Unsurprisingly, an Orange County judge canceled the October trial date for the Casey Anthony capital murder case. No new trial date was set although a status hearing is now scheduled for January 10, 2010. (A change of venue motion filed by the Anthony defense team in May has not yet been heard by the court.)

Such a long continuance is frankly not that unusual in a death penalty case. There are constitutional issues which must be raised by a competent capital murder defense attorney as well as an above-average number of lay witnesses, law enforcement witnesses and potential expert witnesses to investigate. The preparation period for a solid death penalty defense is long and intense.

Judges and attorneys in death penalty cases take their jobs very seriously due to the ultimate potential punishment. All legal technicalities must be addressed in addition to solid investigation into the facts of the case. Strategies must be considered for both the guilt phase and the penalty phase of the trial. And all of this can take a substantial amount of time. No one wants to cut corners in any way.

Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. The child’s body was found less than a mile from her home last winter, several months after she was reported missing. The state has announced it will seek the death penalty if Anthony is convicted.

Anthony’s defense team added an experienced capital defense attorney recently. Andrea Lyon, a professor at DePaul University’s law school in Chicago, joined three other criminal defense lawyers. Lyon apparently has substantial experience in the defense of death penalty cases and is a frequent lecturer on the topic.

Lyon has indicated that she will be filing multiple motions related to the death penalty in the next several weeks. A court spokesperson stated that Lyon requested the motions be heard by the court in a specific order. The judge has apparently agreed to do so.

Lyon stated that prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for strategic reasons. “You will hear about those strategic reasons in motions that I will be filing, challenging their right to even ask for the death penalty in these circumstances,” Lyon said. “I believe Florida law simply doesn’t allow asking for the death penalty in these circumstances.

In order for the death penalty to be imposed in Florida, a jury must first convict the defendant of first-degree murder, then – after a separate penalty phase of trial – find that certain specific aggravating factors outweigh certain specific mitigating factors. Those factors are spelled out in Florida’s death penalty statute.

In the Anthony case, the only two aggravating factors that seem possible are:

• The capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel and
• The capital felony was a homicide and was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.

Depending on the physical evidence relating to how Caylee Anthony died, the defense may argue that there is no evidence to support either of these aggravating factors as a matter of law.

All of this is speculation, of course. Any motions filed by Lyon on Anthony’s behalf will be public record and we will be able to look a bit further into the defense strategy at that time.

Felonies, Violent Crimes

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 7:51 am and is filed under Florida Criminal Law News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.