Florida’s State’s Attorney Office Seeking Death Penalty Against Casey Anthony in The Caylee Anthony Case

Florida’s State’s Attorney Office Seeking Death Penalty Against Casey Anthony in The Caylee Anthony Case, as lead prosecutor, Linda Drane Burdick, of the State Attorney’s office, filed a letter of intent Monday to seek the death penalty for Casey Anthony. The court had been notified of the State’s intent.

Casey Anthony’s attorney, Jose Baez has confirmed that the defense has been notified. Baez however, is not qualified to defend a client in a death penalty case because he does not have the required amount of experience by the Florida Bar.

Baez response was, “This is not a death penalty case. We will do whatever is necessary to defend Casey Anthony from the state trying to take her life. We already have death-qualified defense lawyers on our team and are prepared for a vigorous defense … We plan on making this a whole tougher for the state now.”

For those of you who have not followed the case from the beginning…previously, the state said it would not seek the death penalty for Anthony. Casey Anthony is in the Orange County Jail charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of her daughter, little Caylee Anthony.

What Is The Big Change?

The state attorney’s office is citing “sufficient aggravating circumstances” as the reason for Monday, April 13th, 2009 decision.

Back in December, prosecutors told the public that they were lacking “sufficient aggravating circumstances.” They stated that “It is not in the best interest of the people of the State of Florida to pursue the death penalty.”

What Do Those Circumstances Include:

Those circumstances include: that the killing was heinous, atrocious, cruel or depraved, involved substantial planning and premeditation, was committed without pretense of moral or legal justification, was committed by a person with previous felonies, or happened while another felony was being committed.

The trial is set for October, 2009 and the development could have a major impact on how the case plays out at trial, including whether Casey Anthonys’ defense attorney, Jose Baez can stay on the case.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…the Baez defense team filed a motion on Friday with Orange County Circuit Court, seeking more phone records from a dozen people involved in the case. The motion asks for any and all records for “phone calls, text messages, P2P communications, Internet usage, WAP usage, and cell tower pings.”

They also wants records from the defendant’s parents, George and Cindy Anthony; her former fiancé, Jesse Grund; her brother, Lee Anthony; a friend, Amy Huizenga; and Roy Kronk, the meter reader who found Caylee’s remains in December of last year.

Roy Kronk, if you remember, had called authorities as early as last August to report he had seen a suspicious bag in the area.

Other names on the defense list include several former boyfriends, two private investigators, a volunteer searcher and Richard Cain, an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy.

Cain was fired after an internal investigation found he failed to respond to repeated calls from Kronk, about the suspicious bag. Cain has refused to leave the job and is awaiting an appeal.

There are quite a few ripples in this case of murder and neglect.

“Various cell phone service providers are in possession of certain items which are material to the preparation of the defense in this cause,” the motion says, adding, ”the items sought by this application cannot be obtained through normal discovery.”

The motion says the release of these records could lead to admissible evidence in Anthony’s trial, which is set to begin in October against Casey Anthony, who is charged with first degree murder of her little two year old daughter, Caylee. Her remains were found in woods near her grandparents’ home in Orlando, where Casey and Caylee were living at the time of her disappearance and death.

For the full story on “Florida’s State’s Attorney Office Seeking Death Penalty Against Casey Anthony in The Caylee Anthony Case,” go to CNN News. There are dozens of articles on the Caylee-Casey Anthony case on BBAC.