The Casey Anthony trial took a surprising turn today when Anthony's mother Cindy Anthony said that one of the most compelling pieces of evidence against her daughter -- a Google search for "chloroform" -- was actually her doing. She claims she was doing a search on chlorophyll after her dog ingested some bamboo and that prompted her to look up chloroform.
The question: Is she telling the truth or would she do anything to save her daughter, including commit perjury?
It seems very different from the statements Cindy Anthony made originally and the very statements the prosecution hinged their case on. For instance, now she says the stain in the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car was old, so old, in fact, that it was there when they bought the car in 2000. Prosecutors are saying the stain was caused by leaking fluid from Caylee’s decomposing body. Puts a pretty big crimp in that one, no?
In addition, prosecutors allege that Casey used chloroform to kill her daughter and the search was part of that evidence. Now what can they do?
I will say that as someone who was fairly convinced of Anthony's guilt at the beginning of this thing, this is starting to cast some doubts for me. If Cindy Anthony is telling the truth, then it would call the state's entire case into question.
If she isn't, then that would be no big surprise. After all, who among us would not do anything to save our child's life? Given that Casey is charged with Capital Murder, she could be doing just that.
Of anyone in this case, Cindy Anthony is by far the most sympathetic. She clearly felt the most for her little granddaughter, called 9-1-1 first, has cried the hardest on the stand and even mouthed the words "I love you" to her daughter after her daughter claimed that her father had been abusing her for years.
But is she telling the truth? It seems doubtful. On cross, the prosecution laid into Anthony, pointing out that she was at work during those searches and that the Internet progression showed visits to MySpace, on which Casey was very active.
The irony to all this is that Cindy Anthony seems willing to do anything, including possibly lie, to save her daughter while Casey Anthony, if found guilty, would have been willing to do anything to get rid of hers.
This case is compelling because of the human elements, because this family is so dysfunctional and yet hard to stop watching. It is an unimaginable, senseless tragedy for everyone, but perhaps no one so much as Cindy Anthony.