ANALYSIS | The insanity defense is a real legal defense and much sensationalized by Hollywood. However, it is rarely used. But in their efforts to keep their client from receiving the death penalty, it appears that Casey Anthony's defense team attempted the next best thing. Although the records have been sealed, according to CNN, it was implied by Judge Belvin Perry Monday that the findings over the weekend of three psychiatrists that the 25-year-old murder suspect was mentally competent to continue standing trial was the reason for the mystery recess called abruptly Saturday morning.
Judge Perry announced the findings without the jury being present after meeting with the legal teams in his chambers. The jury was not made privy to the psychiatric findings so that they would not be influenced by the suggestion of mental incompetence -- a factor that could weigh heavily in deliberations of Anthony's guilt or innocence.
The defense team, which filed the motion to determine Anthony's mental competence Saturday, has attempted to discount the state's case that the then 22-year-old mother premeditated and carried out the murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie. In so doing, the defense has presented their version of what actually occurred in June 2008 -- an accidental drowning death covered up by a panicked Casey and her father, George -- in hopes to persuade the jury that their claims are as plausible as the state's, setting up the framework for reasonable doubt. Defense witnesses called to refute evidence offered by the state -- that Anthony used chloroform, that the duct tape was actually used or placed over Caylee's mouth, that Anthony did the searches for chloroform online -- have been presented to reinforce reasonable doubt as well.
As for the reasons the defense offered for basis for the motion for mental incompetence, the sealing of the records regarding that part of the trial will remain a mystery.
Still, Jose Baez and the defense have done everything they can, even before the trial convened more than five weeks ago, to make certain that their client never faced the death penalty. Various defenses were "leaked" or intimated in interviews, such as Casey Anthony being in jail when Caylee's death occurred, blaming the Orange County Sheriff's Office for not looking harder for the shadowy babysitter/kidnapper who could have possibly killed the child and dumped her near her grandparents house outside Orlando, and shifting the blame to the utility worker (Roy Kronk) who found the remains.
Since the burden of proof in a murder case falls on the prosecution, the defense only has to convince one member of the jury that the death of Caylee Marie Anthony did not occur the way the state's attorneys say it did. Convince one juror and the jury becomes hung. If reasonable doubt manifests itself and a juror feels that the state's mostly circumstantial evidence is not strong enough, Casey Anthony will be acquitted of the murder charge. She still faces six other charges, but the murder charge would no longer apply, therefore obviating the need for the death penalty phase.
Even if Anthony had been found mentally incompetent via the weekend observations and tests, would the findings have bearing on the original charges? Although the trial may have been suspended, a mistrial declared, or some other adjudicatory decision made, would Anthony still face or one day again face at a later date the charge of murder for her daughter? If she had been found mentally incompetent, could the case be made by the state that she was not mentally incompetent -- simply narcissistic and self-involved -- when she allegedly planned and murdered her only child, that her mental incompetence state had presented after the commission of the suspected crime?
Mental incompetence is not insanity. However, mental incompetence can be used in an insanity defense. If Anthony had been found incompetent and the trial postponed or ruled a mistrial until her mental state improved, there is no doubt that the jury would become privy to the psychiatric findings from this weekend as the defense built its case that Casey Anthony had been in such a state all along and therefore was not responsible for her actions. The burden of proof, again, would fall to the state to present evidence that Anthony was not incompetent when the death of her daughter took place. Again, it lays the groundwork for reasonable doubt, even in a hypothetical case.
However, insanity cases are rare, despite Hollywood's predilection for the such plots. According to JRank.org, less than 1 in 100 cases (0.85) nationwide go to trial with an insanity defense. Of those cases, 0.26 percent are successful.
Casey Anthony's defense team appears to be pulling out all the stops. But that might be just as well. As each defense maneuver is attempted and closed (with or without the knowledge of the jury), the case falls to the evidence submitted. If found not guilty, the defense team will have succeeded in their task, the mental incompetence ploy simply being one of the tactics used to keep their client from being found guilty or off of death row. If found guilty, there will be less for that same team to work on when they begin the inevitable appeals process.
But the jury will move forward not knowing of the motion or the tests for mental incompetence. And their deliberations will be unencumbered with even the suggestion that Casey Anthony is or was mentally incompetent to not only stand trial but to have perhaps committed a heinous murder.
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