Published: July 05, 2011
Op-Ed Contributor
Does Linda D. Burdick's Perfect Final Rebuttal Mean Lethal Injection for Casey?
By John Kays
The last words that the jurors would hear before deliberation were those of Linda Drane Burdick in the prosecution's final rebuttal. Her talk was most effective, not just for the words she said, but also in her style and method of delivery.
The pacing was slow, so that every word will be remembered. And gestures were utilized, to put the focus of guilt back on the defendant. Aural and visual evidence goes a long way also in tipping the minds of questioning jurors over to a unanimous decision.
Linda Drane Burdick's final speech is the ultimate one in the two months of the trial, and that's coming from a person who favors the case for reasonable doubt, as presented by the defense.
The slow pacing may have something to do with my shifting opinion, or maybe it's the simpler way in which Linda sculpts Casey's guilt.
About half-way through her talk, a casual talk, and yet a poignant talk, Burdick says, Casey is the only one connected to every single piece of evidence.
Casey's connected to the 'duct tape, the laundry bag, the Winnie the Pooh blanket, the shorts, the car, and the T-shirt (Big Things Come in Small Packages).' This never had been said before in just this manner.
And for the first time ever Linda explains how Casey tries to cover up the smell in the 1998 white Pontiac Firebird. She texts Amy Huizenga that George must have run over an animal. This is just a portion of the cover up.
The infamous bag of trash is placed in the trunk as a decoy. Then she abandons the wasted Firebird (just likes she dumps Caylee) right near a dumpster, so that the foul odor will be mistaken as emanating from the dumpster.
Very clever! But not really. Drane Burdick recreates the mind of a criminal at work and sets the scene for the ways in which Casey attempts to cover her tracks. This is the first time the prosecution's done this in a convincing way.
Brilliant! I hadn't thought of the rationale for why the trash bag was tossed in the trunk. Very clumsy way to conceal the odor, now that I think of it.
Therefore it's all the more ironic, that it's the bag of trash that is utilized so effectively by the defense throughout the trial, when all along, it was their own client who used it as a decoy for her fundamental foil in a near-perfect crime.
Casey didn't count on the odor of decomposition as having a life of its own, that would never die! And how ironic is that, when you think on it.
The other thing, is that Drane Burdick nails Casey with those red-striped shorts and the T-shirt. Cindy hadn't seen those clothes for months and months, before June 16th, 2008. That's because Casey had been carrying those clothing items around in her car.
But the photo of Caylee with the BTCSP T and Casey playing a guitar, identifies her as being the only one who could have deposited the remains in the woody swamp, near her family home on Hopespring Drive. She is the only one who has possession of the shorts and T-shirt.
Calling Casey a pathological liar is not good enough to prove she murdered her daughter. But yesterday, Drane Burdick ties the lies together in a bundle with the physical evidence, to weave a narrative of first degree, premeditated murder.
Linda plays the phone call Casey places to Cindy right after she is arrested. At one point, Casey tells Christina (a family friend) all anyone wants to do is find Caylee. Casey is upset because nobody cares about her being in jail.
Then she quickly quirks, 'that's all I want to do is to find Caylee.' You can tell this is an afterthought, really just another lie. Why would she need to look for Caylee, when she already knows where she is? Listen for the odd inflection in her voice.
John Kays identifies timeless remnants from our past that will endure, or be admired by future generations.
* The views of Opinion writers do not necessarily reflect the views of NewsBlaze
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