CLOSING THOUGHTS ON THE CASE

Although judged not guilty, Casey Anthony has a lot of explaining to do. Perhaps not to any of us but her day of reckoning will eventually come, if she is indeed guilty of killing her daughter Caylee. Casey’s behavior has been atrocious and barbaric to say the least. I realize that people do all sorts of crazy things while mourning the loss of a loved one, and the brain circuits don’t always synapse correctly. However, some of her behavior surely leaves forensic psychologists and psychiatrists scratching their heads. Whether Casey killed her daughter or not, Casey’s behavior is maternally very unnatural. For those who are really interested, maybe Casey will tell her side of the story one day. Other than pathologically psychological reasons, it seems implausible to reasonably explain her unnatural motherly behaviors. Perhaps psychosis is her explanation and the rest of the explanation will be eternally settled.

Caylee’s Law is a petition that is circulating stating that it is a federal offense to not report a “missing child within 24 hours and failure to report a child's death within one hour.” Another version states that a missing child has to be reported in a “timely manner.” Well, who’s going to define timely manner? Anyway, I can’t imagine waiting 24 hours to report that a child is missing. I know children get on the wrong school bus sometimes and so mandating a report to the police if a child is missing for an hour might be a bit much, but would you allow your child or grandchild to be missing for even a few hours without reporting it, alone 24 hours? I’m sure there will be a Caylee’s Law and someone will try to work out reasonable legal language. It seems weird that such a law is even necessary but I would likely support it.

I saw a political cartoon today which asks the media, “Since Caylee Anthony died in June of 2008, 983 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan. Can you name any of them?” The media figure responds, “No…is it important?” Furthermore, 45 murders are committed every single day in the United States; 11 percent of them are children. According to the International Business Times, 200 women kill children in the United States every year. What made the media choose to sensationalize the Caylee Anthony death? I don’t know. While the deaths of our military personnel, other children, and other people go unheralded, the media continues to choose what our nation focuses on. It will even render the verdict of the cases and do our political voting if we let it.