Judge Belvin Perry agreed on Monday that jurors in the Casey Anthony case will not be from Orange County, although the first degree murder trial will still take place at the Orange County Courthouse. Perry will also keep secret the Florida county from which the jurors will be selected until the last possible moment.
Among the many motions filed, the Anthony defense team requested a change of venue, arguing that the negative media reports on the case would taint the jury pool. Jose Baez, a member of Casey’s legal team, showed a preference for South Florida where he believed there was the least amount of media coverage of the case.
However, while Perry will grant the motion for a change of venue, he has said that it would be less costly to bring jurors to Orange County than to move to another location the several hundred persons, included witnesses, that would be associated with the case, Channel 6 reports. In Orlando the jurors would be sequestered in an undisclosed location and without having access to media coverage on the case. Lawyers will likely be placed under a gag order.
Also discussed today were a number of Casey’s party photos taken within days after her two-year-old child, Caylee went missing, reports Channel 6.
Anthony claimed that she was looking for daughter in night clubs on her own, hence her delay in reporting to authorities for one month, her missing child. The prosecution would like to introduce the photos as evidence that Casey was indeed looking for her child in night clubs, as she said. Anthony’s defense team do not want the pictures introduced and have said they would prejudice a jury.
There are other pictures of Casey partying several months before Caylee disappeared which the prosecution would like to introduce, in case the defense argue that she was a good mom.
Judge Perry ruled that the prosecutors will have until March 2011 to determine which pictures they would like to introduce as evidence in the case, following which the defense will get to review them and raise any objections they might have prior to the start of the trial.
So, expect a big battle over the Casey pics next March.
Meanwhile, both the prosecution and defense will be back in court Tuesday morning to argue several motions, including one on the death penalty. The Anthony defense team would like the death penalty which the prosecution has asked for, off the table. They have said it is unconstitutional and unfair to women.
Judge Perry will have to decide whether or not to allow the death penalty to stand.
Casey Anthony, 24, is charged with first degree murder in the death of her two-year-old daughter Caylee. She has pleaded not guilty. Anthony has said that Caylee 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 she could face the death penalty.
