Local Criminal Defense Attorney Calls Casey Anthony Defense Team 'Brilliant'

After deliberating for less than 11 hours, a Florida jury found Casey Anthony not guilty of first-degree murder in the 2008 death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

Anthony was found guilty of the less serious charges of providing false information to law enforcement officers.

Anthony cried from her seat as the verdict was read.

Caylee was last seen in June of 2008; her mom was charged with her murder in October of that year and her body was found in a wooded area near their Florida home in December.

In a live blog from the trial, the Huffington Post reported: "The case against Anthony was mostly circumstantial, but as it unfolded she was portrayed in the trial as a promiscuous, self-centered woman who became a cold-blooded killer. The motive, prosecutors alleged, was to allow her to live a carefree life without her daughter."

Anthony's defense attorney, Cheney Mason, and other members of her defense team held a news conference where Mason accused the media of “indulging in media assassination for three years” and deplored lawyers and talking heads who talked about the case.

Royal Oak criminal defense attorney Michael Steinberg agreed with Mason. Steinberg called Anthony’s defense team “excellent” and brilliant.”

Steinberg teaches trial skills to trial lawyers, and said their “role is to create reasons to doubt” and to instruct jurors that “not guilty means not proven.”  In the Anthony case he said he believes there was a lack of evidence.

“People said she looked horribly guilty. I didn’t think so,” he said. “Was she bad? Yeah, she was bad and the jury found her guilty of misinforming law enforcement. They did their job.”

Steinberg said he contacted a Florida attorney who said Anthony could face one to five years at the maximum for the misdemeanor charges.