Judge Belvin Perry ruled on Tuesday that the death penalty will remain in the case against Casey Anthony. Perry said that the Anthony defense team did not prove that the prosecutors had a gender bias when they asked for the death penalty in their first degree murder case against Casey, reports Channel 6.
Anthony’s defense team brought in Elizabeth Rapaport, a New Mexico law professor to make the case as to why the death penalty should be taken off the table.
Casey’s defense team stated that state’s case against their client lacks the evidence necessary to support a good faith basis for their decision to seek the death penalty.
“…there exists an inherent bias against women accused of crimes, reflected in both society and the court system,” the defense stated in their motion to preclude the death penalty.
“Women are not traditionally thought of as being capable of the same types of violent crime that men are. For this reason, women who are accused of violent crimes are tried not only for the facts of the crime, but also for their non-conformity with traditional gender expectations. The bias is even greater against mothers, especially in instances where something happens to their child,” the defense motion stated.
But, Perry was not convinced that the defense had made their case, and so the death penalty will remain.
Casey Anthony is charged with first degree murder in the death of her two-year-old daughter, Caylee. She has plead not guilty, saying that her toddler was kidnapped by a baby sitter. Caylee’s remains were later found in a wooded area in December 2008, a few blocks from the Anthony family home.
Anthony sits in the Orange County jail awaiting trial, which is expected to begin on May 9th and last about two months.
If convicted Anthony could face the death penalty.
