Juror #3 Jennifer Ford, a 32-year-old nurse in training, was interviewed last night about why the 12 jurors who sat together for 48 days, brought down multiple “not guilty” verdicts in the trial of Casey Anthony. 

In 2009, Anthony was arrested for allegedly murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Marie who had already been missing for 31 days.  No DNA.  No witnesses.  Anthony didn’t report her daughter was missing but there was compelling evidence in the trunk of her car that her daughter’s body had been there before being found in the woods several months later. 

Ford didn’t say that she didn’t believe Anthony was innocent.  What she did say is that they couldn’t justify charging the 25-year-old single mother with murder when no one could figure out how the child died.  

The only charge Anthony was found guilty of was lying to police.  Defense attorney Jose Baez said that the young woman learned how to lie as protection mechanism because she was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her brother and father.  Both parents lied on the stand during testimony.   

Michelle Crowder, of Oklahoma, started an online petition to create the law hours after the verdict was announced. By midafternoon Wednesday, it had nearly 100,000 signatures and  State Representative Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, drafted a new piece of legislation in response.

“Caylee’s Law” would make it a felony in the state of Florida for a legal guardian who fails to report a missing child in a timely manner.