tonight on "nightline," not guilty. casey anthony is found not guilty of murder in the death of her young daughter caylee. >> we the jury find the defendant not guilty. >> after three years, the verdict she wanted, while outside court, public anger brews. we're live tonight from orlando, florida. bombshell verdict. it transfixed the nation. the story of the little girl, the young mother and one family's life on trial. >> have you ever sexually molested your daughter? >> no, sir. >> it all ended today in this stunning decision. and, unanswered questions. how didi the evidence stack up?

how did the jury decide? casey anthony, not guilty. inside the bombshell verdict. a special one-hour edition of "nightline" starts right now. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, and terry moran in orlando, florida,his is "nightline," july 5th, 2011. >> good evening, i'm terry moran, live here tonight in well, not guilty. that is what the jury decided today in casey anthony's murder trial. stunning verdict. and while the young florida woman was convicted on minor charges in the death of her 2-year-old daughter caylee, really, this was just a total victory for her. it means she's escaped a potential death sentence and might be free in days. the reverberations are only begins to be felt. this evening, a member of the prosecution team announced he would retire at the end of the week, after a 30-year career. and an attttney for the parents,

george and cindy anthony, meanwhile, he tells abc news tonight thth the family has received death threats in the wake of this verdict. as if they haven't suffered enough. here's abc's ashleigh banfield. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. have you reached a verdict? >> reporter: it was a swift and shocking end to a courtroom drama that's transfixed the drama. >> we the jury find the defendant not guilty. >> reporter: 25-year-old casey anthony found not guilty on every major count relating to the death of her 2-year-old daughter caylee. the 12 jurors, all of whom declined to speak following the verdict, deliberated for just ten hours and 40 minutes, most of that over the fourth of july holiday. anthony did not get off scott free. the jury did find her guilty on four counts of lying to police. but they're just misdemeanors. by all accounts, there is no

question this verdict is a victory for casey anthony's defense team. >> what my driving force has been for the last three years has been always to make sure that there has been justice for caylee and casey. >> reporter: from the beginning, both sides tried to k kp the focus on the little girl whose doe-eyed image haunted this trial. she's seen here in these videos licensed by abc news. >> it has always been about seeking justice for caylee and speaking on her behalf. >> reporter: the other, familiar faces in this courtroom, casey's parents, cindy and george anthony. sy toic stoic as the verdict was read. they left the courtroom before the judge had finished. what can only be described as an angry circus outsisi the courthouse was matched by the intention emotioning raging ininde. but those emotions have been coming to a head for weeks now,

as a family drama unraveled on the stand. cindy anthony, weeping as she listened to her 911 call. the one in which she reported her own daughter to the police. >> there's something wrong. i found my daughter's car today. and it smells like there's been a dead body in the damn car. >> reporter: and there was casey's act cue case, that her father and brother molested her as a child. an accusation george denies for him and his son. >> it all began when casey was 8 years old. >> reporter: it was by this claim she explained her bizarre by have your after her daughter died. partying until all hours. entering a hot body contest. even get a tattoo that read bella vita, the beaututul life. her attorney would claim that george helped casey hide the

little girl's body after she accidentally drowned. the tension only mounted as the evidence wrapped up over the weekend. even the closing arguments, delivered over the holiday weekend, were unusually contentious, with lawyers from both sides yelling "objection." >> the boned showed evidence -- >> objection. >> overruled at this point. >> reporter: and the jujue, directing that the incest allegation be left out of closing arguments, based on a lack of evidence. >> there's no facts in evidence or reasonable infer frens that either mr. george anthony or mr. lee anthony molested or attempted to molest miss anthony. >> reporter: that left casey's defense team arguing that caylee's death was just a terrible accident that was mishandled by the family. >> if you look at all of the

evidence here, it only adds up to one thing. and that is, she died by an accident. this was an accident that snowballed out of control. >> reporter: but the prosecution tried to paint a picture of a young woman who wanted freedom from the responsibility of raising her daughter. >> when you use your common sense, you can listen and hear that there's nothing that's wrong with casey anthony that can't be explained using two words. pathological liar. >> reporter: yet, the physical evidence remained a problem for the prosecution. that's because caylee was missing for so long. it was six months before her body was found. and it had simply decomposed too much. >> i never, ever criticize a jury. theirs is the task of decides what to believe. >> reporter: and so the mystery remains. was caylee anthony murdered?

and if not, how did she die? >> the jurors probably focused on cause of death. which is that the prosecution couldn't demonstration based on physical evidence that the cause of death was a micide, meaning that she definitely died at someone else's hands, a as oppod to the possibility of an accident. and my guess is that these jurors felt that there was reasonable doubt. >> reporter: casey anthony will be back in court on thursday for sentencing. she could get up to another year in jail in addition to the time she's already served. but then she'll likely be free, since an acquittal on murder can never be appealed. today, george and cindy anthony, along with their son lee, released a statement through their lawyers, asking for privacy. it reads in part, "while the family may never know what has happened to caylee marine anthoanmarie anthony, they know have close

sure. they will now begin the long process of rebuilding their lives." >> she can never have the life back that she once had. her child is dead. and her parents have been injured. there is no winner in this. there's only tragedy and now there's -- i mean, she has been so reviled that people just aren't going to be able to change that view of her. she'll be back out. but she's going to live in a prison the rest of her life. >> thanks to ashleigh banfield for the story of today's stunning verdict. well, just ahead, hln host nancy grace has been one of the most outspoken analysts on the casey anthony trial. we're going to get her reaction to this verdict. >> after that not guilty verdict? somewhere out there, the devil is dancing tonight.

