Casey Anthony and why we need to fix capital punishment
originally by: TruthDig
16th July 2011
In May 2010, long before Casey Anthony had become the protagonist in a national morality play and long before CNN Headline News hosts Jane Valez-Mitchell and Nancy Grace had assumed the role of a latter-day Greek chorus calling for her conviction, Anthony’s defense team brought a pretrial motion to remove the death penalty as an option in the case on grounds of gender discrimination.
Andrea Lyon, a DePaul University law school professor and a prominent critic of capital punishment, argued the motion. Lyon, who later withdrew from the defense reportedly for financial reasons, relied on the research and in-court testimony of University of New Mexico law professor Elizabeth Rapaport, a leading expert on the subject of women and the death penalty.
Lyon contended that Anthony had been charged with capital murder not because of the facts of her child’s death but because women who kill loved ones are often exposed to a higher degree of punishment than men charged with similar offenses. Judge Belvin Perry Jr. denied the motion, finding no specific evidence of gender bias.
The remainder of the case descended into TV history, culminating in Anthony’s stunning acquittal on all homicide charges. As anyone with a pulse and an Internet connection knows, the outcome has prompted a round of post-trial retrospectives bordering on mass hysteria, ranging from Grace’s charge that the verdict sent the “devil dancing” to former O.J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark’s analysis that the jury had been brainwashed. And now that Anthony has been released, the hysteria can be expected to continue at least for the next several news cycles.
