The Florida State Attorney’s office will seek the death penalty against Casey Anthony, the mother of slain toddler Caylee Anthony.
The move reverses an earlier decision made by prosecutors.
In a notice filed Monday, prosecutors stated that additional information has become available since they filed their initial waiver of intent to seek the death penalty on Dec. 5. The filing says “sufficient aggravating circumstances exist to justify the imposition of the death penalty.”
The remains of Caylee Marie Anthony were found a week after prosecutors made the earlier filing. The girl was 2 when she disappeared in June, and her case has drawn national attention.
A State Attorney’s office spokeswoman would not comment on their decision.
Marti Mackenzie, a spokeswoman for Jose Baez, Anthony’s defense lawyer, told the Orlando Sentinel: “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.”
Terence Lenamon, a Miami attorney who was once part of Anthony’s defense team, gave prosecutors a report in November outlining why the mother should not receive the death penalty.
“I’m greatly disappointed the State Attorney’s office has decided to take this route,” he said Monday.
Lenamon said this may be a sign that there is a potential weakness in the state’s case. Prosecutors may want “death-qualified jurors” — jurors who are willing to sentence someone to death. Those jurors are more apt to convict defendants, he said.
“It changes the dynamics of everything,” he said.
It’s unclear whether Lenamon will rejoin the defense team. He said he spoke with Baez on Monday, and Baez is reviewing a list of death-penalty-qualified attorneys.
Baez will have to add such a co-counsel if he wishes to continue as lead attorney, should the case indeed become a death penalty case.
Meanwhile, legal experts called the latest development very unusual.
Robert Jarvis, who teaches legal ethics and law and popular culture at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, said prosecutors may have put the death penalty back on the table out of frustration, possibly because Anthony, 23, isn’t accepting a plea in the high-profile case.
But Jarvis said if Anthony is convicted, a jury will likely not sentence her to death.
“Juries find it very difficult to send young women to Death Row,” he said.