A few media outlets are doing all they can to turn the Casey Anthony murder case into the proverbial “trial of the century”. But I couldn’t be less interested.
In fact, the only reason I’m bothering to comment at all is that so many of you seem confused, if not disappointed, by my silence.
Casey of course is accused of suffocating and dumping her two-year-old daughter Caylee in July 2008. She aroused suspicion almost immediately because her daughter had been missing for more than a month before she was reported missing. Then when questioned by the police, Casey told some cock-and-bull story about her babysitter running off with Caylee.
But if it wasn’t her friends producing pictures of the then 22-year-old Casey partying as if she didn’t have a care in the world while Caylee was missing, it was surely her mother telling the police that the trunk of Casey’s car reeked of a dead body that made her the prime and only suspect.
By the time Caylee’s remains were finally discovered in December 2008 less than a mile from her home, Casey was already convicted in the court of public opinion. Indeed, the circumstantial evidence of her guilt was so overwhelming that she was arrested and indicted on first-degree murder charges in October 2008.
No doubt everyone deserves her day in court. But if ever there were a case where the accused could be fairly judged guilty before proven so, it is this. Therefore, I see no point in dignifying any of the patently contrived claims her lawyers are proffering in her defense – not so much to avoid a conviction as to avoid the death penalty.
I will note, however, that nothing demonstrates how depraved and unconscionable Casey’s mind is quite like her playing along with defense claims that her brother and father molested her: the old abuse excuse. But instead of sympathy I suspect this will only incite contempt among jurors.
Anyway, this case hardly warrants the media coverage. It’s not as if there’s anything shocking these days about a mother killing her child – even if the motive was to have more time to party with her friends. Remember Susan Smith who drowned her two young sons in a lake in 1994 because she thought her new, wealthy boyfriend would not marry her with them around? Instead of a phantom babysitter, Smith blamed a phantom (black) carjacker. Then there was Andrea Yates who drowned her five children in their bathtub in 2001 because she was suffering “severe postpartum depression”?
The point is that as sensational murders go, this one is relatively tame. It’s just that we live in a media age when reality TV can turn even a harebrained, no-talented, perma-tanned, bouffant wearing teletubby of a girl named Snooki into an international celebrity.
Recall that it was not the nature of the murders, or even who was murdered, that kept us so riveted on coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial. Rather, it was the fact that O.J. was such a bona fide celebrity … period.
Well, the level of celebrity it took O.J. decades to earn was conferred upon Casey in an instant, making it seem as though public interest in her legal fate is just as warranted. Frankly, this case perpetuates the perception that only the murders of cute little white girls (like Caylee, JonBenét Ramsey, and Madeleine McCann) are worthy of media coverage.
I appreciate that many people find this trial riveting. But, as indicated above, these are the same Twittering fools and Facebook busybodies for whom The Jersey Shore is must-see TV. I just find the whole thing a pathetic spectacle.
Legacy Note: With over 5,600 posts spanning 20 years, I am easily the most prolific blogger on the most eclectic array of topics on the web. That makes The iPINIONS Journal an unparalleled archive of informed political and cultural commentary. Visit the ARCHIVES section in the sidebar or search by topic. You won’t find a more consistent, independent voice on world affairs.