Jeff Ashton, the lead prosecutor in the trial of Casey Anthony for the murder of her daughter Caylee has written the first insider account of the trial. Imperfect Justice: Prosecuting Casey Anthony is scheduled for publication in November by William Morrow.
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News of the book leaked out when a listing for it showed up on Barnes & Noble’s website. The book shot up to No. 2 on the site 24 hours after the announcement and on Amazon.ca, was at No. 10. Ashton then confirmed the book with the Orlando Sentinel.
Beyond the title, few details were available about the contents of the book, when Ashton started writing it, or the size of his advance. But the November publication clearly seems designed to pre-empt Keith Ablow’s Inside the Mind of Casey Anthony, which Ablow says will be published by St. Martins’ Press “before the end of 2011.”
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Ashton was a veteran Assistant State Attorney with three decades of experience when he prosecuted the Anthony case. He retired days after Casey Anthony was acquitted of murder but convicted on a lesser charge of lying to the police.
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The trial of 25-year-old Casey Anthony captured the nation’s attention in the spring and early summer of this year. On July 15, 2008, Casey reported the disappearance of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, possibly the victim of a kidnapping by her nanny. Cindy Anthony, Casey’s mother told police she had not seen her granddaughter in more than a month. Casey was arrested for murder in October 2008. In December 2008, Caylee’s body was found in a wooded area near the Anthony home. Investigators were never able to establish a definitive cause of death or motive for the crime, which weakened their case in the eyes of several jurors. Anthony’s acquittal provoked a media outcry, notably from HLN host Nancy Grace, who has long believed Casey murdered her daughter.
