Casey Anthony Appears in Court, Lawyers Want Evidence Suppressed
Judge to decide if "sexual interrogation" of witnesses will be allowed in court.
Jan. 3, 2011 — -- Casey Anthony, the Florida woman accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee Anthony, appeared in court today as her defense argued to keep evidence -- including comments about her sexual history -- out of her upcoming murder trial.
In December, Anthony's attorneys filed several motions to supress the evidence, from what court documents refer to as the "sexual interrogation" of two acquaintances of Anthony's, to the girl's tattoo and MySpace page.
Anthony's lawyers said the police questioning of a man about his alleged sexual relationship with Anthony was "scandalous and incompetent and should not be allowed in any aspects of this case," according to a report by The Orlando Sentinel.
At the hearing today, a Florida judge ruled that witnesses who had had with a romantic relationship with Anthony would be allowed, but the questioning would not veer into extremely intimate details of the relationship.
Several of the other motions, including the one regarding Anthony's tattoo, refer to evidence that the defense argues is "irrelevant character evidence."
That evidence, the defense said, serves "no other purpose than to unfairly prejudice the jury against [Casey Anthony] and even if evidence of her tattoo was found to be relevant in some limited way, its prejudicial impact would so far outweigh its probative value as to deprive her of a fair trial."
The motion cites an "outpouring" of negative comments that came after it was discovered Anthony got the tattoo -- which says "the beautiful life" in Italian -- approximately two weeks after Caylee Anthony reportedly disappeared. A decision will not be made about whether references to the tattoo would be admitted until the prosecution has had 15 days to respond to the motion.
The defense also argued against references to a MySpace page called "Diary of Days," believed to be maintained by Anthony in which song lyrics were posted "on or about the date of the Defendant's arrest." Prosecutors were also granted 15 days to respond to that motion.
Other motions dealt more directly with physical evidence, including one motion that called reports about traces of chloroform in Anthony's car a "fraud on the American public."
"These intentional false leaks were reported and repeated for months and continue until this day, despite being untrue and have prejudiced Miss Anthony's presumption of innocence that is completely unrecoverable," the motion said.
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