ORLANDO, Fla. — Jurors have begun deliberating in the Casey Anthony murder trial.
The jury of seven women and five men will consider whether Anthony is guilty of first-degree murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. If convicted of that charge, the 25-year-old could get the death penalty or life in prison.
Attorneys wrapped up their closing arguments this morning.
Prosecutors say Anthony suffocated the girl with duct tape because Caylee got in the way of her love life and soon would have been old enough to reveal the many lies she told her parents.
Defense attorneys say the girl accidentally drowned in the family pool. They say Anthony panicked and her father, a former police officer, decided to make the death look like a murder and dumped the body.
Lead prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick told the jurors during the rebuttal closing argument thir morning, in court proceedings that didn't stop for the July Fourth holiday weekend, that she and her colleagues backed up every claim they made in their opening statement six weeks ago.
Without saying it, she was pointing out to the jury that the defense never directly backed up its opening statement claim that Anthony's 2-year-old daughter Caylee drowned and that Anthony's father made the death look like a murder.
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