If jury duty horror stories and the threat of days with a paycheck that doesn't cover the gas to get you to the courthouse haven't already convinced most Americans that our civic duty is a painful one, the fate of the jurors from the Casey Anthony murder trial may put the final nail in that coffin. They're finding that the Florida court system thinks a convicted felon deserves more protection than them. Their names are about to be publicly disseminated even as Anthony enjoys an unprecedented shroud of privacy.
She may be ranked somewhere near the tippy top of the most hated people in America list, but she continues to have quite the in with the luck fairy.
Those 12 men and women who declared the Florida mother "not guilty" on charges of murdering her daughter unwittingly earned the hatred of thousands of Americans just by doing their duty as citizens of the United States. They've been snubbed at restaurants. They've received death threats. All for following the judge's instructions to only declare the defendant guilty if the prosecution had proved -- beyond a reasonable doubt -- that she did it. They were unlucky enough to land on that jury, but they put their necks out for her on the side of justice.
And now their names will be unsealed in accordance with public records law in the State of Florida. As a journalist who has depended heavily on the Freedom of Information Act, I can hardly argue with the judge's decision in that matter. The jurors got a three-month stay by a judge who was hoping that people's anger would cool over time. They got lucky.
But it's a slap in the face that just as these people are about to have the target already on their backs lit up like a Christmas tree, video of Casey being deposed in her civil trial remains sealed. The video is said to show an Anthony who has "had some work done." It could show how she looks now, which ostensibly could put her in danger. So far it's been sealed, and a judge has delayed deciding on whether to unseal it.
Attorney John Morgan, who represents Zenaida Gonzalez -- the woman who feels she was defamed by Anthony when she claimed a babysitter by the same name took off with daughter Caylee -- wants that video released based on the same public freedom of information that is putting the names of the jurors out there. He calls it special treatment.
What else can it be? This woman may not be guilty of murdering her child. But she is a felon on probation for check fraud. She's violated the law in the State of Florida. Should she really get more protection than the good citizens who fulfilled their civic duty?
Why do you think Casey Anthony still gets this kind of treatment?