to the pursuit of
justice that a fair and impartial jury be impaneled in this case."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/orl-bk-casey-anthony-venue-change-050409,0,5702807.story