Monday was a crazy day in court. Speaking of crazy, the defense questioned Casey Anthony’s competency. That motion resulted in the abrupt termination of court on Saturday. Over the weekend, three different mental health professionals spent time with Casey to evaluate her. The end result was that she was competent to stand trial. Casey’s upbeat mood on Monday could have been because of her delight of being the focus of attention of the three shrinks or it could have been delight over the new motion being presented by the defense.
They have requested, that in light of the decision by a Federal District judge that the death penalty in Florida unconstitutional, they want the option of execution of their client removed from the realm of possibilities when the jurors consider her fate. Judge Belvin Perry might find the argument not to pursue death because the overturn on appeal is inevitable very compelling. In actuality, if Casey got the ultimate punishment, she would have far more resources for appealing her case than she would if she got a life sentence.
We also had a lot of trash talk on Monday–even passed a piece of the stuff around to the jury. The defense witness Dr. Kenneth Fulton attempted to insist that the contents of the trash bag could have caused the decomposition found in the car. After prosecutor Jeff Ashton got through with him, though, he was singing the state’s song.
Poor private investigator James Hoover should have never come to Orlando in 2008. All it’s earned him is a lot of grief. It was painfully obvious that he was nervous, ill at ease and easily outmatched by both Jose Baez and Linda Drane-Burdick. He was followed by the man he assisted private investigator Dominic Casey.
It was a kick for me to see clueless Dominic being put through his paces on the stand. Back when I was working on Mommy’s Little Girl, I had a very unpleasant conversation with him. He threatened to sue me if I used his name or the name of his company in his book. Both were public record and both were included in the book. His attempt to bully and intimidate failed.
Today promises to possess its share of fireworks, too. The defense plans on calling hapless Roy Kronk to the stand to publicly shred him to bits as they try to tie him to the murder of Caylee Anthony or at least to moving her body after she was dead. It will be interesting to see how the state approaches cross examination. They’ll walk a tightrope attempting to discredit him as a witness while defending his innocence in any crime related to little Caylee.
The big question for the week: will the defense rest on Thursday as planned? Or did the competency delay alter that timetable? And who will the state call to the stand as rebuttal witnesses in their pursuit of justice for Caylee.