Jurors cried, felt sick after Casey Anthony acquittal
A juror in the Casey Anthony trial said on Wednesday that the jury was emotionally shattered after its acquittal of the young mother of murder, according to New York Times report.
The juror, Jennifer Ford, a 32 year old nursing student said that jurors were "sick to their stomachs" after delivering the verdict.
"I did not say she was innocent," said Ms. Ford, who was juror No. 3. "I just said there was not enough evidence. If you cannot prove what the crime was, you cannot determine what the punishment should be."
The jury found Casey, 25, not guilty of first-degree murder and other felony charges of the death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. The jury had initially refused to comment after the trial until Ford was interviewed by ABC News.
"It was because we were sick to our stomach to get that verdict," she said in the interview. "We wanted to do it with integrity and not contribute to the sensationalism of the trial."
The verdict came as a shock to prosecutors who felt that the circumstantial evidence was strong enough to win a conviction.
According to veteran prosecutor Jeff Ashton the prosecution felt it had a good case given the manner in which Caylee's body was found and the odor witnesses claimed came from the trunk of Casey's car.
The state thought the strongest evidence of Casey's guilt was her behavior after her daughter's disappearance. She lied about Caylee's whereabouts and partied with friends and was completely inconsistent with the accidental reason for the death.
Prosecutors argued that Casey smothered Caylee with duct tape on June 16, 2008 and drove around for days with Caylee's body in the trunk of her car and then dumped the body in woods near the Anthony family home.
The toddler's body was discovered six months later after an exhaustive nationwide search. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide but could not pinpoint the cause of death.
"It was not easy to hear," said Ashton, who delayed his retirement to see the case through.
"I think ultimately it came down to the evidence," he said. "I think ultimately it came down to cause of death."
The prosecution had no solid physical evidence or witnesses that directly tied Casey to the crime. The medical examiners could never determine an actual cause and time of death because the remains were nothing but bones.
Casey Anthony will be sentenced Thursday after the jury found her guilty of four counts of lying to police investigators. However, she will likely not serve any time in prison since she had served more than two and a half years in jail and her sentence for the four counts of lying only carries a maximum of one-year prison sentence.