The Casey Anthony Trial: Examining Media Influence and Jury Impact

This case study examines the Casey Anthony trial, focusing on the extensive media coverage and its potential impact on the jury and the overall legal process. The analysis explores how the media's attention, driven by the case's sensational nature and the emotional aspects of a mother accused of murdering her child, may have influenced public perception and the ability of the jury to remain impartial. The study also considers the role of the jury's sequestration and whether it was sufficient to shield them from the pervasive media influence. By comparing the Casey Anthony case to other high-profile trials, such as the O. J. Simpson case, the analysis highlights the challenges of ensuring a fair trial in the face of intense media scrutiny. Desklib offers a range of study tools and solved assignments to help students understand complex legal cases like this.

Running head: CASE OF CASEY ANTHONY
CASE OF CASEY ANTHONY
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1CASE OF CASEY ANTHONY
An American girl named Caylee Marie Anthony lived in Orlando, Florida with her
mother named Casey Marie Anthony. George and Cindy Anthony were her grandparents who
also lived with her. Caylee was reported missing on July 15, 2008 by Casey and on much
investigation she was charged with first-degree murder of her daughter and pleaded not guilty in
the end (Long 2014). In this paper, the case of Casey would be analyzed considering various
aspects of media and media coverage. The case was extensively covered by local media and later
became a focus of the nation. The case is used to understand the role of media and its impact on
the case’s main characters.
1. The case of Casey pulled extensive media attentions not only in local media but also in
national media. The case was regularly discussed and for a long time was a main topic of various
news channels, TV shows and talk shows. Although Casey was neither famous nor rich the case
was heavily highlighted in the media. According to Shelden, (2011), there are reasons The Casey
Anthony Trial became one of the most sensational news story of 2011. The Casey Anthony case
is one of the rare cases that challenges the social norms and anticipations, where the case
exceeded normalcy. It is hard for people to accept a mother killing her daughter. The other factor
that attracted media is the age, the age of the victims. When the age of the victim is less the
media tend to focus more attention to the case.
2. The continuous media coverage was extensive which made the three months case relatively
tedious and lengthy. Casey had already received too much of pretrial publicity. Considering the
Casey’s phone calls in the jail she did get a fair trial. The pretrial publicity did make the case
overly filled with attention. This made the case a national attention and people across the nation
had different anticipation it is important to understand that the media has overhyped the case and
made it difficult for the juries to take decisions in better ways. The fact that needs to be

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understood that there are more than 100 children dying every year however there are no concern
and attention given to them. It is important as well as mandatory for the jury to take the
impartial verdict however with all the mediated evidences and rumors it had definitely been a
hard job for the jury (Ablow, 2013). By any chance if I was in the place of the jury, it would
have been possible for to take the impartial verdict. Since, the important part to analyses the
evidences and give the right verdict not to meet the expectation of the people. A jury by
profession is knowledgeable enough to understand its role, performance and the impact of both.
3. A young women facing the death penalty automatically generates media attention. The case
was from the beginning gaining the media attention without any potential reason. The reasons it
was getting the attention was for the complicated relationships exiting in family, the mother’s
extra marital affair and the age of the victim as well as the guilty. Since, the young women was
found breaking the ground law of society, being a mother and killing her daughter and she was
not the kind of mother one would call “normal” as per societal rule it was highly attention
seeking. Therefore, the penalty of Casey was given extensive coverage (Wamp, 2015).
4. The jury being sequestered did pay an important role in the verdict. Although jury by default
try best to give the right verdict that are supported by evidences often extensive media coverage
and people’s attention adds to the stress level. Therefore, being isolated from the case before the
verdict was a helpful act for the jury. Publicity surrounding a trial and parties interested in the
trial may create interference with the juror objectivity. A case like Casey that is overly hyped by
media and social media makes it hard for the jury to be completely removed from being exposed
to the media and the internet even while they being sequestered (Aikin et al., 2017).
5. A defendant will not be declared innocent or guilty even if court evidences and documents are
displayed over the internet. It is due to the fact that court will follow its rules and regulation and

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go abiding the laws (Baird & Casey, 2013). A case need to be analyzed in the way that
constitution demands as well as according to the process that court calls legal.
6. According to Gross-Schaefer et al. (2014), the case of O. J. Simpson and Casey Anthony are
as Samuel Walker calls, “celebrated case”. Both of these cases are beyond normalcy for the
society. The major reason for the cases to be out of normalcy is the nature of the offense. There
is a status of celebrity involved in the cases. Where Casey was acquitted of murdering her
daughter, and OJ Simpson was acquitted of murdering his wife and his friend. According to ()In
the both case the guilty person were tried for the reason of murdering people who were close to
them and not commonly seen in the society. However the cases got interest of the people were
for the dysfunctional family, extra marital affairs and a story that is dramatic similar to films or
movies. These are the reason that makes the story most watched and talked about however there
are experts who believes media has given unnecessary coverage that is only to gain more viewers
of the channel and popularity.

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References:
Ablow, K. R. (2013). Inside the Mind of Casey Anthony: A Psychological Portrait. St. Martin's
Press.
Aikin, S., Casey, J., Andrews, R., Anthony, L., Argamon, S., Olsen, M., ... & Glendinning, S.
(2017). Discourse analysis: A critical view. In Posthumanism and Deconstructing
Arguments: Corpora and Digitally-driven Critical Analysis (Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 1-10).
Tokyo: Edinburgh University Press.
Baird, D. G., & Casey, A. J. (2013). No exit? Withdrawal rights and the law of corporate
reorganizations. Columbia Law Review, 1-52.
Gross-Schaefer, A., Gala, S., Block, J., & Terry, W. (2014). Are Media Interference and
Technical Complexities Crippling the Ability of Juries to Deliver Fair Verdicts. JL Bus.
& Ethics, 20, 1.
Long Keith, 2014, The Media's Court of Public Opinion, Casey Anthony, SNReviews, retrieved
from: http://www.snreview.org/0313Long.html
Shelden Randall, 2011, The Casey Anthony Case and the Media Frenzy: What About all the
Others?, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, Retrieved from:
http://www.cjcj.org/news/5382
Wamp, B. M. (2015). Spectacle, Consumer Capitalism, and the Hyperreality of the Mediated
American Jury Trial: the French Perspective on OJ Simpson, Casey Anthony, and
Dominique Strauss-Kahn.