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today's verdict came as a shock to so many millions of people around the country, they felt passionately about this case. many believed justice has not been done. and one of the leading voices on this case from the beginning joins us now. nancy grace of hln. former colleague of mine at court tv. nancy, you have covered this case from the beginning. i just want to ask you, point blank, when you heard this verdict, what was your reaction? >> well, i've got to tell you, terry, i felt sick. and i still feel sick. because i believe -- i know, i don't believe it, i know it is a miscarriage of justice.

we already have one of the prosecutors, ashton, retiring. we have the prosecution team so just sick at heart they couldn't even speak after the verdict. i love our system, terry. i believe in our system. when our system fails, as a victim's rights advocate and a crime victim myself, i take it very personally. >> have you got any sense of what went down in that juryroom? >> well, i do know this. i watched the jurors. they very rarely took notes. and i had to take reams of notes to keep up with the scientific evidence as it came in. they took notes for neither side, at all. in fact, one juror was observed twirling her pen around in front of her, around and around and around. you know, that's a problem, okay? it seemed to me that they were overwhelmed by the evidence, and they did not understand the scientific evidence. i think it was very, very confusing evidence.

and i also think, when you get a jury, where you have one person arrested for dui, one person arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia, you have people with bad experience with police. and they are not going to render a verdict for the state. just that simple. >> nancy, i want to ask you one final question. that is, you've spoken really for the feelings of so many people around the country. but you've been criticized. and let me just ask you, is it ethical for a lawyer like yourself to come on television and say, this defendant is guilty, call her tot mom, demean her. do you think that's the right thing for a lawyer to do? >> let me tell you, terry. i don't find the mon kerr tot mom to be demeaning. that's your interpretation of it. why you think that's demeaning, the mother of a tot. i'm a mother of two tots. it's not intended to demean

anybody. i don't believe that anything that i have said has been an inaccurate rendition of the facts. in fact, i believe that what i have portrayed and what my guests and experts have portrayed have been very accurate. as was portrayed in the courtroom. so, i -- i don't see what's unethical, as you were saying, about that. many of the facts that i have portrayed on my show on hln, you have also portrayed by having me and others on as guests. now, is that ethical, terry? you know, when you're in the court of law, you are held to a different standard. we are not in a court of law, all right? we are not shrouded from the evidence. we hear more evidence than the jury heard. and it absolutely is ethical to discuss cases of the day. as a matter of fact, you, of all people, terry moran, having been -- cut your teeth at court tv, know that our founding

fathers wanted courtrooms so big that the entire community could hear the trial. now, is it wrong for us as citizens to look at your jury system, to look at cases, to discuss them to be passionate, to care? the day that it is unethical to care about the murder of a 2-year-old little girl who ends up duct taped and thrown into a swamp is the day that i, too, will retire and rue the justice system. >> nancy grace, passionate, as always. thank you for being with us. and up next, the scene outside the courthouse here was one of shock. people angry, really, at this verdict. we'll tell you about that next. depression is a serious medical condition. i feel like i have to wiwi myself up to deal with the sadness, the loss of interest, the lack of energy. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor about pristiq®,

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people felt strongly enough about the charges against casey anthony that many of them came here to orlando today to fill the courtroom and stand outside the courthouse. well, then, the verdict came down. and the gathering outside the court turned into a protest, complete with angry chants. in this special hour-long edition of "nightline," we now turn to abc's yunji de nies with the public reaction to this verdict. >> reporter: for weeks now, they've come from around the world to be here for casey anthony's moment of truth. ryan lining up day and night. fights even broke out over those 50 coveted seats. and when the verdict finally came down, outside the orlando courthouse, each was sure they

knew what it would be. >> guilty. >> guilty. >> justice would be her getting the death penalty. >> we're hoping for a guilty verdict. >> i really hope they find her guilty. >> reporter: together, they huddle around an iphone, and then, it came. >> not guilty. >> they were stunned. >> like we got punched in the stomach. >> this is crazy. justice -- we wanted justice for caylee and we're not getting justice for caylee. >> there were tears. >> caylee has been forgotten, just like that. what happened here? what happened? >> i've got eight children, man. i can't even imagine, if one of them was missing for an hour, i'd be in a panic. >> reporter: and outrage. >> justice for caylee! justice for caylee! >> you need to do something with that. >> reporter: people pushed

toward the courthouse door, hoping to get a glimpse of the anthony family, but deputies rushed them out through another exit, keeping them away from this crowd. as the group grew restless in the hot sun, police eventually forced everyone out. >> we need you to move off the steps, please. you may go to the protest areas if you'd like. >> repororr: in that crowd, a lone voice of dissent. >> if you take the emotion out of this case, all the emotion out of it and just go by the facts and the evidence, there was no evidence to convict her. >> reporter: you know, you are the only person i have spoken to out here that feels this way. >> i b bieve in the justice system. >> reporter: eight miles away, people began descending near the place where little caylee's remains were found. there was an eerie silence in that swamp, nothing like the angry mobs downtown. >> really peaceful. i think people have done a good job of keeping her memory alive in there. >> because i'm a mother of three

kids, three daughters. and i don't know -- it's inconceivable to see what this child went through, dying so young. >> reporter: caylee would have been almost six years old today. so many offering prayers here, little girls not much older. >> she didn't deserve any of this, and i felt very bad. and i can see in her eyes that she loved her mommy a lot. >> i wanted to say good-bye to her and i hope that she will rest in peace and i hope god can take care of her, too. >> reporter: back at the courthouse, the shock of the verdict was palpable, even hours later. >> this proves it right here that the system is screwed up. >> someone could kill their child and get away with murder. >> she's going to possibly get out thursday and be among us? >> right. >> she's going to be harassed until the day she dies because she got found not guilty and everybody knows she did do it. >> she needs to be on watch or someg.