TWIOT: Trial by Nancy Grace Is Not in the Constitution, Folks

If she got away with it, don't blame the jury
Photo Credit: The Inquisitr

I don't know much about the Casey Anthony trial. I will admit that from get-go one. What I do know is that an innocent child is dead, and the primary suspect, her mother, was acquitted of most of the serious charges brought against her in relationship to that death. I also know that both of those facts put together have made a lot of people very, very angry, including shrill talking head Nancy Grace. It's always fascinating to see such an uproar over what people perceive as miscarriages of justice, because so many opinions come out that range from misinformed and ignorant to surprisingly salient and mindset-changing. Usually though, it's the former opinions that get the most play, and that's a shame.

Some of the more ignorant mindsets place the blame for this solely on the jury, as if they were a cabal of 12 people who conspired to set Casey Anthony free. They're wrong. The jury can only go on the evidence and arguments presented to them, and they have to be, unlike Grace and many other people who are pissed at this verdict, open-minded. If this case were decided on Grace's horrible blame-fest of a show, then Anthony would have been executed in the same way she was accused of murdering her daughter a millisecond after she was named a person of interest in the case. That's why Grace is perhaps the worst of the talking heads on television. She isn't interested in justice, she's interested in flambeing people for the heinous crime of murdering pretty white girls from affluent households. She conveniently forgets the fact that in America, you're innocent until the state can build a case against you to prove beyond the shadow of any doubt that you are indeed guilty.

That's the way it should be. The state or the plaintiff has to be the ones who need to be able to prove wrongdoing. If it were the other way, the jail population would make what it is right now look like fucking Siberia for one, and the percentage of people who were wrongly incarcerated would be at the very least tripled what it is now.

Granted, that isn't to say that I think Anthony is innocent of murdering her daughter. Again, I have no real opinion on the matter because I didn't follow the case. From what I do know, the fact that Caylee was found in Anthony's car (thanks, Adam B.!) in the woods, mouth duct-taped and such, and that Anthony waited a whole month to report that her daughter was missing, I'd probably make the assumption that yes, she's at the very least guilty of gross criminal negligence and should spend the rest of her life being fingerblasted against her will by an inmate named Mullica. But that's the thing, I didn't hear the arguments that the jurors heard. Apparently, either the defense was extremely good or the prosecution fumbled the ball like they were Roy Williams₁ streaking into the end zone against the Saints on Thanksgiving.

And to hammer home the point even further, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Nancy Grace doesn't care about Caylee Anthony or finding justice for her. I think she just gets off on seeing people be punished, or sating her own bloodlust. If she had cared about Caylee, she would have gone into this with an open mind, like the jurors did. She would have lamented that she thought Anthony was guilty and that the prosecution did a poor job presenting their case. She wouldn't have been making proclamations like "The Devil is dancing" and the like that suggests she's going to go all Rorschach on Anthony when she gets out of prison a year from now.

Again, my point isn't that Casey Anthony is innocent and we should leave her alone. No way. In my limited knowledge of the case, I feel like she probably did it. However, getting mad at the jury isn't going to do anything. Wanting to maim, kill or do whatever to Anthony isn't going to do anything (although I will admit, that picture of Dexter that's been floating around is fucking funny). Putting your porch light on isn't going to do anything.

Here's what you can do though. You can donate money to charities that help end child abuse in all its forms. You can petition the media to pay attention to EVERY child that is murdered or neglected by his or her parents, not just the cute, privileged ones. You can stop channeling your anger at the jury, and maybe channel it at the prosecutors in the state of Florida for fucking up what should have been an open-and-shut case to bring closure to the death of an innocent girl. And the best thing you can do is ignore Nancy Grace so she goes away.

Believe me, the sooner that shrill harpy is gone from the public consciousness, the better it is for everyone.

1 - Cowboys schadenfreude is never not funny. God I love ripping on them.