Casey Anthony's Lawyers Want Charges Dropped
New Documents Released in Case Against Mother of Murdered Toddler Caylee Anthony
Attorneys for Casey Anthony, the Florida mother accused of killing her two-year-old daughter Caylee Anthony, have filed motions asking for the charges against their client to be dropped.
The motions came after the state released over a thousand pages of new documents this week that show inconsistencies in FBI findings relating to the scientific evidence in the case. The defense and Casey's parents, George and Cindy Anthony, are calling the new information a major breakthrough and they're using it to claim that prosecutors can't prove first-degree murder was committed. Casey Anthony's attorney Todd Macaluso asked this week for the capital murder charge to be dismissed.
There is "not a single hair fiber, not a single fingerprint, not a single speck of DNA that anyway connects her to the crime scene or the scene where her daughter was found," Macaluso said.
Caylee Anthony was reported missing July 15, 2008, nearly a month after she was last seen. Casey Anthony was arrested and released a number of times last year on various charges including child neglect and lying to investigators. She was officially named a suspect in her daughter's disappearance Oct. 2, 2008, and charged with first degree murder Oct. 14.
Caylee's body was found in December, less than a mile from the home she and her mother shared with the toddler's grandparents. Her death was ruled a homicide of undetermined means.
Casey Anthony, 23, has pleaded not guilty, stating that the child's babysitter kidnapped the toddler. The prosecution currently has no plans to drop the charges, and has pledged to seek the death penalty if Anthony is convicted.
The autopsy report, which was released in June, showed that duct tape was wrapped around Caylee Anthony's head from the bottom of her chin to over her nose.
The FBI concluded the duct tape found on Caylee's mouth, and tape found in the Anthony's garage may have come from the same roll, but the newly released state documents show otherwise.
"An extensive analysis was done, mostly a microscopic and a chemical analysis and they do not match," Macaluso said.
The reports also show DNA from a lab technician contaminated that duct tape.
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