Cindy Anthony testifies for the second day in a row during the defense portion of the murder trial of her daughter Casey Anthony at the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Florida, Friday, June 24, 2011.
Could Thursday’s shocking twist in the Casey Anthony trial have been a lie?
The trial of Casey Anthony, who is accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter Caylee in 2008, took a dramatic turn Thursday when Casey’s mother, Cindy Anthony, took to the stand and declared that it was she, and not her accused daughter, who’d searched the internet for the term “chloroform” from the family’s home computer. Other incriminating phrases that Cindy claimed to have searched herself included “neck breaking” and ” chest injuries” — searches that the prosecution had claimed revealed Casey Anthony’s homicidal state of mind.
(MORE: The Casey Anthony Bombshell: Mother Searched for ‘Chloroform’)
The prosecution has argued that Casey subdued her little girl with chloroform before covering her mouth and nose with duct tape, and Cindy’s testimony drew gasps from the crowd in the courtroom. A key point of the prosecution’s case rested on the idea that it was Casey who had been searching how to make homemade chloroform, in order to murder her daughter — a point that Cindy had seemingly just shattered. But was Cindy telling the truth?
ABC reports that, despite her insistence, “Cindy Anthony’s claim that she carried out the many chloroform searches occurred at a time when her time card as a nurse showed that she was working.”
Though Cindy has reportedly said that she left work early on the day of the searches, her testimony has many speculating that she’s perjuring herself to defend her daughter. According to former prosecutor Nancy Grace, who appeared on Good Morning America Friday morning, Cindy’s story could be easily dispelled by the state as they have listed her employer’s record keeper as a witness, who would presumably be able to determine if Cindy was in fact at work.
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However, lying or not, Cindy has certainly proved a sympathetic witness for the defense’s case. She returned to the stand on Friday as the defense played home video footage of Caylee playing near the family pool wearing what appeared to be the shorts she was wearing when her body was found in December of 2008. (The defense is arguing that Caylee drowned accidentally and that Casey’s only crime was covering it up.) Cindy wept as she watched the footage of her granddaughter laughing, and noted that the video was from 2007. The defense seemed to be pointing out that by the time Caylee had been reported missing on July 15, 2008 (more than a month after she was last seen alive), the little girl had outgrown the shorts seen in the footage. The defense’s strategy when on the shorts argument is not clear at the moment, though they’ve already proven adept at blowing holes in the prosecution’s case.
If convicted of the first degree murder charges against her, Casey Anthony could face the death penalty.
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