Casey Anthony and the Burden of Proof

So for the past few years, the country has seemingly been captivated by the Casey Anthony murder trial.  I've caught it mostly just because its come across my screen a lot when looking for real news.  For those of you lucky enough to not be paying attention, here's a quick rundown:

Caylee Anthony was Casey's daughter, and she turned up missing.  Casey did not mention that her daughter was missing for like a month, and instead went out partying.  When approached, Casey told some stories.  There was a fake nanny who might have kidnapped her.  Then she was doing her own investigation.  Then she didn't know what happened.  Her parents got involved, and said her car smelled like a dead body.  And then they said that the car might smell like a dead squirrel instead.  All the while, no one knew where Caylee was.

Caylee's body was found maybe a month later, out in the woods.  Possibly looking like it had been moved a few times.  Duct tape was over the little kid's mouth, and it was confirmed it was her.  Ultimately, Casey was charged with the following:  1st degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, 4 counts of providing false statements to a law enforcement officer.

The trial started about a month ago, and the verdict came down today.  Basically, all the evidence in this case was circumstantial.  Casey was out partying while her kid was missing.  Her car smelled possibly like a dead body, but could not be confirmed.  There were stories about her parents' involvement in all this...did they actually kill Caylee on accident and try to hide it?  Was it Casey or her mom that apparently looked up chloroform on the internet?  No one could ever put Casey at the scene of any crime, though.  There was no hard evidence that she ever actually killed her daughter.

And, accordingly, the jury came back with a verdict of not guilty for the murder, child abuse, and manslaughter charges.  She was found guilty of providing false statements to law enforcement.  This, pretty much, seemed to be in line with what could be proven with fact.  Of course, public opinion on the case seems to disagree with me here.  Just a simple perusal of my facebook and twitter feeds indicated that everyone was highly livid with this verdict.

Listen, I think she killed her kid.  My gut says she did.  However, this is why I'm glad we have a legal system where you are innocent until PROVEN guilty.  I would have been somewhat upset had the jury returned a guilty verdict.  They presented no hard proof in the case.  Show pictures of her partying and inconsistent statements to the police all you want...I want proof if I'm going to see someone possibly sentenced to death.  And the prosecution did not do this.  They did not meet the burden of proof.

I like that I live in a society where I can't be put to death based on someone's gut feeling.  Yes, this does allow for some people to go free...but for the most part, I think it works out very well.  I'd much rather spare the innocent.  So, as much as I think Casey really did kill her daughter because she wanted to be a carefree partying 20-something again...there was no proof to tell me this was actually the case.  Thus, in this case, I agree with the verdict 100%.  Sometimes this is the price you pay to live in a society like ours and enjoy the freedoms we do.