Last week in Orlando, FL a jury acquitted Casey Anthony for the murder of her daughter. The majority of Americans cried foul at the verdict. Granted there was a lot of suspicion in this case, first and foremost the month that Caylee was missing before the authorities were notified. Every individual brought to trial in the United States has the right to a quick and speedy trial granted to us by the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the Untied States. The defendant is also innocent until proven guilty. This last section is the most important detail in this case as the prosecution failed to provide reliable physical evidence tying Casey to the death of her daughter. We can blame the jury all we want, but they executed their civic duty as instructed by the court. It was the prosecution that dropped the ball on this, not the jury.
Where the real crime lies in this is after the verdict was read. The family of Casey Anthony, Caylee's grandparents, embraced Casey jubilantly. This little girl left this Earth three years ago, she would be getting ready for kindergarten this summer, but there has been no mention of the family asking for the authorities to continue the search for the real killer. We can debate all we want now whether Casey killed her child or not but we will be wasting breath because Double Jeopardy prevents her from being tried for the same murder again. Nobody saw it suspicious that Casey's father attempted suicide not long after Caylee was reported missing and found on his property? Now Casey is off scott-free and is being made offers for her story. She is going to become rich off the blood of her child who is still seeking justice as she lies in state in the ground rather than growing up playing with Barbie dolls and Legos.
A few days later there was a baseball game in Arlington, TX. Josh Hamilton caught a routine foul ball and being the final out of the inning, he tossed the ball into the stands to give a fan the opportunity to get a ball at a game. Those not familiar with the layout of the field in Arlington, the wall in right field, where Josh Hamilton was playing that day, is about 18 feet high and there is a gap between the wall and the stands, so the stands are about 20 feet up from the ground. As the ball was making its way to the stands, a father at the game with his 6 year old son was trying to make the day all the more special for his son by catching the ball. He lost his balance and tumbled head first over the railing between the bleachers and the wall hitting the concrete below. Tragically Shannon Stone died in this fall.
In this incident media outlets kept airing video of this one man falling to his death as his poor son looked on. Rather than being respectful to the family of the departed, media outlets were only looking for ratings with the shock factor. Today is 7/11/11 and this video is sadly still on YouTube for the world to see. When American prisoners were being decapitated by terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq, the media did not show this out of respect to the families, but this video is still available online to be viewed. There is no doubt that this child will be scared for life from witnessing the death of his father and yet media outlets showed this video and made money off of it.
The crime in these two incidents is the potential for profiting off of the loss of life. If Casey was truly innocent why hasn't she urged the police to find the true killer rather than trying to strike a book deal with the diary she kept in prison or advice book? Ratings numbers are not as important as the well being of a child and family that tragically lost their father in a freak accident. Profiting off another's loss is the true crime people and this is what needs to stop. I hope one day we'll be able to see this.
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