In 2011, in a high-profile trial, Casey Anthony was acquitted on the charge of murdering her daughter, two-year-old Caylee Anthony in June 2008. However, instead of charging her for the death of her daughter, the jury convicted Anthony on four misdemeanor counts of lying to the police. When the child disappeared in 2008, Anthony reportedly led investigators of a wild goose chase, claiming later, during the murder trial, that her daughter had drowned on the day she went missing.
While Perry doesn’t find fault with the verdict of the court, he does believe there was, in fact, sufficient evidence to file a murder charge.
Perry said the question was whether there was sufficient evidence to submit it to the jury as murder in the first degree, and he says the answer to that question is most definitely yes.
Authorities could not confirm the cause of Caylee Anthony’s death
Initially Anthony was accused of killing her daughter in June 2008 and Caylee’s body was reportedly found some months later in woods near Anthony’s home. However, authorities at the time were unable to determine the cause of death. According to the prosecution, Anthony had dumped her daughter’s body in the woods and then attempted to resume her normal life.
Casey Anthony had researched the use of chloroform
However, evidence was presented to the court during the trial to show that Anthony researched the use of chloroform, a substance once used as an inhaled anesthetic during surgery.
Perry believes that, based on everything he knows about the case, Anthony had used chloroform, not with the intention to kill her child, but to knock her out. He said she may have used the substance in an attempt to keep the child quiet. However, he says she gave the child too much chloroform, which is, in effect, caused the child to die.
Judge who presided over Casey Anthony's murder trial says the Florida mother may have killed her 2-year-old daughter by accident. pic.twitter.com/Y4AUbOxisl
— Today'sLoop (@TodaysLoop) March 2, 2017
No evidence of child abuse was documented
According to USA Today, Perry said the most logical thing had been to look at the “totality of the entire situation,” saying there was no documented evidence presented of Anthony’s abuse of her daughter.
According to the retired judge, the overlooked evidence in the case was her computer searches for “chloroform” as well as the expert testimony that this substance was found in the trunk of Anthony’s car. He said with the high levels of chloroform found in the car, it was a logical deduction, but only a theory. He said the only one who really knows what happened is Casey Anthony herself.
