In her first interview since investigators found the body of her 2-year-old daughter nearly a decade ago, Casey Anthony of Florida said she's not fazed by people who believe that her 2011 acquittal was unjust.
"I don't give a (expletive) about what anyone thinks about me. I never will," she told The Associated Press. "I'm OK with myself. I sleep pretty good at night."
After six weeks of testimony, a jury found Anthony not guilty in 2011 of killing her daughter, Caylee. They did, however, determine that she had lied to investigators.
"Even if I would've told them everything that I told to the psychologist, I hate to say this, but I firmly believe I would have been in the same place," Anthony told the AP.
"Because cops believe other cops. Cops tend to victimize the victims. I understand now ... I see why I was treated the way I was, even had I been completely truthful. … Cops lie to people every day. I'm just one of the unfortunate idiots who admitted they lied."
Caylee disappeared in 2008. Anthony claimed at her murder trial that the girl drowned on the day she disappeared.
Asked about the claim, Anthony told the AP that she couldn't say for sure what happened to her daughter.
"Everyone has their theories. I don't know," she told the wire service. "As I stand here today, I can't tell you one way or another. The last time I saw my daughter, I believed she was alive and was going to be OK, and that's what was told to me. "
She told the AP that she still fears the possibility of seeing photos of her daughter on tabloid magazines, but said that the walls of her bedroom in South Florida are covered in images of Caylee.
Caylee's death and Anthony's subsequent trial captured the public's attention with what Time magazine dubbed the "social-media trial of the century."
Speaking to the AP, Casey framed media coverage of the case as unfair and compared herself to Alice from "Alice in Wonderland" facing off against the public as the Red Queen.
"The queen is proclaiming: 'No, no, sentence first, verdict afterward,'" she said. "I sense and feel to this day that is a direct parallel to what I lived. My sentence was doled out long before there was a verdict. Sentence first, verdict afterward. People found me guilty long before I had my day in court."
It was not immediately clear why Anthony agreed to break her silence after so many years. According to the AP, a reporter met her at a rally in Florida and conducted five interviews with her over the course of a week. She later asked the wire service not to publish her interview.
Anthony lives in South Florida in the home of her employer and the lead investigator on her defense team, Patrick McKenna, the AP reported. She works as a researcher for the private detective.
Read more from The Associated Press.
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