As Casey Anthony was released from jail Saturday night, and the case proceedings continue to be widely published on every cable outlet, it is becoming clearer and clearer that this story just won’t — pardon the poor term — die. Although this is not the popular position to take, honestly, the pollution of coverage on this topic is cruel to what is left of Casey.
To be clear, Ms. Anthony is a pathological liar who was proven to do something wrong in not informing the authorities when her daughter went missing.
But if you care about human decency, which Casey opponents claim to do, recognize that this over-saturation of coverage is damning. Damning a woman, found not guilty by a jury of her peers, to never again experience a life of security, privacy and freedom.
First of all, recognize that never again will Ms. Anthony be able to hold down a regular job without serious reconstructive surgery and a legal name change. After all, who would be the employer who hired someone so universally considered an awful murderer?
Who would accept the bad press that would require to bring on board such a toxic asset?
Recognize that with the provisions required to keep Ms. Anthony safe from assault (those mentioned above), she won’t be able to hold normal relationships with any past family members and friends.
Hold on. Maybe you don’t really care about any of that. Maybe you believe that anything that happens to her is justified.
To those of you: recognize the severity of assaults that have already taken place. A 43-year old man in Pennsylvania, also named Casey Anthony, has received hundreds of death threats from those who thought him to be the 25-year old Anthony — even though she was, at that point, in an Orange County jail.
A Facebook page has developed a 700,000-plus strong following called simply “Fuck Casey Anthony”. It and some of the other similar pages have shown some of the worst sides of humanity with many calling for gruesome deaths for Anthony.
Phew.
What she did is wrong, and I sincerely hope that there is no true hope of her profiting from a high-profile memoir or interview.
But the fact of the matter is that the woman has no shot at any semblance of a normal life.
Nancy Grace and the others reporting on this story have been going on and on showing and re-showing the trials, not noticing this simple fact. Every countdown clock detailing the time until Casey’s release, every analysis of her courtroom body language has been intensely dedicated to painting the defendant as a horrible killer.
But this excessive fixation with a woman who was found to be innocent is, on the whole, unnecessary.
Because her punishment has yet to be fully explored — and any further media coverage will just expand its potential scope.
Bains: Casey Anthony will be punished eventually
Daily Emerald
July 16, 2011
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