Casey Anthony Acquittal Raises Question: Is Trial by Jury A Medieval Throwback?

A Florida jury has just acquitted twenty-five year old Casey Anthony, in the murder of her two-year old daughter, Caylee Marie.  While I have no way of knowing how the jury reached its decision, I do know this.  Since the 1995 acquittal of O.J. Simpson for the double murder of his ex-wife and a friend, the legal system of trial by jury has come under increasing attack.  Growing segments of the American public are perplexed at what the seemingly arcane protocols of jury trials have to do with establishing one’s guilt or innocence.  In truth, America's criminal justice system is in many ways a legacy of Medieval Europe's "trial by combat."    Notions of "empirical truth," were meaningless in those days, since whoever won the combat was designated to be" in the right."  I touched on this matter in an earlier post.  

The State of Florida, after investing more than a million dollars in an effort to bring to justice little Caylee Marie Anthony’s killer, is no closer to its goal today, than it was when the toddler’s skeletal remains were discovered in a Florida swamp three years ago.     This not-guilty verdict brings to an end the spectacular trial of a young woman, labeled by her own attorneys, oddly enough, as  “a slut and pathological liar.”   Among other problems, Ms. Anthony misled family and friends for thirty-one days into believing that the child had been kidnapped by a factitious  Hispanic woman.  During that time, the young woman partied heavily although her defense attorney, José Baez, asserted that Anthony’s behavior was a legitimate means by which some people express grief.   The defense team also asserted that the toddler had drowned accidentally in the family swimming pool, although they presented no evidence to that effect. 

Perhaps in reflecting on the Casey Anthony verdict, we should all be asking ourselves the same question.   Why ever should a society as modern and technologically-savvy as the United States depend for justice on the sometimes questionable critical thinking skills of twelve jurors, chosen primarily because they have the free time to participate in months-long capital murder trials?  

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