The one part of the Casey Anthony trial we've all been waiting for might actually happen now. Or at least, people who want to hear the 24-year-old mom speak out in her own words on what really happened to little Caylee Anthony, got their best news yet. The 24-year-old single mom was declared "competent" by three different psychologists to continue the trial, despite an attempt by her defense team to halt the entire process over the weekend.
So now what? With the prosecution's portion of the case over and done with, the defense is still slogging through, putting up its fight to keep Casey out of jail and convince a jury that the 2 1/2-year-old's death was not caused by her mother. They're pulling their cards one by one out of the deck, but the card held closest to their chest is Casey herself. Will she testify? After all, she's competent enough.
Already labeled one of the most hated moms in America, even though she's not yet been convicted, and according to the American justice system, is still innocent, Casey has a lot to lose by climbing up on the stand. Her defense attorneys are building a complex case of defenses, using the likes of her own mom to at least attempt to create reasonable doubt in the jury's mind.
But it's as a mom rather than as a defense attorney that I can't help thinking it would do her good to get out from her safe spot with her attorney and move into the center of the courtroom, to face down the people who accuse her, and to speak about what she has or hasn't done. If she wants to tell us she hasn't done it, if she wants to claim she's not the cold fish who had the words "beautiful life" inscribed in Italian on her body just two weeks after her child went missing, she needs to stop sitting there. She needs to start showing some real emotion and act like a mother. She NEEDS to testify.
A mother owns up to what she has (or hasn't) done. This is her last chance to say what really happened. Whether it was that she killed that baby or whether it was that some horrible accident befell the child. Whatever it is, a mother owes it to her kid to put herself out there, even with mean faces staring you down, even when it really hurts, to do everything you can for them.
This is Casey Anthony's last chance to be a mother. She needs to testify for her daughter. It would humanize her, both for the masses and to herself.
Do you think she should? Would it change your opinion of her? Make you hate her less?