Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Sympathy

Such a tremendous amount of emotion and publicity over the whole Casey Anthony trial.

It feels a tiny bit more personal to me because of the proximity, this has all taken place within just a few miles of my home.  Cindy and George Anthony's house is in the same general part of Orlando as we are, and back in the early days when Caylee was missing, Greg stopped and talked to George at his roadside stand over on Goldenrod Road.  They chatted for 10 minutes or so, and Greg took a flyer.  George seemed very nice, Greg said.  The Anthony's house is actually just two blocks away from where my co-worker lives; she's had to go home a different way the past few days because of the news crews and the people who just drive past the Anthony house like it's a tourist attraction.  She can hear the helicopters circling from her house.

It's been weird having international news crews camped out in downtown Orlando.  It was weird the afternoon we had a bad thunderstorm; Greg and I sat on the couch watching the storm outside our living room windows and, at the same time, on CNN.  Dozens of reporters were in the same storm, on multiple different channels, all reporting live from outside the Orlando courthouse.

What could be worse than a parent not only failing to protect their baby, but actually causing the baby harm?  It might be the very worst thing.  To any person not broken, it's heartbreakingly upsetting to hear about it happening.

My heart breaks for little Caylee, and for anyone who loved her, too.

I wish things were different.  I wish Caylee had lived the long life she surely deserved.  I wish her little body had been found in time for a cause of death to be determined.  I wish, assuming Casey caused Caylee's death, that she had been proven guilty.

But her body wasn't found in time, and the medical examiners couldn't determine whether or not she'd been murdered, and prosecutors couldn't prove that Casey killed her.  Maybe she did, she certainly did a lot of bad and suspicious things.  She probably did, but probably's not good enough.

I admire the jurors for being able to separate the emotions from the rational thought, and for having the courage to make what they knew would be an unpopular verdict.  One of the female jurors was apparently crying as the verdict was read.  I probably would've cried, too, I just hope I would have had the bravery to vote the way they did.

Good for them.