The Casey Anthony Verdict - A Great Day For America

I have always deplored the fact that much of our American Culture is a popularity contest. Many years ago a friend suggested that in America no one could be elected to political office who parted his hair in the middle or who wore a mustache. That may not have been true then or now, but it is a fact that appearances weigh heavily on public opinion.

I also deplore the fact that we defer to a person with a visibly perceptible disability, but often vilify someone with an unseen affliction. We show sympathy for any person with a missing limb, but scoff at a mentally ill person who behaves in an uncharacteristic way.

Like many people, I must struggle to hide my disapproval of a obese person or one who is slovenly. In fact, I usually resent the guy who comes into an eatery wearing a soiled baseball cap and sits across from me, wearing the hat throughout his meal. Those appearances are things I very much dislike, but they are hardly punishable offenses.

I was but 3 1/2 years old when the infant son of hero aviator Charles Lindberg was kidnapped in March of 1932. Like the body of little Caylee Anthony, Lindberg's son was later found, decomposed. A small boy myself, I found that event frightening.

That tragic story and the ensuing trial dragged on for three years before a man named Bruno Richard Hauptman was convicted in March of 1935, and executed a year later in April, 1936, when I was seven years old.

Hauptmann was convicted on circumstantial evidence and, while there was no TV and scant radio coverage available in my farm home, I never believed Hauptmann was proven guilty of that crime. That trial and its outcome, in fact, has haunted me.

Now comes the case of Caylee Anthony. Having been blessed with four sisters, three daughters and seven granddaughters, everyone who knows me knows that I adore little girls. As I have blogged before, I believe little girls to be our most precious and fragile asset. They are, after all, the mothers of our next generation. To see a little girl die so young is the saddest of all tragedies.

If that death was because of a deliberate act by an adult, that person should be found and punished to the full extent of the law... but not beyond. They should not be lynched. Not shot like a dog. Their punishment should be inflicted only after there is solid, unshakable proof of their guilt.

As with the Lindberg trial, I did not follow the proceedings of the Anthony trial. That was the job of the jury, not mine. I had no interest in watching the emotional suffering of others, as did millions of TV viewers.

Casey Anthony has acted in an unusual, largely inexplicable manner. But this was not a popularity contest. The jury, rightfully, did not consider anything but the charges filed against Casey Anthony by the State of Florida. Unquestionably, she lied to authorities - for which she has been convicted. But lying is not a capitol crime. The state of Florida did not prove that she killed her daughter, and I am so grateful for the jury that reached that conclusion.

Having enjoyed a career in the news reporting business, I know we are not permitted to declare someone guilty of a crime unless they are convicted by a court of law. Once that conviction is affirmed, however, we may then legally call them a criminal. Conversely, when a person is acquitted, they are legally innocent. If we are to remain a nation of laws, we must cling to that principle. Agree or not, we must accept the verdict in the Anthony trial.

Casey Anthony did not kill her daughter. We may never know who did, or if it was truly an accidental death, or why Casey behaved as she did. Was she emotionally disturbed, as the defense seemed to infer? We cannot see that disability, if it existed. We can never know beyond the best assessment of medical experts.

She lied to the cops. She has been punished. Now she should be regarded the innocent citizen the court has declared her to be, and allowed, if she so wills, to attempt to put her life back together.