Imperfect Justice_ Prosecuting Casey Anthony - Jeff Ashton [158]
At various points in his remarks, Baez displayed fifteen poster boards with assorted, oversize fridge-magnet photos of various witnesses from throughout the trial. Two assistants were in charge of moving the photos, adding some while taking others away. It gave the proceedings a kind of Wheel of Fortune quality, which in my opinion was not such a good thing.
Baez stated that Casey loved Caylee, reminding jurors that all of Casey’s friends and family had testified that Casey was a loving mother. No one had admitted anything less than that. In Baez’s telling, it was simply impossible for this mother who, by all accounts, loved her daughter, to kill her in cold blood. From this opening concept, he then segued into what proved to be a rather solid argument about reasonable doubt and the role it played. Pushing this point in a different direction, he then attacked us for overcharging Casey for the crime, one of about a dozen rather direct attacks on our character or motives, saying that our case was not strong enough to warrant either a Murder One conviction or the possibility of the death penalty. I had to hand it to him, there were moments when he could be a very convincing lawyer. For all his faults, he was the consummate salesman.
After the reasonable doubt discussion, however, Baez moved a bit clumsily to his poster boards, showing a calendar of dates. As he discussed each date, he would put a photo of a witness who had been linked to that date on the calendar. The disarray of the presentation obscured whatever points Baez was trying to make, and to me, he seemed to be doing more harm than good with the use of the posters. I wondered if the posters were a bit of a crutch that showed a lack of confidence in the persuasiveness of his words.
As he moved to the topic of George Anthony, Baez delved into what he said was George’s obvious culpability. Regarding the gas cans, Baez expressed skepticism over George’s reporting them missing in the first place, asking the question of who in the world would ever report the theft of gas cans (well, I would, for one) and stating that the duct tape connection made George look guilty. Overall, the critique of George was a good one, but it was hampered by how Baez jumped between topics. His argument didn’t seem as organized as it could have been. Baez went on to attack the investigators at the sheriff’s office for drying out the garbage that had been in the trunk, saying that the cops didn’t want the jury to know what had been in that garbage and reiterating that it had been the garbage that produced the smell in the trunk. This kind of attack levied either at the police or at us seemed to occur every fifteen minutes or so, to the point that at least once the judge actually admonished Baez for what he was saying.
Staying consistent with the case that the defense presented, Baez focused on the evidence that been found at the crime scene and hammered home his points about chloroform and the computer searches. He went after both Dr. G and Dr. Warren for their testimonies, reserving particular scorn for Dr. Warren, calling him a fantasy man for producing the video superimposition of Caylee’s face, the skull, and the duct tape. He next touted his own medical witness, Dr. Spitz. Switching gears yet again, he went back to the Anthony family, hitting home the point about dysfunction, bringing in Cindy’s bizarre behavior during Casey’s pregnancy to show that there was something strange going on in the family.
One of the things Baez knew we’d proven conclusively was that his client was a liar. His attempt to address that included what was perhaps his most amusing linguistic flourish, rebranding Casey’s lies as “fantasies.” Ever the salesman, it was interesting to watch him try to sell the jury on this