Florida judge shares new details surrounding Casey Anthony trial

Over 12 years ago, Casey Anthony walked out of the Orange County jail a free woman. Much of the country watched her murder trial play out on live TV, including the moment the jury found her not guilty, but there were some things happening behind the scenes that you didn’t see. The judge at the center of it all, Belvin Perry, joined the hosts of Florida’s Fourth Estate to share the experience from his perspective. This includes his thoughts on how Anthony’s defense team was able to get her acquitted of first-degree murder in the death of her daughter Caylee Anthony. “Jose Baez, at the time, probably wasn’t the sharpest person on the evidence code, but he was well prepared, and he did something that good lawyers do,” Perry said. “Once you determine the makeup of the 12 people in that jury, he tailored his case to fit them. It’s just like a great football coach. You go into any game with a gameplan, but you must make adjustments and Baez made those adjustments and he learned how to play to the jury.” The jury was made up of seven women and five men who had to be sequestered for the full length of the trial. Perry said it was a lot of work dealing with a case that would last six to eight weeks with jurors that had to be holed up in a hotel room, but added that the Central Florida community helped to lighten the load. He said the media agreed on the best way to cover the trial and when they found out the jury was staying at Rosen Shingle Creek, “they did not publish it, we had no problem with them following jurors.” He said Harris Rosen also bent over backward to make sure the jurors were well taken care of while being sequestered. “Harris Rosen was just tremendous when we talked to him,” Perry said. “He gave us an excellent deal on the rooms, gave us everything we wanted — even structured the meal prices to fit into the per diem, which is unheard of. They even changed the locks on the doors on the stairwell on the floor that they were on you couldn’t access it from the outside.” Perry said there were also times when