Casey Anthony - guilty, or not?

[Toughy]

Our judicial system is not perfect - it has been created by imperfect human beings. But, as many commentators have said - our judicial system is not perfect by any means, but by comparison with other countries, it is the best in the world. I can't say that's completely valid - I only know about US law, and that barely - but in the UK, it is my understanding that one is considered guilty until proven innocent, where in the US, it's the opposite. However you slice it, for me personally, I'd rather deal with our imperfect system then any other country's

If you are comparing our system to dictatorships and some 3rd world countries, yes ours is better. Our law is based on English common law (which is England/UK) which goes back to the late 1700's and maybe even the Magna Carta for trial by jury.

As to the UK.......in criminal cases the burden of proof is on the prosecution just like in the US.

I lived in New Zealand for a year and their judicial system is just as good as ours. Actually I was far less suspicious of the po po (police) when I lived there.....they did not come armed and they knock politely on the door instead of banging on the door with a flashlight. They didn't try to get in the house and were very apologetic for waking me up at midnight. The guy they were looking for did not live at that address any longer.

This idea of US exceptionalism.........we are the best, have the best, work the hardest, have the best system of governing, etc......makes me bonkers. Plus it's insulting to the rest of the world that operate as democracies. As near as I can tell a number of those democracies work better than ours depending on what indicators you look at. None of them have the death penalty and they all have universal health care for everyone paid for by everyone's tax dollars.

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Toughy

This idea of US exceptionalism.........we are the best, have the best, work the hardest, have the best system of governing, etc......makes me bonkers. Plus it's insulting to the rest of the world that operate as democracies. As near as I can tell a number of those democracies work better than ours depending on what indicators you look at. None of them have the death penalty and they all have universal health care for everyone paid for by everyone's tax dollars.

This might be an interesting topic to discuss in depth someplace else but I did want to say this briefly in echo of what you are saying. It is instructive to note that the *newer* democracies (i.e. the ones that came about after WW II in the wake of dismantling of the English, French and Dutch colonies) have *not* modeled their constitutions on the US Constitution. Rather, they have used the constitutions of other Western democratic republics. In fact, even Japan whose post-WW II constitution was all but written by MacArthur uses a parliamentary system. Other than that and excluding Iraq (for obvious reasons)not a single nation that became a democracy in the 20th century has a constitution modeled on the US Constitution. Not a one. The last nation to do so was the Philippines and that was in 1899 when they became a colony of the US in all but name. Before that it was Liberia in 1847.

Cheers
Aj

[NJFemmie]

More than 800,000 people have now signed the Change.org petition for Caylee's Law, as legislators in at least 16 states have pledged to introduce their own Caylee's Laws.

Other states where lawmakers are considering such measures include Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia, according to news reports.

Florida's proposal would make it a felony for a parent or other caregiver to not report a child under the age of 12 missing after 48 hours. It also makes it a felony to not report a child's death or "location of a child's corpse" to police within two hours of the death.
Had Florida's measure been in place and Anthony been convicted, she could have faced another 15 years behind bars.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011...#ixzz1RcBHZx24

[Heart]

NYT editorial - it's not the justice system that's at fault, it's the opportunism.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/op...runi.html?_r=1

[Glenn]

You can also blame bad detective and forensic work. But, yes, the world got high and the media got rich on this indignation rush. I also agree that the feeding frenzy crushed the case causing the jurors to second guess themselves.

[Sachita]

I know about the case and occasionally read updates. There is no defense against insanity within a psychopath. I rank these cockroaches, sub-humans in the same category as pedophiles. They simply don't care about the repercussions of their actions as long as their selfish needs are met.

Of course she did it and the reasons why we might not ever know. The biggest consolation is that she will be treated as a murderer the rest of her life. Sure, she may get a book deal or movie, but that is short lived and money will never ever help her escape the stigma she'll always wear. She can get plastic surgery, change her name, etc but in this case I hope she is never allowed to have any more children.

The thing I don't get is the clorofill (sp) and why she would use this to sedate her daughter when there are so many drugs on the market. This part leaves me wondering what her real intentions were.

[Glenn]

[QUOTE=Sachita;

The thing I don't get is the clorofill (sp) and why she would use this to sedate her daughter when there are so many drugs on the market. This part leaves me wondering what her real intentions were.[/QUOTE]

Because she thought looking up recipes for chloroform on the internet was easier and less noticeable. She researched the internet how to use chloroform. Began using it to put her daughter to sleep while she partied. One night, she could'nt wake her up and freaked, so she placed her in a garbage bag, placed a heart-shaped sticker on her mouth, and sealed it with duct tape. She then tossed her in a swamp. 30 days later,she reported her missing, and gave a fake story about a Hispanic nanny. At the very least she should have been convicted of manslaughter.

[BullDog]

I agree that the feeding frenzy has been disgusting, but there is a huge gap in the law if someone can not report a death and then only get sentenced to 4 years in jail. I did not follow the case very closely but from what I have read the decomposition of the body made it almost impossible to determine the cause of the child's death. There was major obstruction of justice.