caylee.jpgThe defense team of the mother of Caylee Anthony the two year old child that was murdered in June 2008, has yet lost another high powered attorney from their team.

Linda Kenney Baden apparently filed a motion to withdraw from the case as counsel yesterday in Orlando. Baden is a forensics and cross-examination expert that has been working with the defense since 2008. She is also the third attorney to drop out of the team this year. The others were Todd Macaluso and Andrea Lyon.

Baden claims that since the tot mom was declared indigent there were too many rules placed on spending in the case by the Justice Administration Commission. She stated, “As out of state counsel I have been traveling to Florida and elsewhere to properly represent Ms. Anthony.” Now she says it is her understanding that the JAC prohibits payments of such costs to out of state attorneys even though they have rendered and are rendering their services free of charge.

So now Baden says she cannot remain an attorney for the defendant in the absence of substantial funds to cover the costs of travel and reimbursement for expenses which they do expect to raise the closer the date for the trial comes. She had to travel to Orlando from New York so she could be in the courtroom with the defendant. She claims she would prefer to stay and continue on the team but she is forced to withdraw because the state of Florida fails to reimburse out of state pro bono attorneys for expenses.

As a high powered attorney that this woman is supposed to be it seems to me that she should have known all this before hand. I would have thought that any attorney on this team should have known Florida’s rule once the defendant was declared indigent. If all of them are going to cry now that they aren’t being reimbursed for their expenses, they never should have gotten involved in the case to begin with. I always was under the understanding that “pro bono” meant free of charge. Why should the taxpayers have to pay for the defense and their expenses anyway? I don’t think this defendant is so special that she would deserve to have the taxpayers foot her entire defense team bill to begin with. If she can’t pay for an attorney she should have had to settle for a court appointed attorney like any other defendant would have.

My question is, did Linda Baden really step down because of financial reasons or does she now feel like the defense is going to lose their case and she would rather not be a part of a losing team? True she is denying this but one has to wonder. Of course we wouldn’t expect her to announce that she was leaving the team because she now thinks the defendant is guilty but I can’t help but wonder if that is really why she is leaving. I can bet that I am not the only one to think this way as well.

I have always wondered if that was why Andrea Lyon left. She took pride in her claim that she never lost a case before in the death penalty phase, so maybe she thought for sure she would lose in this case if she stayed, so to protect her record she decided to leave.  Of course this is all just questions in my mind, I have nothing to prove it but I am sure others think the same as I do.

As you all know, Caylee Anthony’s mother (sorry but I refuse to type out her name, she doesn’t deserve her name to be in print) has been in jail for about 2 years now since a grand jury handed down an indictment against her for first degree murder of Caylee. The state is also asking for the death penalty in the case that she is found guilty. She is scheduled to go to trial on these charges in May 2011. America will be watching and I know I will be waiting for justice in this case to finally be done so little Caylee can finally rest in peace. God bless her little soul.

Let us not forget all the children missing, including little Adji Desir and Haleigh Cummings, both from Florida to name a few. I pray that one day they will be found and they too will get the justice they so well deserve. God bless them all. I pray for them all everyday and won’t stop til they are found.

Jan Barrett

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