Sandusky Showed No Remorse During Trial! A Very Evil Man! Another Pennsylvania Scumbag! (Videos)

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Sandusky Convicted Of 45 Counts, Plans To Appeal

Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse Friday night and faces spending the rest of his life in state prison.

His attorney said he would Appeal the Verdict.

Sandusky's attorney, Joseph Amendola, asked Judge John Cleland to allow Sandusky to be released on house arrest, but Cleland summarily rejected the request, saying: "Bail is revoked. Mr. Sandusky is remanded to the custody of the sheriff."

Sandusky was immediately led out of the courthouse in handcuffs as a large crowd of onlookers cheered. Sentencing was set for late September.

Sandusky, 68, the former longtime defensive coordinator for the Penn State University football team, had denied all 48 counts alleging that he abused 10 boys over 15 years.

Two grand jury reports accused him of having used his connection to one of the nation's premier college football programs to "groom" the boys, whom he met through his Second Mile charity for troubled children, for sexual relationships.

Several of the counts are so-called mandated felonies, meaning Cleland has no discretion in sentencing.

NBC News reported that he faces a minimum of 60 years in prison.

Cleland, who is a senior judge in McKean County, was brought to Centre County to oversee the trial after local judges recused themselves.

Amendola, who was interrupted by hecklers outside the courthouse several times, said he had expected the outcome and respected the verdict of the jurors, who didn’t speak to reporters afterward.

Amendola said he believed Sandusky had legitimate grounds for appeal, saying his client had "an uphill battle" because of the extensive pretrial publicity.

"We said we were attempting to climb Mount Everest from the bottom of the mountain. Obviously, we didn't make it," he said.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly, whose office prosecuted Sandusky, said, "A serious child predator ... has been held accountable for his crimes."

Kelly thanked the victims, who she said "came forward to bravely testify in this trial and to finally put a stop to the crimes that were committed."

"We hope that our search for justice will help them and perhaps others looking on nearby and afar," she said.

Grace Gordon, 49, of Bellefonte, also welcomed the verdict but lamented the damage the trial had done to Bellefonte and Centre County.

"It's hard. It really is, to see a small town torn apart like this," said Gordon, who was outside the courthouse with her 23-year-old son and his girlfriend.

Gordon said her father, wrho worked with Sandusky at Penn State, "would have just been devastated to know about this."

"You'd never, ever have dreamed that he'd be that kind of person," Gordon said. "What he did to those kids is just horrendous."

The university that Sandusky served for decades said in a statement late Friday that "we have tremendous respect for the men who came forward to tell their stories publicly.

No verdict can undo the pain and suffering caused by Mr. Sandusky, but we do hope this judgment helps the victims and their families along their path to healing."

The university said it would seek to "fairly ... compensate" the victims and invited them to participate in a program to "facilitate the resolution of claims against the University arising out of Mr. Sandusky's conduct."

It said it intended to get in contact with lawyers for the victims "in the near future."

A trial that riveted the nation

The trial, which opened June 11, culminated months of intense attention that led to the firing of head coach Joe Paterno, who won more games than any other major college football coach in history, many of them with Sandusky at his side.

Paterno died exactly five months ago, a few weeks after the Penn State Board of Trustees dismissed him for not having done enough to stop Sandusky's abuse.

Jurors heard often-graphic testimony from eight of the 10 victims whose accounts were included in two grand jury reports.

They told how Sandusky would first win their trust by giving them gifts and taking them on trips with the football team before progressing to hugging, kissing, increasingly sexual touching and, in some cases, oral and anal sex.

In a rare occurrence in an abuse trial, prosecutors also presented the testimony of a corroborating eyewitness — Sandusky's former Penn State coaching colleague Michael McQueary, who said that he saw a young boy, identified in the first grand jury report as "Victim 2," in a Penn State shower with Sandusky.

McQueary said the boy had his hands against the wall and that Sandusky was standing up against him from behind. He said he heard a "skin-on-skin smacking sound" and that he had "no doubt" that Sandusky was engaging in anal sex with the boy.

Because they were sequestered, without access to computers, phones or any other way to hear news coverage, the jury of seven women and five men wouldn't have heard newer, potentially damaging information from two other accusers that emerged after they began deliberations.

Sandusky's adopted son Matt said he had been prepared to testify that he, too, was a victim of abuse by his father, according to a statement issued Thursday by attorneys who said they are representing the younger Sandusky.

(NBC News and msnbc.com generally do not identify victims of sexual assaults, but Matt Sandusky chose to identify himself in a public statement released through his attorneys.)

