Adam Feeley 10/2/11 Professor Lutz Exploratory Essay

Facts, Dont Assume Have you ever done something where it wasnt right and your friends never gave you a chance to explain your side of the story and only saw what they wanted to believe was true? Have you ever been in a situation where you felt hopeless? Where no one believes you at all? In July, a murder case became very popular around the United States, the Casey Anthony trial. It had been going on for a couple of years before it hit the popularity of the public because the media took control of it. It started to reach the public views when the media thought there was a chance of her getting off of not being charged with murder, when the public thought it would be a disgrace if she was let go. Before she even stepped in the court room Casey was already convicted of murdering her 2 year old child Caylee by the public. In the United States court of Law it is established that the "The law presumes that persons charged with crime are innocent until they are proven by competent evidence to be guilty" in 1894(Constitution). With the way society is shaping up in the last 10 years over the past court cases, and how the public media is becoming a big part of having a negative effect on the fairness of how the people are viewing the justice system. While reading our text There is no Unmarked Women by Deborah Tannen it made me think of this case because I thought Casey Anthony was already marked to the whole public before the trial started. In this reading she describes the word marked by meaning being singled

out, and very noticeable. She describes many ways how the public view girls as being marked by the clothes they wear, the make-up, the hair, and by age (Tannen 141). This is very important to the Casey Anthony trial because one piece of evidence that was given forward were pictures of her partying at a club two days after Caylee disappeared (Orlando Sentinel). The pictures brought a lot of attention to the case because they said no innocent mother who had a child missing or supposedly murdered would have gone out the days after. She was marked by the court as well as the public as a party girl. The media took full advantage of these pictures and acted like she was the only mother to go out and have a drink or party with her friends? I believe there are quite a few mothers who still go out and party with their friends, especially if they have a kid at age 22, when those are the prime years to party. In this scenario she was marked. She was marked as a wild mother who shouldnt have had a baby because she wasnt mature enough or she went out to a party and took pictures. For some reason, people believe that showing pictures of her going out the days after is enough to convict her of murdering her child, when really it shows nothing towards her being the murderer of her daughter. I believe this was a useless piece of evidence that was brought forward against Casey to try to convict her for the murder. I believe that the female sex is the only sex to be perceived in a bad way. When a female does something it is escalated to an extreme measure where as if the man did the same thing it wouldnt even be talked about, especially in a bad way. In the reading when Deborah Tannen mentions that the range of facts there is no unmarked women (Tannen 145). I believe this quote is true because it matters with everything a girl does, from the clothes Casey wore to the court room, to how she acted and what emotion she showed in front of jurors. Would this be such a big deal if it was a guy that went out a few days after his daughter was reported missing? I feel

girls are marked harder in todays society with the way they party and are judged harder for what they do with their bodies. If a guy was caught at a club after his daughter was reported missing I dont think that it would have been such big news as much as this was hyped to be. Time called it "the first major murder trial of the social-media age." Every weekday since the trial began on May 24, thousands watched a live feed of the proceedings (Rawlings, Nate, Time, and Issue 3). This is another reason why I believe the media should be eliminated or shouldnt be such a big influence on court cases because it gives the public the wrong intentions. In this article, it demonstrates that people wouldnt have even heard about this case if it wasnt for the media and how much press time it took up. There are so many murder cases out there every day that go on and yet this is the one that the public thinks they know everything about and can conclude that Casey is guilty. Another bad thing about the media being involved in court cases is they become public when its usually the final trial and they just recap the information that had happened over the past years, like this case. In this way the public is bias with whatever television program they watch because rarely do people start out to watch a case when it just begins so they dont understand what really happened through the whole case of what evidence was displayed. This is exactly what happened to this case, nobody started to care about it until it became national news and by that time nobody read the evidence so they really didnt know what had already been told and examined. The public view was bias because they just listened to whatever was being told on the news, instead of watching the whole case and concluding their own opinion on the murder trial. There was a lot that went into this case; it lasted for over three years. There were many claims that the prosecutors made about Casey and scenarios that they thought happened but none of them added up in the end to convict her of murder. People dont realize that in the court of law

it is all about the facts and evidence that are brought to attention to convict someone of a crime, not personal beliefs or public views. Sometimes its not about the truth but what you can prove in the court. In one statement, "There were a lot of holes in the prosecution's case, we don't know what happened. The bottom line is that the state didn't convince the jurors that Caylee Anthony died at the hand of Casey (Helling, Tauber, Tresniowski). This says it all; there were a lot of holes in the prosecutions case. I watched this case and it was quite entertaining to see both parties go back and forth and the best part was when the verdict didnt convict her of murder. After watching this and studying the evidence the jury did their job, they werent bias or bothered to listen to the media the whole case which turned out to be a good thing because if it was up to the people around the United States she would have been convicted in the opening line. I dont understand why people listen to the public and media before actually knowing what really happens in cases and having their own view. It is sad to see people now a day to not believe in second chances or come up with their own belief without hearing the persons story. A study done by lawyers in Rhode Island called the Innocent Project states that over 200,000 innocent people are in jails around the United States for something they never did, could you imagine? I feel like it is unfair to assume someone did something no matter what you believe you should at least hear them out and look at everything and then decide. There is no reason that over 200,000 people should be in jail right now. Society needs to stop marking people because as you can tell the media has a great impact of the opinions of Americans.