Why Did Casey Anthony Kill Her Daughter - Essay Example

? Why Did Casey Anthony Kill Her Daughter? Dubbed as the “First Major Social Media Trial of the Century” the Casey Anthony case has elicited all kinds of responses. On the same afternoon that Casey Anthony was declared not guilty, about 34,000 new tweets popped up within the hour, all discussing the results of the trial (Varma). By Tuesday, July 12, there were 325,283 tweets about the same topic – 64% disagreed with the verdict while 35% were neutral (Varma). Outside the courthouse, people cried in frustration – there were very few who were not surprised with the results. A majority already made up their mind – Casey Anthony killed her daughter, and it was unjust to let her off. Why do people think Casey Anthony is guilty? What were the evidences against her? These are just some of the questions that I hope to address in this paper. I believe that Casey Anthony committed this heinous crime because of the evidences (though circumstantial) show that there is no other person with a motive to kill Caylee. How can a mother kill her own child (or children, in certain cases)? Before Casey Anthony, there was Mary Ann Cotton (Times Magazine), Marybeth Tinning (Bettman), Diane Downs (Howell) and Susan Smith (S.C. Department of Corrections). Of course, there were others after her, but the point is that mothers who kill their own children are not uncommon. In a book entitled Mothers Who Kill Their Children: Understanding the Acts of Moms from Susan Smith to the “Prom Mom”, it was mentioned that “infanticide is as old as human society itself…no culture is immune” (Meyer, Cheryl and Oberman, Michelle 1). The case of Casey Anthony is referred as a filicide, the deliberate act of a parent killing his/her own children. In a 2005 study, filicide was discovered as the third leading cause of death of American children aged 5 to 14 (Draper). That’s about 250 to 300 children murdered by their parents each year. The causes of infanticide and filicide has changed over time and in different cultures. In early history, it was linked to overpopulation and poverty but recent researchers have pinpointed maternal madness disability, etc. as the overarching factors. However, it must be mentioned that infanticide and filicide are a response to the “societal construction and constraints upon mothering” (Meyer, Cheryl and Oberman, Michelle 2). Often, these are committed by mothers whose circumstances prevent them from parenting their children. They are deliberate acts and would require premeditation. There is no single factor that prompts to commit such crimes, and there are no one has been able to develop an intervention that will prevent them from happening again. Research shows that contemporary infanticide and filicide are fueled not only by poverty and isolation, but also “by demographic shifts in family structure and by a rise in substance abuse” (Meyer, Cheryl and Oberman, Michelle 10). A research published by two French psychiatrists showed that infanticide due to a mental illnes, now known as postpartum psychosis. Modern studies showed that one or two of every one thousand women who give birth are affected by postpartum psychosis. The illness is “characterized by a dramatic break with reality, accompanied by a ‘grossly impaired ability to function, usually because of hallucinations or delusions’” (Meyer, Cheryl and Oberman, Michelle 12). It is typically a brief episode and will disappear a few months after childbirth. Because Caylee Anthony was already two years old at the time of her death, postpartum psychosis is not a valid reason. Moreover, Casey Anthony had to undergo psychological testing as a routine procedure and state psychologists showed that she was fit to stand for trial and that she was not suffering from any mental illness. Other patterns found in modern infanticide and filicides are connected with “sociocultural and economic influences such as disability, substance abuse, and unresolved trauma combined with the pressures associated with being the sole caretaker for an infant” (Meyer, Cheryl and Oberman, Michelle 16). If we use these factors, then we may begin to understand why Casey Anthony could kill her daughter. First, we need to remember that Casey was unemployed. She was stealing huge amounts of money from her parents (Lohr). She partied hard but she was incapable of paying for her lifestyle. Her photos on the internet showed that she often passed out from drinking too much. The trial did not explore the possibility that she might also be drug dependent but with the kind of lifestyle she is leading, this is a huge possibility. Prosecutor Jeff Ashton said “Casey Anthony had to choose between her child and the life she wanted” (Hopper). With her resources thinning out, Casey might’ve felt the pressure of taking care for her child. If one were to believe Casey’s claims that she was sexually abused by her father, then this could’ve caused the trauma, which in turn, could’ve evolved into a mental illness. Casey’s claims that she worked for Universal Studios, and that she hired a nanny for her daughter may be interpreted as delusional – she might’ve believed these as fact, until the police forced her into admitting that these were in fact, lies. She had the profile of a child killer, and the