Have Attorneys in Casey Anthony Trial Revealed Their Trial Strategy in Jury Questions?

Attorneys in the Casey Anthony murder trial seemed to have tipped their hands with questions revealing how their prosecution or defense cases might proceed.

In the death penalty stage of questioning, attorneys spent three hours Thursday morning questioning one juror about mitigating factors. These mitigating factors included the defendant's age, her lack of impulse control and maturity and the defendant's history of insomnia and nightmares.

Attorneys also raised the possibility of a history of sexual abuse. In TV interviews, according to truTV commentators, Anthony's former fiance Jesse Grund reported that Casey told him that she was molested by her brother Lee, and possibly her father George, as a child, claiming that one or both of them used to visit her bedroom at night and fondle her. She claimed that, for three years, her brother would come into her room and molest her or just sit and watch her sleep until, at the age of 15, she demanded that he stop and told him "I'll kill you."

Casey claims that when she finally told her mother about her brother, her mother claimed he was sleepwalking, and said to her, "Oh, is that why you're a whore?" George Anthony has categorically denied any sexual abuse of his daughter.

Anthony's attorney went with a laundry list of "mitigating factors," to include parental verbal and emotional abuse and being taught poor coping skills by her parents, and a lack of parental guidance and protection. Other factors raised were being taught to project a false appearance, and being used as a decoy or pawn by her parents, and as a scapegoat for parental misconduct.

It appears that despite their staunch support of their daughter, Casey Anthony is preparing to throw her parents under the bus. It was reported by a truTV commentator that Casey recently refused to see her mother when she came to the prison for a visit.

The prosecution asked a question about "smelling a tin can," and when the defense objected, and the judge asked him the relevance of the question, the DA said they had three cans of air from the trunk of Anthony's car where they contend Caylee's dead body lay for a week, and that they may ask the jurors to smell those cans.

truTV http://www.trutv.com/about/insession/index.html commentators predict that the defense will try to use the dysfunctional family defense, claiming that Anthony didn't tell anyone about Caylee's disappearance because she came from "such a messed up family."

The judge chastised both sides for making the questions too fact specific, but he can't limit the attorneys' questioning time too much for fear of reversible error on appeal.

Also, media bias is already evident. Early this week, commentators were criticizing Anthony for being a drama queen in court, and being overly emotional during the reading of the charges by the judge. Nancy Grace Thursday night criticized her for being "stoic and unemotional."

Sources; truTV "In Session"; Personal opinion and observation