Casey Anthony Verdict

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2011560/Casey-Anthony-trial-Not-guilty-verdict.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
The Casey Anthony verdict came down and she was found not guilty of murdering her own child.  She was also found not guilty of child abuse.  She was found guilty on the charges of lying to police officials during the investigation.

I followed the trial fairly closely and I didn't find this verdict surprising.  It seemed the prosecutors made some enormous leaps and asked the jury to make the same leaps while seeking the death penalty against Anthony.  Yet, if they would have found Anthony guilty that wouldn't have been that surprising to me either.  The immediate public reaction was shock.  Within the first few minutes I've seen people respond to the verdict with  "bullshit, unbelievable, shocking, what's going on, stunned."  What I find shocking is our response to this verdict.

We have an incredible justice system in place.  If there is reasonable doubt in the jurors mind then they have no choice but to find the defendant not guilty.  How can we, people that weren't privy to the vast amounts of evidence, know better than the jury?  We want closure and not guilty isn't closure.  We think she got away with it and that bothers us. We've been down this road before with other high profile murder cases where not guilty verdicts were the outcome and we found ourselves shocked in the past.

We have no way of knowing the truth, just like with most things in life. We have set up a system that tries to evaluate all of the evidence and make the best decision possible. When twelve people come to a unanimous decision in a courtroom I'm comfortable with their judgment.  Even if it doesn't resolve this particular case, it ensures our system isn't based on emotion and wishful thinking.  If we are going to punish a person by incarcerating them for the rest of their life or even put them to death then we need to be certain, beyond a reasonable doubt, we are correct.  In this case twelve people all came to the same conclusion, not guilty.  It's hard to celebrate a system that works under such circumstances at the present moment but I implore the people that are stunned to step back and reevaluate why you feel how you feel.  Your emotions are clouding your judgment.  We make this mistake all too often in life.