Once I was in the parking garage at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and passed a car that obviously had a body in the trunk. I’m no P.I., no forensic pathologist—but  there had to be a body in the trunk. (The cops often find bodies in cars in that garage.)

My advice to the Casey Anthony defense team is:

Do everything you can to prevent the prosecution from making the jury sniff the ‘boxes’ filled with the stench of Caylee’s decomposition—even if it means conceding (stipulating, I suppose) that the trunk indeed exuded the odor of decomposition.

If you have to, admit that Casey’s car trunk at one time contained the remains of little Caylee and that Casey knew it. You’re already laying the foundation (not a legal term, but a rhetorical one) for claiming that Casey is not the only person who could have stuffed the body-filled bag into the trunk.

By now, it’s clear that Casey attempted to conceal the fact of her daughter’s death. If, as you claim, the child died at the Anthony home, then it’s also clear that somebody took the body away from there.

The jury isn’t stupid—they know Casey had at least some part in the cover-up and transportation of the remains. I believe in the opening statement you even conceded this by saying the idea of the duct tape was George Anthony’s and that the whole idea of concealment was his, too.

So what do you have to lose in credibility now if you admit that Casey knew the body was in the trunk—and that’s what made the smell, not the garbage that she threw in the trunk to cover up that smell?

Do not force the jury to endure sniffing death. They may blame you just for having to endure the smell.

The smell is clear, distinctive, and unbearable. At least one juror will vomit. Don’t force the jury to sniff it.