As I sit here seething, watching the coverage of the Verdict in the Casey Anthony trial come in, the words ring over and over in my ears: Not Guilty. Not Guilty. Not Guilty. And as I mentioned earlier on facebook, my task for this afternoon was to write a blog post about what happens to Casey Anthony if she is found Not Guilty. Little did I know that that would be the real question of the day. So let’s talk about it. What now? Casey has been found Not Guilty of murder. Her only charges of lying to the police will likely garner her the maximum of one year per charge, making the most she would serve as 4 years in jail. Of note, she has already been in jail over 3 years, so including time served, Casey will likely be out of prison in time to use the summer discounts at Disney. Although she will have no Caylee to take with her. Casey gets a do-over. She gets to start again. She gets to press the reboot button on her life. So where does she go? Does she go to the last home she knew, Cindy & George Anthony’s house? The home of the mother who faces 15 years for lying about performing chloroform searches. The home of the father who she accused of putting his genitals in her mouth before she went to school each morning. Does she go live with her brother Lee? The brother who she accused of staring at her in the middle of the night and attempting to molest her? Does she return to the beds of Tony Lazarro, Ricardo Morales, Jesse Grund, or the countless other men who she laid up with prior to and during the death and search for Caylee? 
My dad tells me “Baby, you can always come home” but I’m not so sure that George Anthony would feel the same way. I think we will see Cindy take Casey back and George Anthony leave the home. Perhaps back to River Cruise (because she looks like the woman who will take a man back who denied her under oath in front of a TV audience of millions). I digress. Where does Casey go? Can she ever find a “home” again? My advice to Casey, move to L.A and follow in the footsteps of the Long-Island Lolita Amy Fisher and make a living in adult films. Change your name. Marry a man who likes to have a good time and spend your book money on a brand new life.
It is what it is: We cannot be mad at the prosecution for this case. The evidence WAS WHAT IT WAS. And it was circumstantial. I am annoyed at the people I see arguing that the prosecution didn’t do their jobs and didn’t prove their case. I have tons of friends who are prosecutors who do the same job daily and they have to play the hand of cards they are dealt. That is exactly what Jeff Ashton and Linda Drane Burdick did. They put their heart and souls into making lemonade out of the lemons they were given. 349 exhibits introduced by the State and none directly linking Casey to the cause and manner of death
of that big brown eyed baby girl. We shouldn’t be shocked about this outcome. We know in our guts why the jury came back with this verdict. Our hearts however won’t let us believe it. There was not enough evidence for a jury to be convinced “beyond all reasonable doubt” that Casey did it. If the standard was different, we would have a different outcome. But it too is what it is. We all had doubt—reasonable and Unreasonable! Come on! Was she in the pool or not? If she was chloroformed where did it happen? Why isn’t there DNA on the duct tape? What’s up with that heart shaped sticker? There just wasn’t enough evidence,
direct or circumstantial, to get the jurors to—watch this—use their anger and disgust for Casey to convict her. Oh don’t look surprised. Yes it’s against the law. Yes the judge always instructs the jury that they cannot use their emotion in rendering a verdict. But get real.
Perhaps had the police listened to Roy Kronk in August when he first found the body, the remains would have been less decomposed, allowing for more forensic evidence to be recovered, giving the jury more ammunition to render a guilty verdict. They needed more. That is understandable. There wasn’t more to give!
THIS IS NOT THE OJ TRIAL: Judge Ito could never be Judge Perry (read tomorrow for Perryisms that came out of the trial). And everytime someone compares Jose Baez to Johnny Cochran, Thurgood Marshall rolls over in his grave. 
I’m not going to touch the issue of whether or not OJ was guilty. That’s clearly a debate for the ages. But I remember the racial divide that was created with the verdict in the OJ trial. White America was enraged that OJ “got away” with murder—whether or not the glove fit. Black America was elated that the justice system that had for so long prosecuted (and persecuted) Blacks had finally worked for one of its own. Well guess what? This case is NOT about race! It is about a self-absorbed, possibly sociapathic woman who aided in the death and/or coverup of a 2 year old child. Her child. I’m reading facebook posts and bloggers talk about “If Casey were Black”. And what if she was? Might she have been under the jail? Yes she may have. But had this jury been chosen from Orlando, where the
murder occurred, she also may have been getting fitted for her prison blues as we speak. Race had nothing to do with it. Two of the jurors were Black. And both gave resounding YES answers when asked if they had voted “Not Guilty”. Let’s not use this tragedy to cause another tear in the fiber of our country. Because not even George Anthony’s duct tape will be able to fix that.
