There’s a Casey Anthony issue that may be getting lost in all the discussion about what she's reading this summer. As you probably heard, she told CNN’s Piers Morgan that she's reading "The Hunger Games" -- and everybody's talking about it.
But there's some other news you might want to know: Anthony now wants to avoid all criminal liability for her role in her daughter’s death.
Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murdering her daughter Caylee Anthony. The only thing she was convicted of was lying to police, and now she wants a new trial to have that decision reversed.
Wednesday, her attorney filed a brief that outlines why she thinks she deserves a new trial on those four convictions of providing false information to a law enforcement officer.
READ FOR YOURSELF: Anthony’s appellate brief
Anthony’s attorney, Lisabeth Fryer, claims Circuit Court Judge Belvin Perry violated Anthony's constitutional right to a fair trial with three improper rulings:
1. Denying the defense’s requests to suppress Anthony’s statements to police when she believed she was under arrest and she had not been read her Miranda rights
2. Denying the defense’s request to vacate the sentences on double jeopardy grounds; and
3. Providing a faulty jury instruction
Fryer also raises a double jeopardy issue in her brief, because all of the instances of lying stem from one interview.
“Anthony provided all the statements to the officer during the same interview and never had time to pause, reflect and form a new criminal intent between occurrences,” the brief states.
That basically means, if Casey Anthony were to be found guilty of lying to police, it should only be on one count, not four.
The Florida Attorney General’s Office handles criminal case appeals and will file a response. But that's no guarantee that we'll see this case in court.
The appeals court must agree to hear the case before it can move forward, so at this point there's no hearing date set.
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