>>>
trial of
casey
anthony
, entering its third week today. nbc
kerry sanders
is in orlando with the very latest. good morning to you.
>> reporter:
good morning, meredith. today prosecutors in the court are putting forth their technical case, the
crime scene
forensic evidence
they say proves that
casey
anthony
murdered her 2-year-old daughter, caylee. meantime, outside the courthouse, again today, the public jostling for tickets for seats inside the 23rd floor of this courthouse. almost every
day 3
1/2 hours before court begins --
>>
go, g go.
>> reporter:
-- there's a race. no someone is allowed on courthouse property until exactly
5:30 a.m
. at that moment from sidewalk and back allies, the curious hoof it for position.
>>
number one in the line.
>> reporter:
there are 62 seats a day
set aside
for the public, spectators from across the country, traveling here to see for themselves the 25-year-old mother
casey
anthony
, accused of murdering her daughter caylee.
>>
it
's wonderful
to be a part of it. and we're really excited the public has an opportunity to be a witness to this and see the action in the courtroom.
>>
you can see the root portion of the hair is distorted.
>> reporter:
on saturday, karen lowe, an fbi expert on
trace evidence
, began to detail the prosecution's
forensic evidence
. a single strand of hair taken from the trunk of
casey
anthony
's car, that the fbi
crime lab
concluded fell from the scalp of a corpse.
>>
one of the items had a hair that exhibited --
>> reporter:
the defense arg gus not only is the testing inconclusive that the hair was from a dead person but that the single strand was even caylee's.
>>
the best we have at this point is that the hair either belonged to caylee,
casey
,
cindy
or even
cindy
's mother. any other maternal relative?
>>
correct.
>> reporter:
casey
now admits she waited 31 days to tell anyone her daughter was missing. when she did, the store that a nanny had caylee was all made up. prosecutors allege
casey
stowed her daughter's
dead body
in the trunk of her car before eventually dumping it in the woods near her home.
>>
this is my label identifying what's inside the can.
>> reporter:
prosecutors claim they captured the stench of death.
orange county
senior
crime scene
analyst explained how the odor was extracted from the trunk of
casey
's car.
>>
this is the very first time you've ever taken air samples, correct?
>>
yes, it was.
>>
you have no training whatsoever in the collection or preservation of air samples?
>>
this is the first time i've heard it done, that's correct.
>> reporter:
the cans have not been opened in court and the judge may never allow it. if he does, it will be the first time this sort of evidence has ever been presented in a u.s. courtroom. meredith?
>>
kerry sanders
, thank you very much.
>>>
pat brown
is a criminal profilerauthor of "the profiler," and
savannah guthrie
, our legal analyst. good morning. as kerry mentioned, the prosecution is now in the scientific phase of its case. how important was the testimony regarding that hair found in the trunk?
>>
it's incredibly important because, of course, for the last few weeks we've been hearing these witnesses talk about the lies that
casey
anthony
told, her behavior, but the
bottom line
is, we haven't yet seen
scientific evidence
that ties
casey
anthony
to this
crime scene
. this single piece of hair, if the prosecution expert is believed, shows that
casey
-- caylee
anthony
's body was in the trunk of the car after death, but there are some problems with the science, as the defense pointed out.
>>
exactly. and she admitted that she can't say for certain -- with certainty that is, in fact, a hair from caylee.
>>
not only can she not say with certainty if it's caylee's hair, she can't say with 100% if this is a hair that fell off the body after death. that's a crucial fact.
>>
also this testimony that the prosecution is expected to present this week about the stench of death, what they say is the odor of caylee
anthony
's decomposed body in the trunk of her car. she have admitted they have never collected air samples before, they are not trained to do so. is this a risky piece of evidence to present to a jury?
>>
i think it's very risky. obviously, if it works, this would be a profound piece of evidence for the jurors. on the other hand, the prosecute ares already have lots of testimony from varying witnesses about that powerful foul odor inside the trunk of the car. they say it was unmistakenably human decomposition. to use this novel science, something that potentially, if there were a conviction, could be the basis of being overturned on appeal, i'm not sure why the prosecutors want to go that far.
>>
yeah. pat, prior to this trial
casey
had said repeatedly that her daughter was kidnapped. then you have that opening argument from the defense that said, no, actually she wasn't kidnapped, she drown in the family pool and
casey
's father helped cover it up, in fact,
casey
was molested by her
father george
as a trial. what do you make of that
defense strategy
?
>>
i think it's a very stupid
defense strategy
. we thank you, jose baez. he's basically admitted that child died in the home, so we can already get that one out of the way. now we have all this physical testimony coming in about, you know, i think it's pretty good, actually, because what we're doing is showing that not only did that child die in the home, but then
casey
's running around with a car with her
dead child
in the back of it. so, they set up -- the prosecution set up a good thing. they showed her as a really cold-blooded psychopath for the past week. i think anybody sitting there is going, wow, you know, that's a scary woman. and jose baez made another stupid move by throwing the antho anthonys under the bus. only three people in the world that believe in
casey
and he just tossed them out. i mean, now there's nobody. i think the jury is already looking at her as someone capable of killing and now the
physical evidence
is showing she's the one that had the body with her.
>>
do you think the defense will have to put
casey
on the stand?
>>
i think they're up against the wall right now. there's not much left they can do. i think they actually might take the chance of putting her on the stand hoping, because they have a little interesting thing going on with
cindy
anthony
.
cindy
anthony
was not well liked until
cindy
anthony
took the stand. now there are people out there saying, we really feel sorry for
cindy
. now, i guess they might be hoping
casey
can pull off the same thing. put her on the stand, have her start sobbing and crying and looking pitiful and maybe one person on the jury will say, that's one messed up girl. maybe she really didn't kill her daughter on purpose. i think that's what the defense is going to hope for.
>>
pat brown
,
savannah guthrie
, thank you both.
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