Search This Blog

Casey Anthony's Body Language during the Closing Arguments


For most of the prosecutor's closing arguments you would swear the film that shows Casey is on Freeze frame. Her head is held in vice grip add mixture of glaring eyes and petulant pouting lip and downward turned sad brows.
As the prosecutor says, “When you have a child that child becomes your life Casey could have shaken her head yes, as most parents who have lost a child would. As it has been in the rest of the trial, Casey’s body language does not match the baseline of what we consider a normal parents, a normal mothers body language the norm of a grieving mother.
703: The class between the expectation and the life that Casey wanted to have. Four seconds later Casey shake her head not small slow shake delayed, so it appears she had to think in her neocortex about what the instinctual limbic brain would feel and show in response to his statement.
When Caylee was born Casey was saddened with Expectorations not only from her parents but from society, Casey is shaking her head no quick shallow shakes with a furrowed angry brow and petulant mouth.
When Casey is faced with a problem her solution is to change the lie. She shakes her head twice, not fully committed to following through with her disagreement, and scowling in anger.
When Casey wants to do what Casey wants to do she lies. Again to delayed glare
No movement at all when he talks about the imaginary Nanny “Zanney” so still like a squirrel caught in headlights in the freeze response to stress.
You see the Guard move to protect his belly a comfort he gives as the prosecutor discusses her fathers suicide note, but she seated in the front of the guard is ice frozen in fizzy cocktail .
The absence of affect (facial expressions of emotions) No shake of the head no, no emotion at all. When the prosecutor discusses how Casey was at her boyfriends while Caylee is in all likelihood in the trunk of her car dead and decomposing.
Small shift, to her right side a look down to her right her thinking rational side to contain herself. And adjustment, apparently she thought it was too much work for her (to bury her) so she decided to throw her in the swamp. She rocks herself back and to the side a few more times. At this. I think she is actually upset here, feeling caught.
Prosecutors paralanguage the nonverbal nuances of the voices are emotional, Caylee was in the trunk off suburban drive decomposing. Voice gets caught, at times so low on the gruesome details as to be almost inaudible.
Imaginary Zannies Imaginary Accident, Casey starts to look away and look down, as her lies are retold by the prosecutor like a grandfather telling a bedtime fairy tale. She has trouble staying still she turns pages and then her head held with the chin up and lips petulant finally comes down. Most interesting her head twists down and sideways showing it is painful for her to hear her lies here, she fains reading something but her discomfort with everyone hearing these lies is evident.
33.33When the prosecutor talks about timer 55 her face book stalls till Caylee’s birthday. Head goes down not with true shame but with a mixture of feigned disinterest and denial. But then in one minute and 3 seconds later her head is up and frozen again.
Barely moves “When he discusses car being found and mother catching her and her lie “She is at Zannies” She barely moves just minute shifts from left to the right.
Until 42:56 Problem comes up Dec 11 2008 could I have the state present 2008 please Casey bends over and cough/sneeze her head going down and staying out of site instead of bouncing up naturally as it would in a real cough sneeze. This lets her head go out of the frame of the camera and when we see her again she is bent over, while holding her lowered four head in stiff upraised fingers. Suppressing tears as the prosecutor says, “Calies remains are found.” Casey is recalling with grief not the day her daughter lost, not the day she died and the grief she felt as a mother, but the day her daughter’s body was found and she was caught in her lies. Casey put her fist up to her face to suppress her tears; the fist gesture reads that she is mad that her daughter’s body was found. This fist to face to suppress tears is a movement I see when a parent hears what someone else did to their child when someone not when a child is found. There is typical kenning and outpouring of emotion when the news a child body being found is discussed. She stays with that fist. A number or items are found the damming evidence she ….then she rubs her nose and grasps her head again hiding her eyes from view, guilt? Trying to push in her thoughts or maintain focus she rocks herself side to side in the chair more obviously now.
Casey Anthony: Closing Arguments - Part 3 - 7/3/11 State
Very eerie body language.
8: As he is calling into the evidence of 224, as he says, “This is the bag that Caylee was found in,” Casey grabs her head symbolically pulling the bad thoughts out of her head fall through her fingers like dust and then she grasp her fingers together as if she is trying to decide to strike out her hand in anger and instead holds her downward held head in her soft fist. Significant she keeps frozen in that position through the most gruesome evidence, over 6 and half minutes.
Then as he recounts what her story about her father waking her yelling where is Caylee and laying Calyee's body in front of her yelling this is your fault. She's wiping a tear with her pinky finger only once after and when the prosecutor changes repeat her fathers yelling, Where is Caylee? Where is Caylee? She presses her tears in. Open unrestrained sobbing would I think make us feel that her story was true the little pinky tear stop feels fake and forced.
At 8:29, In fact moments later as the prosecutor begins discussing reasonable doubt Casey's chest begins to heave up and down and she begins to really cry needing a handkerchief and holding her nose with the bad smell of the words, “An abiding conviction of guilt.” She then begins wiping away real tears. At first she does this tentatively, and then big long wipes down over her face. Her chest heaving up and down more.
20:18? As he talks about the order of decomposition Casey covers her nose with the Kleenex using both hands and then does that odd dramatic wiping of one eye at a time as if wiping away the evidence from her view. He ( the scientist ) examined the evidence she takes her hands covers her nose and mouth and her lower lids with both hands and wipes as if she is covered with the sickening sight and the smell and wants to wipe it off.
At 20:21 her body comes up again into a more erect posture and she goes into that petulant face again. Slightly angry eyes as he discusses the evidence of the odor.

Look at 28:40 to 28:51 notices her stillness then look at her head swivel to him and the glare on her face as he finished repeating the evidence the most damming evidences of the hair with the bands of decomposition. She does this eerily after he pauses and there are two beats of pause then she turns and glares.

She gets up does a comfort adjustment pulling her shirt down.


Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at
http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.