Casey Anthony released from jail after child murder acquittal

MIAMI — Casey Anthony, a young woman who spent nearly three years in jail on suspicion of killing her toddler daughter, was released early Sunday after a jury found her not guily of murder, authorities said.

Anthony had been in jail since October 2008.

She was acquitted of murdering her two-year-old daughter Caylee in 2008 by a seven-woman, five-man jury earlier this month in a widely publicized trial that became a media circus centered on the Orange County, Florida courthouse.

The jury also found her not guilty of child abuse and aggravated manslaughter, but guilty on four counts of lying.

But she was found guilty of four counts of providing false information to law enforcement, which are misdemeanor charges.

Had Anthony been convicted of first-degree murder, she could have faced the death penalty.

Prosecution lawyers were unable to convince the jury of their claims that Anthony had suffocated her daughter with duct tape, dumped the body in her car for a few days, and then hid it. The skeletal remains of the little girl's body were found just under six months later.

The defense team maintained the toddler drowned accidentally and that Anthony and her father George covered up the death.