Amendola said Friday night that Jerry Sandusky abandoned plans to testify in his own defense because of the prospect of damaging rebuttal testimony by his son.

Nor would they have heard the account of Travis Weaver, 30, of Ohio, who attended Second Mile camps as a youth. Weaver told NBC News in an interview that aired Thursday night that Sandusky performed oral sex on him in the upstairs bedroom of the Sanduskys' home.

Weaver testified to one of the two grand juries but wasn't mentioned in the grand jury reports or called as a witness during the trial.

The end of the trial doesn't mean the case is over.

Two former top Penn State officials, former Athletic Director Timothy Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz, face perjury charges in connection with their grand jury testimony in December, in which prosecutors alleged that concealed what they knew about Sandusky's conduct.

Law enforcement sources have told NBC News that former Penn State President Graham Spanier, who was fired in November, was under investigation for possible similar charges.


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Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi Is DEAD At 60! Flight 103 Surviving Family Members Relieved

Lockerbie bomber dies more than two years after release

Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, the only person convicted in connection with the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, died Sunday, the Libyan government and a family member said.

He was 60.

The former intelligence officer, who had suffered from prostate cancer, will be buried Monday, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

Al Megrahi's cousin Omer al-Gharyani told CNN he was with al Megrahi at the Tripoli hospital when he died.

His death came more than two years after he was freed from a life sentence in Scotland on the grounds that he was dying.

The destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 in the deadliest act of air terrorism against Americans until the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, according to the FBI.

American and British investigators who painstakingly pieced together the wreckage of the Pan Am 103 found it had been destroyed by a bomb, and they accused al Megrahi and another man of planting it.

Al Megrahi -- once the security chief for Libyan Arab Airlines -- and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah were Libyan intelligence agents, the United States and Britain charged, indicting them in November 1991 on 270 counts of murder and conspiracy to murder.

The indictment set off the first of two international battles over al Megrahi. The first resulted in international sanctions and finally led to his trial and conviction.

The second came after he was released from a Scottish prison, on the grounds that he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer in August 2009 and was expected to have only a few months to live. He was sent home to Libya on "compassionate" grounds, and received a hero's welcome at the airport.

His release -- a little more than eight years after being sentenced to life in prison -- and the celebrations that greeted him in Libya sparked condemnation from the U.S. and British governments and some victims' families.

The fury grew as he lived long past the time doctors had expected him to survive.

U.S. senators including Robert Menedez and Frank Lautenberg, both New Jersey Democrats, and Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, called for an Investigation into why he was set Free.

"This man was a horrible man," Schumer said Sunday in an interview with CNN. "It would have been better had he not died in freedom, but died in prison. That's what he deserved, and I still believe that the Scottish government, perhaps with the participation of the British government, created a major injustice when they let him out."

"The only legacy we have is in the memory of all those who were lost," Schumer added.

"...We have to just make sure we continue this battle against terrorism on airplanes. We made great progress and we have to keep it up."

As rebels swept into Tripoli two years after al Megrahi's release, politicians on both sides of the Atlantic called for him to be extradited, with the Americans demanding a trial in the United States, and British lawmakers saying he should return to prison in Scotland.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson tracked al Megrahi down last year at the palatial villa Moammar Gadhafi had built for him during his reign as Libyan leader. Al Megrahi was apparently in a coma and near death.

His family said al Megrahi's son and mother were trying to care for him with oxygen and an intravenous drip, but with no medical advice.

Al Megrahi's death may make it impossible ever to get the full story behind the Lockerbie bombing.

In an interview with Reuters last October, al Megrahi said the truth will come out "one day, and hopefully in the near future." He vowed that "new facts" would come to light.

When Washington and London accused him and Fhimah of responsibility for the attack, Libya refused at first to hand the men over.

That prompted the United Nations Security Council in April 1992 to slap sanctions on the north African country, clamping down on arms sales and air travel.

The FBI put the two on its 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list -- the only time officers of a foreign government have ever been named on the list, as far as the FBI knows, spokesman Ken Hoffman said.

Two years later, Libya floated the idea of trying the men in an international court, which the United States and Britain rejected.

In the summer of 1998, Libya made a fresh proposal: that the men face justice in the Netherlands under Scottish law.

By the end of the year, matters came to a head when Kofi Annan, then U.N. secretary-general, met Gadhafi in Tripoli.

Ten days later, a U.S. Appeals Court ruled that the families of the 189 Americans killed in the bombing could sue Libya for its possible role in sponsoring in the attack.

Libya agreed the next day to let the men face trial.