Not Guilty does not mean innocent. We know that. Casey Anthony is clearly not innocent. Many, including me, will always feel in our guts that Casey knows exactly how Caylee died and she will live with it everyday of her life. Soon she will be done, with the troubles of this world. And then her real trouble will begin. Bella Vita baby.
Kisses and Justice in Heaven for Caylee.
Sweet Nothings from the Sidebar 
IF Casey and Caylee had been black…we would not have heard about this case at all….JMO.
I think there are hundreds of Caylee Anthony’s out there. Red and yellow black and white, they are precious in His sight. Most of them don’t get the attention this one did. Hopefully the injustice done here with help others gain the justice they deserve. Thanks for your comment!
Great post, my friend. You so eloquently said all the things I couldn’t put into words in my own post. And I’m so glad you touched on the racial issue. The comments I read on twitter today hurt. This wasn’t about Casey being white, it was about holes in the evidence. And I’ll stop before I blog in your comments, as I tend to often do.
I guess I haven’t paid enough attention, because I wasn’t aware of “the racial issue” until I read this. But . . . why the hell is anyone talking about a “racial issue,” anyway? I mean, sure – one can take just about any situation, court case, whatever, and use it as an opportunity to comment that the outcome would’ve been different if the person had been [other race]. But IMHO, the more often we go there, the more we just continue to feed the beast of hostility, ESPECIALLY in a case like this where race hasn’t otherwise been brought up as an issue. I’m sure many will think that I just feel this way because I’m part of “White America” (whatever that is :o)), but as one who was not “enraged” by the OJ verdict and most certainly is not “elated” with the verdict in this case, I just think that it’s important to keep the focus on actual legal outcomes in cases rather than making up reasons for what happened. LaKeitha, you nailed it – there just wasn’t enought evidence. My biggest surprise is that the jury didn’t convict, anyway – there is such a prevailing sentiment these days of “somebody’s gotta pay.” So in that respect, the system DID WORK – my hat is off to those jurors who took their legal responsibility seriously instead of bowing to anger and public pressure.
Susan, your point is exactly how i felt. I was shocked that the jury didn’t convict REGARDLESS of the evidence presented. So I should be glad that the system worked, even if not in favor of this little girl. #teamCaylee
Juror #18 here…WONDERFUL POST…LOVED IT!!! My Heart is SAD,SAD,SAD…
Juror 18 it has been a pleasure serving with you for the duration of this trial 🙂
While I hadn’t thought about this issue as a black or white thing…I don’t think it is a far cry to say that if she were an AA that (like the other commentor said) this case would not have been heard AND it IS very likely that the verdict would have been different. That is not a far reach. We are not in a post-racial world and THAT is what it is. And as an AA women…yes…I often look at things that way…b/c it is my reality. (and yes…my fist is in the air)
But again…I hadn’t even thought about this in terms of black and white. B/c what is more prevelant to me in this situation is MOTHERHOOD. And yes…(thanks to your updates)…I don’t think the prosecutors (remember when I called them persecutors? lol!) proved their case. And we can’t go back and forth. We can’t pick and choose when we want to adhere to the judicial process. In this situation…it sucks…but in this case…she does get a do over. But poor Caylee doesn’t. And THAT to me is what is heartbreaking. Black white yellow or green. That baby is gone. And her mother will have to live w/ the role she played in this for the rest of her life.
Did I just blog on your blog?
Yes maam you did but its ok! I want all perspectives! And let me say as a Black woman raised by very pro-Black parents, it would’ve been very easy for me to create or co-sign with those who immediately turned this into a race issue. But your latter point is key. It’s not even about that. And I refuse to allow race to become a distractor to and a destructor of the real issue here which is about the loss of life of an innocent child. I never thought about it as a race issue either until I started seeing tweets and facebook posts making it one. Very interesting indeed. Thanks for your comment!
I think it is unfortunate that the media is allowed to plant the seed of automatic guilt into the minds of the public, Nancy Grace has been calling this woman a murderer for over a month now. The whole media circus is what makes this even worse. You are correct. It is circumstantial and this is how the justice system works. However on some levels black people have a hard time fathoming this because circumstantial evidence is often times enough to convict us in the minds of jurors.
I actually had a dream last night that in the spirit of believing of our judicial system, I hugged Casey Anthony and told her good luck. She responded with an evil grin, that she got away with it. That hurt. Regardless of race, this woman’s child was missing for 30 days…when I don’t see my dogs when I walk into the house, I am panicking! This woman partied and hid the fact that her little girl was gone/missing/dead. To know she is walking the streets is a shame. I am wondering since the evidence of how Caylee died was so circumstantial, should the prosecution have charged her with something other than murder? I don’t know what it would be but it is wrong.
I also heard that she will more than likely go home tomorrow and not spend another day in jail.
That was quite the nightmare! Thanks for sharing.