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No Death Case For Anthony

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The Associated Press

Published: December 7, 2008

ORLANDO - Prosecutors will not pursue the death penalty for a Central Florida woman charged with killing her 3-year-old daughter.

The Orange County State Attorney's Office said in a news release late Friday that "it is not in the best interest of the people of the state of Florida" to pursue the death penalty against 22-year-old Casey Anthony.

The statement by assistant prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick gave no further information on the decision. E-mails to a court spokesman were not immediately returned.

Anthony has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, child abuse, aggravated manslaughter and four counts of lying to investigators about the disappearance of her daughter. She faces life in prison if convicted.

Caylee Anthony was last seen in June but her mother did not report her missing until July. The child's grandmother first called authorities in July to say she hadn't seen Caylee for a month and her daughter's car smelled like death.

The toddler has not been found.

Last week the state turned over almost 800 pages of documents, which showed someone at the Anthony home had done Internet searches for terms like "neck breaking" and "household weapons."

In mid-March, someone used the Anthonys' home laptop to search Google and Wikipedia for peroxide, shovels, acetone, alcohol and chloroform. Traces of chloroform, were found in the trunk of Casey Anthony's car during forensic testing, the documents say.

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