Appeals court reverses 2 of 4 Casey Anthony convictions, cites double jeopardy
Acquitted of murder but convicted of four misdemeanor counts for lying to law enforcement officers in a 2011 trial over the death of her young daughter, Casey Anthony has now won reversals of two of the four misdemeanors.
A Florida appeals court agreed with defense lawyers that double jeopardy precluded the duplicative charges, but disagreed as to the reason why, according to the Associated Press and the Orlando Sentinel.
Also nixing a government argument that Anthony could properly face one count for each of the four lies she told, the Fifth District Court of Appeal focused on the fact that Anthony had repeated some of the false statements during a second interview with an Orange County sheriff’s detective.
“In light of the significant temporal break between Appellant’s two interviews with Detective [Yuri] Melich, we determine that each interview in which false information was given (or repeated) constituted a separate criminal episode,” the appeal court explained in its Friday opinion.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Blog Posts and Tweets Helped Defense Team Win Acquittal for Casey Anthony in Capital Murder Case”
ABAJournal.com: “Casey Anthony Free But In Hiding Due to ‘Lynch-Mob Mentality’ of Many; Will She Make a Statement?”