circumstantial evidences presented were so strong – there was no one else who could’ve done it. It was only the technicalities of the law that got her acquitted. According to a juror: “I wish we had more evidence to put her away. I truly do… But it wasn’t there” (Wallace). There are so many theories as to the death of Caylee. The prosecutor’s theory was that Caylee was deliberately smothered by her mother using a duct tape. Of course, forensic evidence cannot prove this – her body was so decomposed by the time it was discovered that it was impossible to say whether she died of asphyxiation or drowning (as claimed by Casey Anthony’s defense attorney). Using common logic, one may say that there is a problem with the asphyxiation theory. First, Casey and Caylee were pretty close, and it would be really difficult for Casey to see her daughter as a simple object. Wrapping duct tape around her nose and her mouth, she would probably see her daughter’s eyes as Caylee struggled to breathe. She would see the pain it was bringing her, and it would be really difficult for Casey to let her daughter die that way. Looking at history, most child-killers had to remove their “self” when performing the act of killing – they often see the child as an object. Accounts of her family members showed that Casey had a history of indifference: “She looks at people like they’re objects. They have a shelf life – when she’s through with them, they’re gone. Caylee was an object, a possession… I know in my mind and heart that Casey planned it. Caylee was getting old enough that she could tell on [Casey], and that wa complicated by the tremendous jealousy Casey felt towards Cindy” (Fanning 334-335). Casey Anthony went partying days after her daughter’s death. If we were to consider her story that Caylee drowned in the family swimming pool, how can she go out and have fun with friends, and her boyfriend? How can she have a tattoo that said “Bella Vitta”? Whether her story was real or not, Casey Anthony was either mentally ill, or she was morally corrupt. Of course, the mentally ill claim was already debunked by state psychologists, so that it leaves us to one conclusion – Casey Anthony was morally corrupt. Casey Anthony was the last person to see her daughter alive. If she was also the same person who discovered Caylee’s body, then the only logical thing to do was to scream for help. If she did this, her neighbors would’ve heard her, but no one did, so we know that she this was not a possible scenario. If she discovered Caylee’s body with her father, the most obvious step was for one of them to call the police or 911. George Anthony was a policeman, he knows that there will be inquiries about the cause of death, but that it was simply a routine procedure. There was no reason for George to go through the trouble of wrapping Caylee’s face in duct tape, running up her room and getting her Winnie the Pooh blanket, putting Caylee in a laundry bag and dumping her. If George Anthony could love Casey so much that he didn’t want her imprisoned because of an accident, then he is also capable of loving Caylee and grieving for her death the proper way. And besides, if he didn’t want people to know about Caylee’s death, why dump her near the family house? Of course, as to Casey’s claim that her father and brother abused her, there’s not much that can be said about this. It can happen (and is a possible explaination to Casey’s deeds), but it would not affect the discussions above. If Casey’s story about Caylee’s drowning were true, why would she hide it from her mother? Caylee was dead, and she knew it. She even had the whole state of Florida looking for her daughter when she said that Caylee was kidnapped by “Zanny the Nanny”, only to finally accept at the start of the trial that she knew Caylee was dead. If she trully cared for her child, then the best thing she could’ve done was to arrange a funeral to bury Caylee properly. Of course, one may go back to the earlier account of Casey’s behavior – that she looks at people as if they were objects. If she did see her daughter drown, then she was probably happy of this since she she was free to party and be with her boyfriend anytime she wants to. This last claim holds deeper water if we consider Casey’s reaction throughout the trial – she was able to laugh and smile with her attorney when she knew that even if she did not kill her daughter, Caylee was dead, and whatever happened to the trial, she will never come back. However, the web of lies that Casey created leads us to one question: why make an accident seem like a murder if it wasn’t? She could’ve admitted the accident, cried false tears, bury her daughter, then get on to her partying. One reason that comes to mind was that she enjoyed the publicity – perhaps she thought that she was living the life a celebrity because people all over the country were talking about her. Or maybe, she really had something to hide. If Casey was not remorseful of her daughter’s death, this gives her a motive to kill – she wanted her freedom, and she got it. The one thing remaining is the method of killing – did Casey have the means to kill her daughter? One theory is that Caylee was suffocated with chloroform. This was not an impossible scenario expecially since huge amounts of chloroform was found in the trunk