They were handed over on April 5, 1999, to the United Nations, which suspended its sanctions the same day.

The handover helped break a long-running standoff between the United States and Libya.

Two months later, American and Libyan officials met face-to-face for the first time in 18 years, and al Megrahi and Fhimah made their first court appearance before the end of the year.

The trial lasted nine months.

In 2001, al Megrahi was convicted of the murders after prosecutors dropped lesser charges, and was sentenced to life in prison, having to serve a minimum of 27 years. Scotland does not allow the death penalty.
Fhimah was found not guilty.

Al Megrahi always insisted he was innocent, and filed one appeal after another against his conviction. The first was rejected in 2002.

Relations between the United States and Libya improved swiftly.

Libya agreed in 2003 to pay $2.7 billion in compensation to the families of the bombing victims, though Gadhafi always remained cagey about admitting official Libyan involvement in the bombing.

For his part, al Megrahi continued to fight to clear his name.

In June 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission allowed am fresh appeal, ruling that it had uncovered new evidence and that al Megrahi "may have suffered a miscarriage of justice."

Before the appeal could be heard, however, it emerged that al Megrahi had terminal prostate cancer.

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill ordered him freed on compassionate grounds in August 2009. MacAskill had authority over al Megrahi's case because the convicted bomber was jailed in Scotland.

Al Megrahi dropped his appeal when he was freed.
The release proved immediately controversial.

Some family members of Lockerbie victims complained that with the legal process ending when al Megrahi dropped his appeal, they would never know the full truth about the bombing.

The British press, meanwhile, alleged the release was tied to oil deals with Libya.
British and Scottish officials denied the claim, and released more than 100 pages of previously secret documents to make their case.

The papers included a handwritten letter from al Megrahi to MacAskill, pleading to be allowed to see his family before he died, and continuing to proclaim his innocence.

The documents also showed that senior Libyan officials warned their Scottish and British counterparts it would be "catastrophic" for British-Libyan relations if al Megrahi died in prison.

When Al Megrahi returned to Libya on August 20, he was accompanied by Gadhafi's son, Saif al-Islam.

The younger Gadhafi confirmed that Libya was "very angry" at British efforts to keep al Megrahi out of a separate prisoner transfer agreement, but said ultimately, the bomber was released for a different reason anyway.

It "was based on the compassionate grounds, not because of business deals," he told CNN's Nic Robertson in early September. "The guy is sick, seriously sick.

He has cancer and because of that they made their decision and I think it was the right decision. Very simple."


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William Balfour Guilty On 7 Counts In Hudson Murder Case! I Don't Believe He Did It Alone

A Verdict in the Hudson Murder Trial has been reached. Media organizations await the announcement. Do I believe William Balfour did it alone? NO! Is this a rushed Cover Up? Yes I believe it is.





Balfour guilty in Hudson case


A Chicago jury found William Balfour, Jennifer Hudson's former brother-in-law, guilty Friday on three counts of first-degree murder and four other counts related to the 2008 slayings of the entertainer's mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew.

He will be sentenced to life without parole; Illinois has no death penalty.

Hudson, who was in the courtroom with her sister Julia and fiance, David Otunga, broke down in tears as she heard the verdict. Otunga said, "Yes," and put his arm around her.

In addition to murder, Balfour was found guilty of aggravated kidnapping, home invasion, residential burglary and possession of a stolen vehicle.

A public defender for Balfour said his legal team would file a motion for a new trial on June 8 and then file a notice of appeal. "I do feel there were very strong issues of law in this case that need to be looked at by an appellate court," Amy Thompson told reporters outside the courthouse. "So we do have some hope."

CNN Legal Analyst Sunny Hostin expressed surprise at the verdict. "This wasn't a slam-dunk case," she said, citing the lack of forensic evidence.

The case went to the jury Thursday, after heated closing arguments Wednesday set a tense tone.

In the middle of the afternoon on Friday, the jurors sent Judge Charles Burns notes saying they were split and asking to see testimony about cell phone records showing that Balfour's phone was near the site of the killings at the time they took place.

The split was then nine to three in favor of conviction, said juror Jacinta Gholston, who works for a Chicago-based chocolate company. "There were three of us who just needed to see the picture a little clearer," she told reporters after the verdict.

The records proved key. An hour later, jurors told the judge they had reached a verdict. "Once we got those holes filled, we were able to come to a unanimous decision," Gholston said.

Juror Paula Halcomb, a math teacher in the suburbs southwest of Chicago, also cited the cell phone records as persuasive. "We realized that he could not be in two places at one time," she said.


