Casey Anthony and Maria Susairaj: Freed by the courts, damned by the media

One involves “300 pieces” of body parts. The other involves a duct-taped and drugged toddler. Though the sordid details are different, the stories of young Florida mother Casey Anthony and  Kannada actress Maria Susairaj echo each other. Both women were found not guilty of the main charge against them but both were convicted by the media long before their day in court. Casey Anthony was released from jail on Sunday amid jeers that she was a “baby killer” after a jury acquitted her of murder charges earlier this month. “Killer goes free,” blared Times Now  after Susairaj was acquitted of homicide in the Neeraj Grover killing in early July. Casey Anthony’s trial has been dubbed the “social media trial of the century” and it’s been a huge ratings draw. Country music singers have even penned songs about her daughter Caylee that have played on cable television. Caylee Anthony was last seen on June 16 2008 but was not reported missing till July 15. Anthony first falsely claimed that the girl was with a nanny, and then lied to her own parents and the cops about holding down a job at Universal Studios. [caption id=“attachment_43150” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Both Casey Anthony (L) and Maria Susairaj (R) were convicted by the media long before their day in court. AFP/PTI”]  [/caption] The child’s skeletal remains were finally found in a wooded area near their home, and Anthony was charged with homicide and misleading the police. Fragments of duct tape were found on the skull where the child’s nose and mouth would have been, and an autopsy revealed trace elements of chloroform on the body, which prosecutors claimed was used to subdue the child. The defense, meanwhile, claimed that Caylee had drowned accidentally in the family pool, and the girl’s grandfather planted evidence to implicate Anthony. There were also reports that someone in the household had Googled “chloroform” on Anthony’s home computer, but Anthony’s mother later testified that she had mistakenly typed in the word when researching the way that chlorophyll would affect her dogs. The unflattering and inflammatory coverage of the trial painted a portrait of a deceitful mother who had grown up in a highly dysfunctional and allegedly sexually abusive family. The US media focused on details of Anthony’s bizarre behaviour, which helped indict Anthony in the court of public opinion. She was seen at night clubs partying soon after Caylee’s death. She also got a tattoo that read “Bella Vita,” or “beautiful life” in Italian after her daughter was found dead. The trial was moved to another Florida town because Anthony’s lawyer argued that the media frenzy would make it impossible for her to get a fair trial in Orlando. But the incendiary coverage continued. “Casey Anthony lying ‘off the scale’” trumpeted CBS during the trial. Meanwhile MSNBC pronounced that “Evidence mounts against Casey Anthony.” But despite the supposedly damning evidence against her, the jury did not convict Anthony of killing her daughter. In fact, legal observers have said that the evidence, while colourful, was mostly circumstantial and questionable. Anthony was ultimately convicted of providing false information to the police, and was sentenced to four years. She was released Sunday for time served. But the public, whipped into frenzy by years of salacious headlines, thought they knew better, and they continued to maintain her guilt and bystanders shouted, “You suck” as she left prison. The 12 jurors in the Anthony trial have also taken a bashing. Following the verdict earlier this month, protestors held up signs that read, “Jurors 1-12 guilty of murder.” NBC News even reported that Juror No.12 quit her grocery clerk job and moved to Michigan because she feared that her outraged co-workers would physically attack over her role in the case. Who’s to blame for such misplaced anger? According to Dr. Carole Lieberman, a forensic psychiatrist at UCLA, it rests squarely with the media. “The main reason that people are reacting so strongly is that the media convicted Casey before the jury decided on the verdict," Lieberman told CBS. “The public has been whipped up into this frenzy wanting revenge for this poor little adorable child. And because of the desire for revenge, they’ve been whipped up into a lynch mob.” High profile murders make for huge ratings in the evening news.  But the concept of “innocent until proven guilty” also evaporates as the coverage gets more and more frenzied.  Neither Anthony nor Susairaj are completely empathetic. Anthony, for example, was arrested several times, released on bail and re-arrested for theft and credit card fraud. But the promise of justice shouldn’t be thrown out—even for the most questionable of characters—by allowing a headline-hungry press to selectively tell us what we should think. It’s not that courts always gets things right.  The Innocence Project in the US has a long list of people who have been wrongly convicted. But when media organizations cover an ongoing case without adherence to fairness or subtlety it aids and abets the conviction of innocents and a dysfunctional court system. [caption id=“attachment_43156” align=“alignright” width=“380” caption=“Will Maria Susairaj face another media lynching in the Indian press? PTI”]  [/caption] Jury trials were eliminated in India in 1960 because the conviction-by-media of Kawas Maneckshaw Nanavati, who had been accused of killing his wife’s lover, was deemed to have unduly influenced the jurors. True impartiality and justice was thought impossible to achieve. But that case apparently has inspired few media reforms. As Maria Susairaj faces new allegations in the Neeraj Grover murder from her fiancé Emile Jerome Mathew, will she face another media lynching in the Indian press? And the media ratings blitz that Caylee Anthony’s terrible tragedy received makes it unlikely that anything will change in the US the next time another high profile criminal case comes along. Caylee Anthony’s death is already being used by politicians, who are talking about creating a new law called Caylee’s Law that would impose strict requirements on parents about notifying law enforcement about a missing child. Meanwhile Casey Anthony left the jail on Sunday wearing a bullet-proof vest.