Another killer walks



Caylee Anthony

 I have no doubt O.J. Simpson killed his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, on the night of June 13, 1994. The prosecution in his trial proved its case, but the Simpson jury had its own anti-police agenda and decided to let the killer go free on Oct. 3, 1995. Well, free for a while I guess. A civil case did go against the murderer on Feb. 6, 1997, when a jury found the preponderance of the evidence existed to hold Simpson liable for the wrongful deaths of Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman. In Simpson’s case, what goes around comes around in certain ways — he is currently serving a 33-year sentence in a Nevada prison on robbery and kidnapping charges. Ironically, he was convicted of those charges 13 years to the day he was acquitted of murdering his wife and Goldman.

I bring all this up because now, in another high-profile case, Casey Anthony, who murdered her 2-year-old daughter, was acquitted of those charges Tueday by a jury in Orlando, Fla.

There’s a host of differences in the Simpson case and that of Anthony’s, however. Simpson should have been convicted on the DNA evidence alone. But the Anthony’s prosecutors had no concrete evidence whatsoever, just a logical theory of what happened and a completely implausible version of what happened from Antony. She said she was home with her father were at home June 16, 2008, when they noticed her daughter, Caylee, was missing. After an exhaustive search, they found the child’s lifeless body floating in their swimming pool. She said her father covered up the child’s death by disposing of Caylee’s body in a nearby swamp. As would be expected, the father has vehemently denied this version of events.

The prosecution maintained that Casey wanted to be free to date and live “the sweet life” (she had the words “bella vita” tattooed on her shortly after Caylee’s disappearance andbefore her body was discovered six months later) but couldn’t with an infant to care for. Therefore, she chloroformed the child, stuck duct tape over her mouth and dumped her in the swamp. But all they had was that theory, no concrete evidence to connect her to the crime.

So now Casey is free — free to date, hit the bars, sign a lucrative book deal, live “bella vita,” while Caylee’s murderer goes unpunished and Simpson waits for 2017, the first year he is eligible for parole.

Perhaps there’s some kind of twisted moral to all this, but I’m not sure I can find it. Perhaps it is in the fact that the jury found her “not guilty,” but it takes another form of justice to determine whether she is “innocent.” I do know, however, I’m glad Casey is free if only because, had she been convicted, she would have been subject to the death penalty and I’m just as opposed to the state murdering parents as I am of parents murdering their children.