Hudson's testimony played no role in the jury's decision. "She didn't really say anything," Halcomb said.

Hudson, who was called as the prosecution's first of more than 80 witnesses, broke down in tears several times on the stand as she recalled her family.

"None of us wanted her to marry him," Hudson said of her sister's decision to marry Balfour. "We did not like how he treated her.

"Where he was, I tried not to be," she said.

"This wasn't a case about Jennifer Hudson," Gholston said of the entertainer, who attended the trial each day. "For us, her celebrity had nothing to do with it."

Jury Foreman Robert Smith, 42, who works for Chicago Public Schools, said the decision was an easy one for him. "I was pretty much certain from the beginning," he said of Balfour's guilt. "To me, everything connected."

Asked what he would tell Hudson, he said, "Honest, I don't really have anything to say to her. But I just hope that she can kind of put this behind her and just get on with the rest of her life."

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said she had spoken with Jennifer and her sister Julia Hudson after the verdict. "They are relieved and we hope that the verdict gives them some sense of justice."

The singer was "was very emotional about the verdict, as you can well imagine, and so was her sister and the rest of the family -- emotional but relieved."

Defense lawyer Thompson had argued that police had homed in on Balfour rather than conducting a full investigation.

"In their mind, this wasn't a whodunnit," she said.

No DNA evidence pointed to Balfour, said Thompson, who also questioned police work in the case, describing a set of keys that she said surfaced on an evidence list a month after the slayings.

"Those keys show how desperate the state was. They resorted to this. ... My client is an innocent man," she said.

But prosecutors argued that physical and circumstantial evidence linked Balfour to the killings and described as "absurd" defense claims that police may have planted evidence or been part of a conspiracy to frame Balfour.

Prosecutor Jim McKay told jurors that there was a "tsunami of circumstantial evidence."

"The circumstantial facts of this case are drowning this guy in guilt," he said.

Cook County prosecutor Jennifer Bagby said in her closing argument that Balfour had threatened to kill the family of Julia Hudson.

"If you leave me, I'll kill you. I'll kill your family first. You'll be the last to die," he had said, according to Bagby.

"He went in that house for one reason, and one reason only, to carry out that threat," Bagby told jurors.

Balfour was accused of fatally shooting Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and the singer's brother, Jason Hudson, 29, in their Chicago home in October 2008.

The body of Hudson's nephew, Julian King, was found three days later in an abandoned vehicle.

Prosecutors portrayed Balfour as a jealous man who murdered the three in a rage at the thought that his wife had a boyfriend.

In her closing argument, Bagby said Balfour shot Hudson's mother as she tried to defend herself with a broom.

"He fired that gun at her over and over and over," Bagby said.
McKay called Balfour "a true coward."

"He shoots a 57-year-old grandmother in the back. He shoots a 29-year-old man in his sleep. He shoots a 7-year-old twice in the head," McKay told jurors. "The family, the community, the city, the country demand justice."
In the trial, 83 witnesses testified over 11 days.

The crimes took place a year after Hudson, who rose to fame as a contestant on "American Idol," won an Oscar for her role in the movie "Dreamgirls."

In a recent interview with CNN's Piers Morgan, Hudson reflected on the life of her mother.

"My mother was a very wise and strong person. I feel like she raised us well, and she prepared me well, and so that's what I live by," she said.

Her career has continued to blossom and remains varied since her relatives' deaths.

Recent milestones include penning a memoir detailing her struggles with her weight; being cast as Nelson Mandela's ex-wife, Winnie, in an upcoming movie; releasing a new album; and singing a well-received tribute to Whitney Houston at the Grammy Awards in February.



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Marcus Robinson Wins Historic NC Racial Injustice Case! Receives Life NOT Death But Still Imprisoned!

Judge: Race 'Significantly' influenced inmate's murder trial

A Cumberland County Superior Court judge made history Friday morning when he commuted a death row inmate’s sentence in the first test of North Carolina’s fledgling Racial Justice Act.

Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks ruled that race significantly influenced jury selection in Marcus Robinson’s 1994 trial in the 1991 shooting death of a white 17-year-old, Erik Tornblom.

The ruling means Robinson, a 38-year-old black man, will be taken off death row and will serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Weeks said Robinson's attorneys "presented a wealth of evidence showing the persistent, persuasive and distorting role of race in jury selection in North Carolina."

"When the government's choice of jurors is tainted with racial bias, that overt wall casts down over the parties, the jury and the court to adhere to the law throughout the trial," Weeks said. "The very integrity of the court is jeopardized when a prosecutors discrimination invites cynicism respecting the jury’s neutrality and undermines public confidence."

