Juror who acquitted Casey Anthony makes backflip over verdict

Almost a decade on from Casey Anthony’s stunning murder acquittal one insider has revealed the decision that “haunts” him to this day.

It was one of the most controversial murder acquittals in US history and now, almost a decade since Casey Anthony walked, a juror involved has revealed he regrets the decision to let her go free.

In a case that gripped not just America but the whole world, Anthony stood trial in 2011 over the 2008 death of her two-year-old daughter Caylee.

Anthony was accused of murdering her daughter in 2008 before dumping her body in a Florida swamp near her Orlando home because she was an inconvenience to her lifestyle.

To this day Anthony has maintained her innocence, claiming she does not know who is responsible for Caylee’s death.

Speaking anonymously to People, one male juror said the Anthony trial was “traumatic to think about” as he wished “I had done a lot of things differently”.

The decision not to convict Anthony of her daughter’s death “haunts me to this day” and he wished he had been able to “push harder”, the juror said.

“I think now if I were to do it over again, I’d push harder to convict her of one of the lesser charges like aggravated manslaughter. At least that. Or child abuse,” he told People.

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Casey Anthony reacts to being found not guilty on murder charges. Picture: Joe Burbank-Pool/Getty Images.

Caylee Anthony went missing in June 2008. Picture: AP Photo/Orange County Sheriff's Office.

“I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, and I didn’t stand up for what I believed in at the time.”

During the trial prosecutors alleged Anthony had killed Caylee by giving her chloroform before gagging with duct tape and leaving the little girl to die in her car boot.

Experts testified that decaying human remains had been present in Anthony’s boot, however, her DNA was never found on the duct tape allegedly used to suffocate Caylee.

After a month-and-a-half long trial it took just 11 hours for the jury to find Anthony not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse.

Instead Anthony was convicted of four charges of lying to police — two of which were later dropped — and was released from jail just weeks after the trial ended because of time already served.

The anonymous juror said he had found the prosecutors “arrogant”, while Anthony’s defence lawyer Jose Baez had seemed caring.

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Prosecutors claimed Anthony killed Caylee because her daughter interfered with her lifestyle.

During the trial Mr Baez controversially floated the theory that Caylee had drowned and Anthony’s own father George Anthony had covered it up, as well as sexually abusing his own daughter for years.

Mr Anthony denied the allegations and Anthony herself has never claimed Mr Baez’s alternate theory happened.

The juror said he still thinks of the Anthony trial “at least once” a day and gets a “pit in my stomach” when he sees pictures of Caylee, whose death is still considered unsolved.

“It all comes flooding back. I think about those pictures of the baby’s remains that they showed us in court,” he said.

Caylee was first reported missing by her grandmother, Anthony’s mother Cindy, on July 15 2008 — a month after the little girl was last seen.

Cindy and George Anthony. Picture: AP Photo/Joe Burbank, Pool.

Mrs Anthony complained to police that her daughter Anthony’s car had “smelled like it had a dead body in it”.

Anthony was arrested for child neglect a day after the missing persons report was made and claimed Caylee had vanished with a babysitter.

Since her murder acquittal Anthony has kept a low profile and shunned media attention except for a series of interviews with the Associated Press in 2017.

“I’m still not even certain as I stand here today about what happened,” Anthony said, adding that “everyone has their theories”.

“As I stand here today I can’t tell you one way or another. The last time I saw my daughter I believed she was alive and was going to be OK, and that’s what was told to me,” she said.

Originally published as Juror who acquitted Casey Anthony makes backflip over verdict