Casey Anthony’s lawyer Jose Báez reflects on her infamous trial ten years later, saying that he’s “grateful” for the opportunities he was afforded after taking on the controversial case. Though, he doesn’t feel as though his entire legacy should be hung on that trial and divisive ruling.
“[The trial] seems like another lifetime ago to me,” Báez told Fox35. “I’m always going to be grateful for everything that that case brought, but it hasn’t defined me.”
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Anthony was accused of murdering her then-2-year-old daughter Caylee. Casey was acquitted in the trial, a controversial ruling that many have speculated about since the judge delivered the verdict in July 2011. Báez looked back on the decision, telling the outlet there was much more to the story than the public saw portrayed in the news.
“I think people who were not intimately involved with the case really, truly, do not know all the players,” Báez, 51, said in the interview, which was released on Thursday. “Even those who were intimately involved will never know all the answers.”
Prosecutors alleged then in the trial, which began in May of that year, that Anthony was guilty of using chloroform on her daughter, killing her, and finally, duct-taping her mouth and nose. Caylee died in June of 2008. Anthony reported her daughter missing one month later, which prosecutors used against her in court. Báez argued as Anthony’s defense that her delay in filing a missing persons report was because Caylee was “never missing.”
“On June 16, 2008, she drowned in the family swimming pool,” he argued at the time, claiming that Anthony’s father, George Anthony, helped her to cover up the death. “It was a horrible tragedy. A common tragedy.”
Anthony was acquitted on the murder charge but was found guilty on four counts of lying to the police. She was sentenced to four years behind bars. At the time of her sentencing, she’d already served three years in jail. Báez went on after the trial to represent several other major figures like Harvey Weinstein and Aaron Hernandez in other trials. He’s written two New York Times Bestsellers about Anthony and Hernandez’s cases and is currently a professor at Harvard. “I’m very content with my profession. I’m very content with my life,” Báez told the outlet. “I’ve never been happier, so I’m in a good place.”