The case is the first of more than 150 pending cases to get an evidentiary hearing before a judge under the Racial Justice Act, a 2009 law that allows death row prisoners and capital murder defendants to challenge their sentences or prosecutors' decisions with statistics and other evidence.

Weeks said that, by enacting the Racial Justice Act, the General Assembly made clear that North Carolina's laws reject the influence of race discrimination in the administration of the death penalty.

"It’s a widely accepted truth that race discrimination has historically had an impact on state policy in every aspect of our private and public lives, including education, housing, employment and criminal justice, " Weeks said in his ruling. "Race still divides us, and the Racial Justice Act recognizes that the justice system is not immune from this legacy of discrimination in our nation."

Prosecutors said Friday they planned to challenge Weeks' decision, and Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West declined further comment while the case was being appealed.

"There's justice at last," Weeks' mother, Shirley Burnes, said. "It's bittersweet, because I think about the family (of Erik Tornblom) and my son, but you've got to treat people right. You've got to treat people fair. That's what we depend on when we go through the system."

Tornblom's family left the courtroom visibly upset without commenting on the ruling.

Robinson and co-defendant Roderick Williams Jr. murdered Tornblom in 1991 after the teen gave his killers a ride from a Fayetteville convenience store. Tornblom was forced to drive to a field where he was shot with a sawed-off shotgun.

Robinson came close to death in January 2007, but a judge blocked his scheduled execution.

During a hearing in February, Robinson's defense team argued prosecutors' decisions to reject potential jurors who were black were influenced by race.

They cited a Michigan State University study that concluded black jurors were more likely to be dismissed than white jurors.

The study found that, of almost 160 people on North Carolina's death row, 31 had all-white juries, and 38 had only one person of color. A defendant is 2.6 times more likely to be sentenced to death if at least one of the victims is white, the study also found.

Union County prosecutor Jonathan Perry, who helped the Cumberland County District Attorney's Office argue the case against Robinson, said the study was untrustworthy because it was based on a too-limited sample of death penalty cases to provide meaningful results. The study also failed to detect numerous nonracial reasons that a person might be peremptorily struck from a jury, Perry said.

In his ruling, Weeks reiterated the study's findings, calling it very reliable and an example of the continued role of race in the justice system in Cumberland County and across the state. According to the court, prosecutors deliberately excluded black jurors from service in Robinson's case.

"The state's evidence not only failed to rebut Robinson's evidentiary showing, but in many respects, it reinforced and strengthened it," Weeks said. "The evidence should serve as a clear signal of the need for reform in capital jury selection proceedings in the future."

Weeks also noted that discrimination in jury selection across the state undermines the ability of the justice system to appear unbiased in capital cases.

"The very integrity of the court is jeopardized when a prosecutor's discrimination invites cynicism respecting the jury’s neutrality and undermines public confidence," he said.

People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, one of the most noted advocates for the Racial Justice Act, released a statement calling Weeks' ruling "a huge victory for justice, for the people of North Carolina, for the South and the country as a whole."

"This historic victory for justice would not have come about if not for the courage and persistence of ordinary North Carolina citizens who challenged these legacies of discrimination and demanded passage of the RJA," the nonprofit group said in a statement."

The North Carolina Chapter of the NAACP also released a statement:

"Today is a day where we must reflect on a dual tragedy. The loss of life of the Tornblom family is a tragedy that should grieve us all, and the Court's finding is a reminder of the tragedy that racial bias still affects and impacts the judicial process."

Last year, the Republican-led Legislature tried to repeal the Racial Justice Act, but Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the effort. A subsequent vote in the General Assembly fell short of the required number of votes to override the veto.

A House committee is now looking at ways to narrow the scope of the law.


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Casey Anthony's Fate Awaits! Jury Decides: Death Or "The Beautiful Life"?

The World Anxiously Awaits While Members Of The Jury In Casey Anthony's Trial Deliberates On What Her Legal Fate Will Be.

Now Please Allow Me To Tell You How I'd Like To See This Case End.

Since Casey Showed NO Mercy For Her Child, She Should Be Shown NO Mercy!

I Say She Deserves The Death Penalty But Instead Would Love To See Her Rot In Prison For At Least 30 Years!

According To The Evidence & Testimony Presented Casey Wanted "The Beautiful Life Right"?

A Life That Did NOT Include Her Beautiful, Young Child Caylee!

Caylee's In Heaven Now, But Her Foolish, Selfish Mother Currently Sits Behind Bars.

