Chief Judge Belvin Perry has ruled that air tests retrieved from the truck of Casey Anthony’s car which the prosecution say is consistent with an early decompositional event, will be allowed at her trial. This follows a series of rulings on key evidence which the Anthony defense team wanted kept away from jurors.
The Anthony defense had filed a motion to exclude “testimony relating to air, carpet samples, or paper towels tested”, saying that such evidence is unreliable.
Prosecutors say there was an odor in the trunk of Casey’s vehicle which is consistent with decomposition of a human being.
Perry announced on Monday that the air test evidence will be admitted at Casey Anthony’s first degree murder trial.
In his ruling Perry concluded that:
“..experts’ testimony will assist the jury in understanding the evidence and in determining facts in this case and because there is no question, based upon the record that Dr. Vass is qualified as an expert to present opinion testimony in the are of odor of human decomposition, said testimony will be allowed…”
No doubt the Anthony defense will challenge this evidence with an expert of their own in air tests. But Perry wrote:
“The disagreement between the experts is best resolved by the trier of fact, the jury. This is where both the defense and the state will have the opportunity to controvert the experts’ finding and conclusions.”
Meanwhile, jury selection got underway in Pinellas County on Monday morning, about 102 miles away from Orlando. It is expected to last one week.
Twenty jurors–12 to sit on Casey’s trial and 8 alternates–will be selected and brought to Orlando where they will be sequestered for the duration of the trial. While efforts will be made to identify a similar demographic as Orange County, some observers note that Pinellas County jurors will likely be more conservative.
All jurors will have to be death qualified and take an oath indicating that they are open to the death penalty, given that prosecutors have asked for the death penalty, if Casey is found guilty.
Opening arguments by both the state and defense team are likely to get going at the Orange County Courthouse on May 17th.
Casey Anthony is charged with first degree murder in the death of her two-year-old daughter Caylee. She had initially claimed her daughter was kidnapped by a baby sitter, but that “story” was later debunked by her defense attorneys.
It is unclear what the defense’s strategy will be, although there is speculation that they may try to pin the child’s death on one of Casey’s family members.
The trial is expected to be the most watched in Orange County, if not in Florida, given the excessive media coverage to date.
