Why Casey Anthony Will Walk Free - Baez' New Defense

Casey - A Non-Treatable Psychiatric Disease?

While the defense has yet to present it's case, Jose Baez on behalf of accused child murderer Casey Anthony is certainly going to present a novel set of circumstances in an attempt to keep his client out of prison next week when his defense portion of the trial begins.

(photo: Dorothy Clay Sims comforts Casey Anthony)

Anthony goes into the defense portion of the trial with one big advantage, she's a proven liar. She's gotten away with it for a long time, some say learning from her father. George Anthony has been accused of being a liar by his ex-wife, according to Dr. Drew Pinsky on his nightly cable tv show.

Here's what we speculate Baez could say next week:

1. Casey is a pathological liar, reinforced over the years by father George Anthony
2. A pathological liar uncontrollably makes up lies bearing no semblance to reality and are even harmful to themselves
3. Casey lied to attorney Baez, confusing him, making a strategy of defense to confront her accusers impossible
4. There is no medical or psychological treatment for pathological liars
5. It is cruel and unusual to criminally punish anti-social behavior that has no current treatment
6. Anthony cannot be convicted criminally for lying because of the unusual untreatable condition she has
7. Anthony cannot be convicted of murder because reasonable doubt has been shown at trial
8. Anthony should be committed to a psychiatric facility for study and treatment, should treatment ever be available

9. A mistrial should be declared due to Anthony non-cooperation with her attorney, and his confusion resulting from her lies

About Pathological Lying - Pseudologia Phantastica

According to Dr. Charles C. Dike, of the Yale University School of Medicine's division of law and psychiatry in a June 2008 article from Psychiatric Times, there is no universal consensus in the psychiatric community on the definition of pathological lying (PL). It is said to be characterized by a long term history of lying for which no psychological motive or external benefit can be discerned.

This fits easily with Anthony's behavior of lying which made no apparent sense, and had no benefit for her as she made up an imaginary babysitter, imaginary job, led investigators to an imaginary office at Universal Studios Florida, and on and on.

Pathological lies appear purposeless, often self-incriminating and damaging to the liar, making the lies seem to others incomprehensible, says Dike. He says ordinary lying is goal directed to gain external benefits but PL is just the opposite, with no apparent benefit to the liar.

Dike says PL is relatively obscure although it was first observed in the medical literature a century ago and termed "pseudologia phantastica."

He says letters from "mental health professionals, attorneys, and individuals around the world describe similar characteristics in people they know—excessive lying, easily verifiable to be untrue, mostly unhelpful to the liar in any apparent way, and even possibly harmful to the liar, yet told repeatedly over time."

There is yet no psychological test for PL, or much research which confounds efforts to define and understand it and define it as a mental disorder.

Prevalence of PL in the population is unknown, but a study of 1000 repeat juvenile offenders found a prevalence of close to 1%. The average age at onset of the lying behavior was 16 and the average age at discovery was 22. The intelligence quotient (IQ) was found to be average or slightly below average, with significantly better verbal IQ than performance IQ; and a history of brain abnormality in 40% of the cases, characterized by epilepsy, abnormal electroencephalographic findings, head trauma, or infection.

If PL as a disorder can be established in an individual it would cause concern for the degree of responsibility of a pathological liar when their lies lead to criminal behavior, says Yale's Dr. Dike.