Bad computer forensics casts new shadow on Casey Anthony trial

A few weeks ago when the Casey Anthony verdict came back as not guilty, I wasn’t surprised. I had not watched every minute of the trial. Much of what I knew about the case I learned from the slanted coverage on HLN and the biased coverage from Nancy Grace. But thanks to HLN I did get to see bits and pieces of the actual trial. I happened to tune in for the closing arguments of Jose Baez.

I told my wife after watching his closing arguments that she was going to get off. He tore apart every piece of evidence the prosecutors had. I couldn’t wait to hear what the experts were going to say afterwards. What the experts did, however, was basically ignore every argument he made. They had convicted Casey long before and nothing the defense had to say was going to sway them. They made statements about how he was putting on a smoke and mirrors show.

The one argument he made that had the most impact on me was the discrepancy he brought out about the chloroform searches. The entire prosecution’s case was built around chloroform. There were 84 searches for chloroform on the computer. That proves premeditation, according to the prosecution. Extremely high levels of chloroform were found in the trunk of the car. Case closed. Let the TV experts, Nancy Grace, and the rest of the world speculate that Casey killed her daughter with chloroform.

But Baez tore that evidence apart. He had another expert testify that there wasn’t 84 searches, there was just one. There wasn’t high levels of chloroform in the trunk; there were low levels that could have an innocent explanation. But the TV experts all acted like they never heard that testimony. She’s guilty because she’s a bad mother and the prosecution proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Now it’s looking like the prosecution knew that the computer forensics were wrong but they never gave that information to the defense. Had the defense not done their own investigation the contradictory testimony may not have been heard. The prosecutor, having information that the whole chloroform evidence was faulty, still persisted in bringing forth that theory when he commented that “we can only hope that Casey used the chloroform before she put the duct tape on Caylee” (paraphrased).

If you were to ask any of the millions of Casey haters, “how did Caylee die?” The answer is almost unanimously that she died because her mother used chloroform and then suffocated her. I don’t know what happened. But I am positive that chloroform had absolutely nothing to do with it. Take away chloroform and the prosecution’s case evaporates. I saw it. The jurors saw it. Now hopefully the mobs calling for Casey’s head will respect the verdict.