Do prosecutors try too hard in high-profile cases?

I wonder if the Casey Anthony verdict would have been different if the prosecutors hadn’t made it a death penalty case — because of the effect the ultimate punishment had on Casey’s mother.

Mom was cooperative with the police at first, and seemed to believe that her daughter killed Caley.  But how can a mother help put her own daughter to death?

In a surprise twist at trial, Mom took the blame for some of the most incriminating evidence in the case. A bunch of Internet searches had been run on Casey’s home computer, looking into killing with chloroform. Mom testified that she – not Casey – was the one who ran those searches, because her dogs were eating the yard plants and Mom was concerned about them ingesting chlorophyl.  So Mom looked it up on the home computer.

Over eighty times.

While Mom was at work.

If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you. That testimony was clearly a mother’s last ditch attempt to save her daughter’s life.

I wonder if Mom would’ve testified to such an obvious lie if her daughter’s life wasn’t on the line. I think prosecutors pushed her toward that testimony by threatening Casey with the penalty of death. 

Personally, I don’t believe in capital punishment for many reasons (the subject of another post). But even pro-death-penalty prosecutors would be wise to consider the psychological effect that the prospect of the electric chair will have on jurors and witnesses alike.