I grew up in the 80s and was a teenager in the 90s- so after watching OJ and Menendez and the like for the better part of a decade I swore on my life I wouldn’t get wrapped up in another damn trial/media circus… Well that all went out the window this morning when I heard the verdict was in for Casey Anthony- the mother who stood accused of killing her two-year-old daughter, Caylee.

Now I admit, I watch the Today show religiously, so I’ve watched the disappearance, arrest, and now trial progress over 3 years… and the entire time I never doubted for a second that this woman killed her child and buried her in the swamp with duct tape on her mouth and nose. From the 30-day period which Casey Anthony chose NOT to tell authorities that her daughter had been missing, to the pictures that surfaced of her partying and “living it up” while her daughter had been missing… it just added up. As a parent of two kids I have been haunted by the pictures of little Caylee for 3 years, and after watching the circus that was the trial on national television, I KNEW that after only a day and a half of deliberations that the jury had reached a guilty verdict.. and I was relieved.

Then the bombshell: Casey Anthony was found not guilty of all charges except lying to police… for which she will probably get time served and non-supervised probation… I, like millions of people around the world, am in shock.

My objectivity met head-on with my desire… no… my NEED for justice for that poor little girl… and it lost. I can’t say that the verdict has  changed anything in my outlook of the entire situation. I can’t lie, I believe she is guilty. What kind of monster does the things she did? She knew her daughter was missing and she went out and got tattooed, partied, and lived the care-free lifestyle of a 20-something-year-old kid. Not a single iota of parental instinct showed in those things she did do… so it’s an easy leap for me to assume that if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a damn duck, then she killed her kid.

Now I don’t know what to believe. After seeing her parents’ testify on the stand, and knowing the circumstances of the case… I turned to my honey yesterday and said there was just too much Reasonable Doubt, and that she was going to walk… now I’m extremely sad I was right.

Not because I think this woman is a monster, or because I hate her for what I still think she did… but because of little Caylee Anthony. I wanted that one thing that everyone else who has watched this debacle has come to need: Justice for that poor little girl.

Now that justice is gone. Whether it is because Casey Anthony really didn’t do it, or because the State of Florida dropped the ball in an epic way… the fact will still remain:

Justice was not served for Caylee today.