How's That "Beautiful Life" Thing Without Caylee Working Out For You Casey?

Where's Tony?

How Many Times Has Tony Visited After Your Arrest?

No Need For Long Deliberations Or Debates.

Sentence This Chick To LIFE IN PRISON!! For At Least 30 Years!

That Would Be Her Just Reward!

By The Way Kudos To Judge Perry And Prosecutors Jeff & Linda!

Casey's Attorney Jose Baez Didn't Do So Bad Either.

R.I.P. Caylee

 

 






Jury begins deliberations in Casey Anthony murder trial

Jury deliberations are now underway in the first-degree murder trial of Casey Anthony.

Following several weeks of testimony, the 12 member jury will be taken into a deliberation room, where they will stay until a verdict is reached.

All 17 jurors were escorted from the courtroom, but the alternates were separated from the 12 members who will decide Casey Anthony's fate.

The five alternates will continue to be sequestered until the jury reaches a verdict.

Chief Judge Belvin Perry will address the five alternates after they are taken to another location inside the courthouse. A court reporter and one member of the state and defense will join Perry.

The jurors will be served lunch inside the deliberation room, then will choose a jury foreman who will act as a spokesperson and keep the discussion on topic and cordial.

Once a verdict is reached, the judge will give a 30 minute warning to allow the state, defense, defendant and all others gather inside the courtroom.

Impassioned rebuttal

Assistant state Attorney Linda Drane Burdick gave a devastating closing argument that detailed Casey's history of lies and questioned who had most to gain by the child's death.

She replayed video and audio of Casey lying to her parents and law enforcement. Burdick said she was twice given the chance to acknowledge that the death was an accident, as her defense has claimed, but she never did.

During the closing, Casey was seen shaking her head, jutting her jaw and grumbling at her lawyers. Several jurors watched her reactions as they listened to her recorded lies.

In the end, she said, jurors need to consider:

"Whose life was better without Caylee? Was Cindy Anthony's life better?"

In making that argument, Burdick played the now infamous 911 call in which Cindy Anthony says her daughter "finally admitted" that Caylee had been missing for 31 days, and that it smelled like there had been "a dead body in the damn car!"

Burdick closed by saying that in the end, to answer whose life would be better, all the jurors needed to do was consider Casey Anthony's "Belle Vita" tattoo.

At that point, a photo of Casey Anthony's tattoo was shown next to a photo of her partying with friends during the time Caylee was missing in the summer of 2008

"There's your answer," Burdick said.

Burdick's rebuttal lasted about an hour, during which time she talked a lot about Caylee Anthony.

Burdick was mocking the defense's case, saying that all of the times defense attorneys characterized Casey Anthony as an "amazing" mother to Caylee, were laughable.

"Providing food, clothes, that makes her a mother," Burdick said. Not a great mother, "an adequate mother."

Burdick then said that George and Cindy Anthony were the ones who provided for Caylee, the ones who bought her clothes, food, made a lovely room for her in their home.

"If this truly was an accident...Caylee would be found floating in a pool, not a swamp down the street," she said.

Before Burdick continued with closing arguments after the break, defense attorney Jose Baez argued that one of the forensic analyses done on the computer searches for chloroform was erroneous.

Burdick started by telling the jury she doesn't want them to base their decision on emotion, "however emotionally charged" the testimony, details of the case have been.

"My biggest fear…is that common sense will be lost in all the rhetoric of the case," Burdick said. "That you won't step back and look at the evidence as a whole. You got to look at the big picture here."

She continued her closing statements by explaining Casey Anthony's lies. She called the defendant the "most well documented liar ever seen in a courtroom."

Burdick said liars responses to guilt are "oh so predictable."

Argument for first-degree murder

Earlier, Ashton also made the argument for first-degree murder, telling jurors they can reach that verdict through premeditated murder or felony murder through aggravated child abuse.

Ashton reminded jurors they do not need to be unanimous in deciding premeditated or felony murder. They can be divided and still reach a first-degree murder verdict.

"Regardless of how you put these facts together...any way you slice it…Casey Anthony is guilty of first-degree murder in this case," Ashton said.

George Anthony suicide letter

He again reminded jurors of George Anthony's suicide note.

"You cannot read this letter and not see this man was in pain," Ashton said. ""This is the cry of a man who doesn't understand the world anymore."

Ashton read a section of the letter where George said he tried to bring up his issues and was told to set those aside.

"To denigrate that pain...I believe belies the facts," Ashton said.

