Sometimes justice is served when justice is not done.

At the end of the day, a little girl is dead and her murderer may have gone free.  It is hard to see the good news in that, but good news it is.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on the Anthony case.  I followed it in the news just as many of you did.  I have my opinion on the guilt of Casey Anthony just as I have my opinion on the merits of the case against her.

In the past several hours I have heard and read many comparisons to the OJ acquittal.  In my opinion, the result of this case is as un-OJ as you can get.  In the OJ case, there were gobs of evidence that established the wheres, hows, and whys in the case beyond a reasonable doubt.  The jury, (all of this is my opinion of course) however was impacted by the media coverage, issues of race, and slick arguments of the defense attorneys.  The OJ case was tried in the media and the media won.

The Anthony case was tried in the media as well, but this time the law won.  Suspicions and certainties aside, the prosecutors have an obligation under the law to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt with evidence.  They simply did not do that.

As I have been following the case in the media, I have had a growing sense that Casey Anthony probably did it and that the prosecution had done very little to prove it.  And I hold my certainty that the prosecution failed in this regard is beyond a reasonable doubt.  But despite all the media attention, despite the human desire to see retribution exacted upon someone who could brutalize and kill such a beautiful creature as Caylee, despite Casey’s bizarre and incriminating behavior, the jury stuck to the law.

The jury took only eleven hours to reach a verdict on all the charges.  That is barely enough time to read all the charges.  This means that each and every one of them knew that the high burden of proof had not been met.  May God bless them for their service and fidelity to the law.

As for all of us who suspect that a murderer may have walked, we should be mindful that every debt will be paid in full.  God’s justice, unlike his mercy, is never thwarted.  May God have mercy on little Caylee and may God have mercy on Casey.