of Casey’s car. Moreover, the prosecution showed that someone in the home computer searched for “how to make chloroform” (Liston). While Cindy Anthony claimed that she made that search, her work records show that this was impossible because she was at work at the time the search was made. If Cindy couldn’t do the search, then why did she have to lie? Is this an indication that she did not believe in her daughter’s innocence? Probably. Of course, there is no hard evidence that could confirm this, but it definitely sheds doubt to Casey’s claims. Casey was a child herself – caring for a daughter who was rapidly growing, Caylee needed her to at home more often. She hired babysitters so she could go out to party but since she could not afford them, she was forced to care for her daughter instead. She had to let go a lot of opportunities, and with a boyfriend, it is possible that she was already seeing how Caylee’s presence can impede her romantic relations. Casey Anthony’s case has a lot of parallels with the Susan Smith case wherein the young mother wanted to have a relationship with a man who was less inclined to see her – presumably because she was a single mother with three young children (Reeker 129). No doubt that Casey Anthony was experiencing this too with the men she dated. Perhaps she felt that her boyfriends did not want to marry her because she had a child. Perhaps Caylee’s needs were also growing in that she was forced to choose between caring for her daughter and going out on a date. In both cases, Caylee was starting to become a burden, and since Casey was not receiving financial and emotional support for raising her daughter, Caylee was starting to become an unwanted child. It has been shown in this essay that Casey Anthony was psychologically capable of killing her daughter, and it has been explained why she did it. There is probably no more difficult role for a teenager or young woman than that of being a single parent. It requires strong and constant family support, and that a young teen or woman be of a proper frame of mind to take on the responsibilities and to be able to accept the ways in which these responsibilities will permanently alter her life. Casey Anthony and her mother argued often. At times the arguments led to physical pushing. Casey lost her mother’s support just before Caylee went missing. Without this support, and having to face consequences for her actions Casey had to devise ways on how she could continue with her lifestyle without her mother knowing. One theory I can present is that, it is possible that Casey did not deliberately kill her daughter and that it was simply an accident. But this accident was so different from the one she used in the courtroom. It is possible that Casey brought Caylee with her on a party. To get her to sleep, she used chloroform. Then she applied duct tape over her mouth just in case the child egained consciousness before Casey was done partying. It is possible that Casey partied too long, she may have passed out during parties and forgot about Caylee. When she got back to the car, Casey was dead, and she panicked. Maybe she wanted to dispose of Caylee’s body somewhere else but she didn’t have time because the body was already starting to decay. Casey might not have intended for her daughter to die, but her actions, abusive action, led to her daughter’s death. Under Florida law, Casey Anthony is guilty of murder in the first degree. Works Cited ABC, Good Morning America. 500 Pages of Circumstantial Evidence in Casey Anthony Case. Found online (2009) at http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/US/story?id=6912695&page=2, retrieved July 5, 2011. Bettman. "Time Photos: Moms Who Kill." The Time Magazine. 24 July 2011 . Case, Robbie and Okamoto, Yukari (2000). The Role of Central Conceptual Structures, New York, NY, Wiley-Blackwell, (2000). Draper, Electa. "Parents who kill their kids not always insane, expert says." 27 May 2011. Denver Post. 24 July 2011 . Fanning, Dianne. Mommy's Little Girl: Casey Anthony and her Daughter Caylee's Tragic Fate. New York: St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2009. Hopper, Jessica. "Casey Anthony Trial: Not Guilty Murder Verdict." 5 July 2011. ABC News. 24 July 2011 . Howell, Claudia J. "Time Photos: Moms Who Kill." The Time Magazine. 24 July 2011 . Liston, Barbara. "Closing arguments Sunday in Casey Anthony trial." 1 July 2011. Reuters. 24 July 2011 . Lohr, David. Timeline of Events: Casey Anthony and Caylee Anthony. 24 July 2011 . Meyer, Cheryl and Oberman, Michelle. Mothers Who Kill their Children: Understanding the Acts of Moms from Susan Smith to the "Prom Mom". New York: New York University Press, 2011. Reeker, George. Susan Smith: Victim or Murderer? New York, NY, Glenbridge Publishing, S.C. Department of Corrections. "Time Photos: Moms Who Kill." The Time Magazine. 24 July 2011 . Sullivan, Danielle. Mothers who kill their children: More common than you think. 18 April 2011. 24 July 2011 . Times Magazine. "Time Photos: Moms Who Kill." The Time Magazine. 24 July 2011 . Varma, Arun. Twitter: Only 1% Think Casey Anthony Innocent. 8 July 2011. 24 July 2011 . Wallace, Pamela. "Juror #2 of the Casey Anthony murder trial, anonymously tells his story." 7 July 2011. 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