Casey Anthony Trial Movie to Air Jan. 19 on Lifetime, Starring Rob Lowe
The Casey Anthony movie, starring Rob Lowe as the Florida prosecutor, will premiere January 19 at 8p.m. on Lifetime cable network.
"Prosecuting Casey Anthony" will tell the story from the viewpoint of prosecutor Jeff Ashton, who tried to get Anthony convicted of murder in the death of her two-year-old daughter Caylee Anthony.
The movie, which will be directed by Peter Werner (Medium, Law & Order), is based on the Jeff Ashton's book, "Imperfect Justice." In his behind-the-scenes story of the investigation, Ashton calls Casey's story that Caylee accidently drowned in the family's swimming pool a "nuclear" lie.
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In addition to Lowe, the cast includes several other well-known actors including Oscar Nuñez ("The Office") who plays Casey Anthony's defense attorney Jose Baez and Kevin Dunn ("Transformers") who plays her father George Anthony.
Elizabeth Mitchell, of "Lost," plays prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick. The character of Casey Anthony, played by Virginia Welch, will be a minor role.
The announcement of the Casey Anthony movie comes just days after the Florida Sheriff's office confirmed that they overlooked a Google search for "fool-proof" suffocation performed on Anthony's computer. Investigators had checked the Internet Explorer browser but had failed to check searches in the Mozilla Firefox browser.
Speaking with WKMG news, Burdick said, "It's a shame we didn't have it," adding that the evidence "would have put the accidental death claim in serious question."
During the highly publicized trial, prosecutors had argued that Anthony had poisoned Caylee with chloroform and suffocated her by placing duct tape over her mouth and nose.
Caylee's body was discovered near the Anthony family home six months after she was disappeared in July 2008. Anthony never reported her daughter missing and it was her mom, Caylee's grandmother, who first called police. When police asked Anthony about her daughter's whereabouts, Anthony said she suspected the nanny of kidnapping Caylee.
Her defense attorney Baez argued during the trial that Anthony was scared to report her daughter's accidental drowning and instead buried the body with the help of her father.
In July 2011, a jury found Anthony not guilty of first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter of a child.
