Casey Anthony Gets Two Out Of Four Convictions Dismissed

Casey Anthony had half of the convictions against her thrown out in appeals court Friday.

Two of the four convictions Anthony was facing for lying to authorities were dismissed by a panel of judges because they constituted double jeopardy, according to RadarOnline. Anthony’s lawyers had appeared on her behalf in the Fifth District Court of Appeals on January 9 to request that all four convictions be thrown out.

The state of Florida, however, argued that double jeopardy — meaning Anthony can’t be convicted twice for the same crime — wasn’t a valid reason for dismissal. The state said each false statement Anthony gave to authorities was a separate offense.

“We cannot conclude that the Legislature intended to authorize separate punishment for each false statement made during a single interview,” the judges said. “Where there is a sufficient temporal break between two alleged criminal acts so as to have allowed a defendant time to pause, reflect and form a new criminal intent, a separate criminal episode will have occurred.”

With one legal battle down, Anthony still has a civil lawsuit to deal with. She is being sued for defamation by Zenaida Gonzalez, who said that Anthony told police that a nanny with a similar sounding name kidnapped her daughter, Caylee. Anthony planned to plead the fifth and claimed that she couldn’t get a fair trial in Orlando. Gonzalez wasn’t worried that Anthony’s lawyers asked for a change of venue and said she would respect the judge’s ruling.

Anthony was also being sued for $3 billion by a woman named Naomi Riches who claimed that Anthony was an “Illuminati actress.” A judge dismissed Riches’ allegations because they did not meet the “plausibility standard.”