State explains science in case

Ashton described the testimony of Orange-Osceola Chief Medical Examiner Jan Garavaglia and other medical experts who examined the skeletal remains of Caylee Marie.

Defense attorney Jose Baez in his closing statements Sunday described the science used by the state as "junk science."

Ashton said Sunday that the state would need as much as two hours to wrap up its case this morning.

Barring any unexpected developments, Chief Judge Belvin Perry will instruct the 12 people charged with deciding Casey Anthony's fate and send them to a designated room where they stay until they make a decision.

The jury could begin its deliberations by lunchtime.

Casey Anthony is in the courtroom this morning wearing a blue-and-white striped shirt.

Ashton is digging into the forensic evidence this morning, starting with Caylee's remains, and hitting points on air samples, chloroform.

Experts agree nothing in the bones tells us how Caylee died, Ashton said.

He reminded the jury that two specific parts of the body after decomposition should not stay together — the mandible and the skull, but that Caylee's were in "anatomical position."

The state's experts told you "that tape had to have been on that skull before she decomposed," he said.

But defense expert, Dr. Werner Spitz said the body had to removed, waited for decomposition and then taped them back together. Ashton told jurors it was up to them to determine if that was reasonable.

"Dr. Spitz's version of the events is incredible" and not credible, Ashton said.

Ashton is again showing a series of photos of Caylees skull to underline his argument that the remains were left in the woods for six months and not brought back there after decomposition.

"The scene was not staged. It appears as it does because of the forces of nature. The forces of water. The forces of animals and the forces of decomposition," Ashton says. "That duct tape has been on Caylees face since the day she died."

When speaking about the air science, Ashton paid special attention to the testimony of Dr. Arpad Vass from the Oakridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Ashton implied that just because the defense didn't agree with his testimony, that doesn't mean it's junk science.

"Dr. Vass is an unapologetic science geek," Ashton said. "When have you heard an expert in a criminal case say, 'and here's the really cool part...'"

On Sunday, jurors sat through a full day of court listening first to Ashton deliver 77 minutes of closing arguments – methodically detailing the state's case for the jury, touching on important points, key evidence and imploring them to find the young mother guilty of first-degree murder.

Baez's three-hour closing argument, the state often objected to comments he made that possibly violated a court order issued by Perry last week.

Perry called a sidebar at one point when Baez raised his voice, and pointed his finger at Ashton, calling him a "laughing man." It appears that Ashton was trying to hide a smirk behind his hand during Baez's closing arguments. Perry had specifically forbidden them from expressing facial gestures in court.

Casey Anthony, 25, is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Anthony during the summer of 2008. The state's theory suggests Casey Anthony used duct tape to suffocate her daughter and then dumped her body in a swampy wooded lot just a few blocks from the family home. The state is seeking the death penalty.

The defense claims Caylee accidentally drowned in the backyard swimming pool on June 16 and her body was disposed of by George Anthony. He has denied anything to do with the death of his granddaughter.


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Demeatrius Montgomery Sentenced To Life Despite Questionable SBI Lab Evidence

Emotional Courtroom As Demeatrius Montgomery Is Found Guilty

In the minutes after Demeatrius Montgomery was found Guilty and sentenced to two terms of life in prison, there was an extraordinary scene in the hallway outside of the courtroom.

Montgomery's father hugged first one, then both of the fathers of murdered police officers Sean Clark and Jeff Shelton.

Minutes earlier, Shelton's father, John was given the opportunity to speak in court before Montgomery was sentenced.

As Montgomery stared straight ahead, John Shelton said of him, "His family will get to see him in prison. If I want to see my son, I have to go to Sharon Memorial Garden and look at a grave."

A jury deliberated for two hours on Wednesday and for most of the day Thursday before returning the verdict of guilty on two counts of first-degree murder.

Montgomery was sentenced to two life terms without parole that will run consecutively.

The Death Penalty was not an option because early in the trial the judge found that a former CMPD detective, Arvin Fant, threw away notes from his interviews with some witnesses.

After the sentencing, District Attorney Peter Gilchrist said, "I think to know that this man will never be back out again may be, realistically, the most anybody could hope for."

Police Chief Rodney Monroe said, "Having the prosecution put forth the case that they did really has brought justice, not only to the families but to an entire community."

Shelton and Clark never had time to draw their own weapons before they were gunned down at the Timber Ridge Apartment complex on March 31, 2007.

Montgomery's attorneys argued that someone else was to blame.

But Chief Monroe said the right man is going to prison. "I believe that the evidence that we had 3 1/2 years ago, it hasn't changed. It was solid then and it was solid throughout this case."





