Location chosen for jury selection in Anthony case

[May 09, 2011]  ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Jury selection for the trial of Casey Anthony, who's accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter, will take place in the Tampa area.

Judicial officials in Orlando didn't make the announcement until early Monday because of intense media interest in the trial of 25-year-old Anthony, who's accused of killing her daughter, Caylee, in 2008. Jury selection was expected to begin Monday morning in Pinellas County.

Once the panel is chosen, jurors will be transported to Orlando, where they will stay in a hotel for the duration of the trial, which is expected to take about two months.

About 600 media credentials were requested from the court and an empty lot in front of Orlando's courthouse was renamed "Casey Town" after it was designated the spot for TV trucks and reporters to congregate once the trial begins. The number of journalists assigned to Anthony's trial may even dwarf the number assigned to O.J. Simpson's trial 16 years ago, said the judge presiding over it.

"The pretrial publicity I've seen in this case is unprecedented in the state of Florida," said Circuit Judge Belvin Perry.

At the center of this media maelstrom is the ponytailed Anthony, who could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder. She also is charged with aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and providing false information to law enforcement. She has pleaded not guilty and says a babysitter kidnapped Caylee.

Anthony waited a month before telling her mother Caylee had disappeared in the summer of 2008. Anthony's mother then contacted authorities. Over the next several weeks, hundreds of volunteers scoured central Florida in search of any clues to Caylee's whereabouts but they were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, numerous photos surfaced of Casey Anthony drinking and partying, some of them allegedly taken during that first month.

The heart-tug of a missing apple-cheeked girl contrasted with images of the hard-partying, single mother proved irresistible to talk-show hosts and bloggers. The Anthony case became a media sensation, as HLN talk show host Nancy Grace gave her the moniker "Tot Mom." Protesters suspecting Anthony had a role in her daughter's disappearance demonstrated outside of the home Anthony shared with her parents.

Caylee's decomposed remains were found December 2008 by a municipal meter reader in woods not far from where the little girl lived with her mother and grandparents. Detectives said residue of a heart-shaped sticker was found on duct tape over the mouth of her skull. The local medical examiner, Jan Garavaglia, who once had her own national television show, "Dr. G: Medical Examiner," ruled that a cause of death could not be determined. The autopsy said Caylee's bones didn't suffer trauma.

Some outside experts said the lack of a cause of death could make it hard to get a first-degree murder conviction.

"If you can't say how she died, you're kind of hamstrung on saying what the defendant's intent was," said David Hill, an Orlando criminal defense attorney. "What the state has going for them is the emotional, visceral appeal that the jury digs, but if the jury is doing their job, and the defense attorneys are doing their jobs, I would predict a conviction on the third-degree felony of neglect."

Prosecutors will have to make strong links for the jury between the circumstantial evidence and Anthony, if they are to succeed in proving Anthony's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, said LeRoy Pernell, dean of the Florida A&M University College of Law in Orlando.

"Failure to show exactly what is the cause of death is a challenge, but it's not necessarily a fatal challenge," Pernell said.

In their arsenal, prosecutors have physical evidence and Anthony's own misleading statements to detectives, such as claiming she worked at Universal Studios when she didn't. Prosecutors want to use evidence from the car Anthony was driving in the days before Caylee disappeared. Forensic testing found in the car's trunk traces of chloroform, which is used to induce unconsciousness and is a component of human decomposition. In a 911 call, Cindy Anthony described the vehicle as smelling "like there's been a dead body" in the car.

Jurors selected in the case will have to put their lives on hold for almost two months.

"I'm not naive enough to think we'll encounter no one who has heard of this case," Perry said recently in court. "But the goal is to find people who have not been oversaturated with media."

[Associated Press; By KYLE HIGHTOWER]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.