Casey Anthony Trial: Jury Enters Deliberations

UPDATE: Jury deliberations have begun in the trial of Casey Anthony, who prosecutors argued killed her daughter because the child was interfering in Anthony's partying lifestyle. Anthony's defense team reiterated their claim that the child's death was an accident that was made to look like an act of foul play. Prosecutors portrayed that as a ridiculous assertion.
Prosecutor Jeff Ashton told the jurors that no one made an innocent accident look like a murder.
"That's absurd. Nothing has been presented to you to make that any less absurd," Ashton said. He also spent significant time reminding the jurors about the forensic evidence that he said linked Anthony to her daughter's death, including the smell and chemical signature of decomposition in her car.
Click here to read the Daily Beast's commentary on the firey closing arguments.
--
Casey Anthony was a mother who sacrificed her daughter for a better life, prosecutors argued Sunday during closing arguments of the trial. Both sides stayed consistent to their stories--one of accidental death by the defense and one of premeditated murder by the prosecution--as they urged the jurors to decide the fate of Casey Anthony.
Anthony is facing a possible death sentence if convicted for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Anthony.
Caylee's death in 2008 fell to the sympathetic ear of the public due to the tragic nature of the case. The case gained more attention as Anthony's creation of fictional friends, her search logs of "neck breaking" and "chloroform," as well as an alleged smell of rotting corpse in the trunk of her car were presented as evidence in the case.
Prosecutor Jeff Ashton during Sunday's closing arugments reiterated the story of a mother who took it upon herself to sacrifice her daughter for a better life.
From ABC News:
"Casey Anthony decided on June 16 [2008] that something had to be sacrificed, that the conflict between the life that she wanted and the life that was thrust upon her was simply irreconcilable and something had to give," Prosecutor Jeff Ashton said.
"She took her child, she took her life and she put her in the trunk and forgot about her. After a couple of days, she couldn't forget anymore and she disposed of her body in a swamp," Ashton said.
Defense lawyer Jose Baez in his closing statement dismissed claims by the prosecutors as an attempt to gain sympathy votes.
From ABC News:
"Caylee Anthony was a beautiful, sweet innocent child who died far too soon...but to parade her up here to evoke your emotion would be improper...I submit to you that ...the strategy and the way the state presented...was to paint Casey Anthony as a slut, as a party girl, as a girl who lies," Baez said. "You would dishonor the law and even Caylee's memory if you were to base your decision on anything but the evidence."
The defense then argued that the prosecution did not do their job in proving Anthony's guilt.
From Reuters:
"What happened to her? What is proven beyond a reasonable doubt?" Baez said, arguing the trial raised more questions than it answered and Casey should be cleared in Caylee's death.
Baez again argued Caylee's death was an accidental drowning one which her grandfather attempted to hide.
If the jury finds Anthony guilty of first-degree murder the trial will continue to determine whether Anthony will face the death sentence or life in prison.
Feed of Casey Anthony Trial