A new judge has taken over the Caylee Anthony murder trial after Judge Stan Strickland stepped down. Caylee’s mother’s (who has been charged with the murder of 2 year old Caylee Anthony) defense team accused Strickland of being friends with a blogger and because the blogger was biased against Casey Anthony, she feared she would be unable to receive a fair trial.

Judge Belvin Perry will now be presiding over the case and he wasted no time by questioning the defense team about what needs to be decided and when. “How many motions do you have pending that are ripe to be heard,” he asked today in court addressing the defense team.

Perry is also planning on determining a budget for the defense team by Thursday. He says, “That needs to be done yesterday.”

He seems concerned over this change of venue thing because of the huge expense bill it will cost to move the trial and that they will likely need to sequester a jury, so he suggests that they hold the trial in Orlando.

“If I decide to sequester a jury we will go somewhere, we will pick a jury and then they will be returned to Orange County,” said Perry.

Perry didn’t change the trial date that has been set to begin on May 9, 2011, but some reports says he predicted it to take 4 to 6 weeks to complete, while some are saying it could take 2 months or more to come to an end with a lengthy penalty phase if Anthony is found guilty.

I got to hand it to Judge Perry when he was talking about the expense it would cost to move the case somewhere else, I find his statements admirable. With a list including up to 250 plus possible witnesses it would be too expensive and inconvenient to house both legal teams, the jurors, and all the witnesses too. He is right in my opinion and I applaud his way of thinking. I did notice on the video clip I saw of today in court when Judge Perry brought up the possible change of venue, Cindy Anthony had a smile (well I call it a smirk) across her face as if she got all excited. She is probably looking for it to be a luxury vacation for them, to be set up in a hotel room and being fed three times a day and and it all being paid by the taxpayers. I hope Perry goes along with his gut feeling on this one and keeps the trial in Orlando.

If the Anthony’s want the trial moved out of Orlando, let them pick up the tab instead of having the taxpayers pay for it. Can you imagine what it would coast to house and feed all those that would have to be set up in a hotel room for anywhere between 4 weeks to possibly 2 months or more? I feel Perry will rule what would be in the best interest in the case and the people that pay their taxes that are being forced to foot the bill for the defense team. Personally I still think they should have made her go with a public defender like most people that don’t have the money to pay for their own defense team

So now we just sit back and wait for Judge Perry to decide on how he is going to go with in the case. I don’t think he will be one to play Baez’s little games. Baez has gotten away with them in the courtroom far too long now.

Someone needs to stop Baez’s games so they can get on with the trial so little Caylee Anthony can hopefully get the justice that she deserves. America has not forgotten you Caylee and we intend to see this trial to the end for you.

Jan Barrett

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