A long case and quick verdict

ORLANDO, Fla. - Casey Anthony's eyes welled with tears and her lips trembled as the verdict was read once, twice, and then a third time: "Not guilty" of killing or abusing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

Outside the courthouse, many in the crowd of 500 chanted: "Justice for Caylee!" One man yelled, "Baby-killer!"

In one of the most divisive verdicts since O.J. Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife, Anthony was acquitted Tuesday of murder, manslaughter, and child-abuse charges after weeks of wall-to-wall TV coverage and armchair-lawyer punditry that one of her attorneys denounced as "media assassination."

Anthony, 25, was convicted only of four misdemeanor counts of lying to investigators who were looking into the child's June 2008 disappearance.

Anthony could get a year behind bars on each count when she is sentenced Thursday. But because she has been in jail for nearly three years, she also could walk free. Had she been convicted of murder, she could have received the death penalty.

After a trial of a month and a half, the Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit Court jury took less than 11 hours to reach a verdict in a case that had become a national cable-TV sensation, with its CSI-style testimony about the smell of death inside a car trunk and its story line about a seemingly self-centered, hard-partying young mother.

The jurors - seven women, five men - would not talk to the media and their identities were kept secret by the court.

Prosecutors contended that Anthony, a single mother living with her parents, suffocated Caylee with duct tape because she wanted to be free to hit the nightclubs and spend time with her boyfriend.

Defense attorneys argued that the little girl accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool and that Anthony panicked and concealed the death because of traumatic effects of sexual abuse by her father.

State's Attorney Lawson Lamar said: "We're disappointed in the verdict today because we know the facts and we've put in absolutely every piece of evidence that existed." The prosecutor lamented the lack of hard evidence, saying: "This is a dry-bones case. Very, very difficult to prove. The delay in recovering little Caylee's remains worked to our considerable disadvantage."

Shortly after Lamar's news conference, one of the lead prosecutors in the case, Jeff Ashton, announced he would retire at the end of the week after 30 years as a prosecutor. A spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said Ashton and Lamar had previously discussed his retirement.

Anthony failed to report Caylee's disappearance for a month. The child's decomposed body was found in the woods near her grandparents' home six months after she was last seen. A medical examiner was never able to establish how she died, and prosecutors had only circumstantial evidence that Caylee had been killed.

The case played out on national television almost from the moment Caylee was reported missing three years ago. Nancy Grace of cable TV's HLN network approached the case with the zeal of the hard-nosed prosecutor she once was, arguing that Anthony - or "the tot mom," as Grace routinely called her - was responsible for her daughter's death.

Anthony's attorney Cheney Mason lashed out at the media after the verdict.

"Well, I hope that this is a lesson to those of you having indulged in media assassination for three years, bias, prejudice, and incompetent talking heads saying what would be and how to be," Mason said.

Grace said after the jury's decision: "There is no way that this is a verdict that speaks the truth."

Given the relative speed with which the jury came back, many court-watchers had been expecting Anthony to be convicted and were stunned by the outcome.

Jurors had been brought in from the Tampa Bay area and sequestered for the entire Orlando trial, during which they listened to more than 33 days of testimony and looked at 400 pieces of evidence. Anthony did not take the stand.

The verdict could divide people for years, just as the Simpson case did, with some believing Anthony got away with murder.

Ti McLeod, who lives near the Anthony family, said, "The justice system has failed Caylee." Jodie Ickes, who lives a mile away and goes to the same hairdresser as Anthony, said she was against the death penalty and was glad that Casey was not facing execution. "I'm comfortable with the outcome," she said.

Among the trial spectators was Robin Wilkie, 51, who said she had spent $3,000 on hotels and food since arriving June 10 from Lake Minnetonka, Minn. She tallied more than 100 hours standing in line to wait for tickets and got into the courtroom 15 times to see Anthony.

"True crime has become a unique genre of entertainment," Wilkie said. "Her stories are so extreme and fantastic, it's hard to believe they're true, but that's what engrosses people. This case has sex, lies, and videotapes - just like on reality TV."