DNA Expert Can't Confirm Link Between Montgomery & Murder Weapon

An expert couldn't say for sure Friday that the DNA of a man suspected of killing two Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers is on the murder weapon.

The 13th day of testimony in the murder trial of Demeatrius Montgomery got under way Friday morning with John Donahue on the stand.

Donahue performed the tests on the gun when he worked for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg crime lab.

He testified that he couldn't exclude Montgomery's DNA from being on the gun because he found DNA from multiple people.

Donahue confirmed that DNA from Officer Jeff Shelton was found on the weapon, indicating there was a struggle.

Shelton and Officer Sean Clark were shot to death at the Timber Ridge apartments in 2007. Montgomery was arrested soon after the shooting. Witnesses have testified seeing him running from the scene.

If convicted, Montgomery is facing life in prison. A judge took the death penalty off the table early in the case because an investigator mishandled case notes.


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Amanda Knox Trial: Prosecution Rests...Life Sentence Sought

Prosecution makes final push in Knox trial. Closing arguments are underway in the Italian murder trial of American college student Amanda Knox. NBC’s Michelle Kosinski reports from Perugia with the latest.

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Life sentences sought in Amanda Knox case


Prosecutors on Saturday requested life in prison for Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend, who are accused in the fatal stabbing of her British roommate during a drug-fueled sex game — charges the U.S. woman dismissed as "pure fantasy."

In their closing arguments, the prosecutors said Amanda Knox and Italian Raffaele Sollecito should be convicted on charges of murder and sexual violence for the 2007 slaying of Meredith Kercher.

They deny wrongdoing.

Knox, who is from Seattle, took a deep breath when Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini requested life imprisonment — Italy's stiffest punishment. She then addressed the court, saying that the accusations against her were "pure fantasy."

"Meredith was my friend, I didn't hate her," she said in Italian, fighting back tears.

The Briton's body, her throat slit, was found in a pool of blood on Nov. 2, 2007, in the apartment she shared with Knox in the central Italian town of Perugia.

Prosecutors argued that Knox resented her British roommate and killed her, together with Sollecito and Rudy Hermann Guede, of Ivory Coast, under "the fumes of drugs and possibly alcohol."

They said Knox hit Kercher's head against a wall, then tried to strangle her, as Sollecito held her and Guede sexually assaulted her.

Guede was sentenced to 30 years in prison last year for the killing after a fast-track trial he had requested. He also denies wrongdoing and is appealing his conviction.

"The murder and the sexual violence were carried out for futile reasons," Mignini said. "Meredith will never come back."


Verdict expected in early December

He requested nine months of daytime solitary confinement for Knox and two months for Sollecito. A verdict by the eight-member jury is expected in early December.

Knox, 22, and Sollecito, 25, have been jailed for more than two years since being arrested shortly after the slaying.

According to prosecutors, a knife with a 6 1/2-inch blade, with Kercher's DNA on the blade and Knox's on the handle, was found at Sollecito's house.

Defense lawyers argue that the knife is too big to match Kercher's wounds and that the amount of what prosecutors say is Kercher's DNA is too low to be attributed with certainty.

Prosecutors also maintain Sollecito's DNA was found on the clasp of Kercher's bra, although his defense team contends that the evidence might have been inadvertently contaminated during the investigation.

During Saturday's hearing, prosecutors showed an animated video reconstructing what they say were the different phases of the murder, with cartoon characters representing the defendants and the victim.

Photos showing Kercher's wounds and bruises also were shown in the video. Knox kept her head down during the presentation, while Sollecito watched it intently.

In their closing arguments, prosecutors also reviewed technical data on the use of Sollecito's computer the night Kercher was slain.

According to Knox, who took the stand last June, she spent the night of Nov. 1 with Sollecito at his home, watching a movie on his computer and smoking pot. Witnesses for the prosecution have argued that there was no sign of the defendant using his computer during the hours 21-year-old Kercher was stabbed to death.

Mignini also asked the court to convict the defendants on lesser charges, including staging a break-in and the theft of cash and Kercher's cell phones. He said Knox and Sollecito staged a burglary in the apartment by breaking a window in a bedroom in an attempt to sidetrack the investigation.

Knox also is being tried on charges of defamation for allegedly accusing Diya "Patrick" Lumumba — a Congolese man who owns a pub in Perugia where she worked — of being the killer. Because of her accusation, Lumumba was briefly jailed. He was later cleared and is seeking damages from Knox.

Defense lawyers will make their own closing arguments beginning late next week.



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