Lawyer: Casey Anthony Didn't Get Her Daughter Had Died Until Trial

"I'm still not even certain as I stand here today about what happened," Casey Anthony told the AP earlier this year of the death of her daughter, Caylee, in 2008. Her former defense attorney has a theory as to why that might be. In an interview with LawNewz, Cheney Mason suggests Anthony, who was famously acquitted of murder, suppressed memories associated with her daughter's death and only truly comprehended the event during her trial. "She didn't go crazy by any means—but [she experienced a] blackout—completely a blackout—of what went on and what happened," Mason says. "She went into what I call 'Casey World.' She shut it out."

Anthony is sure she didn't kill Caylee, whom she was "close to, bonded to, and loved," but "she didn't know what she was doing or what she was saying," Mason added, per In Touch, describing the "blackout" as a unique form of grieving. He believes it was only when a grief counselor gave testimony in court that Anthony became conscious of Caylee's death. "She started shaking, and shivering, and she cried," Mason said. "All the time I've known her, and all the times I've seen her, I had never seen this. It was clear to me—my personal opinion—that it was the first time she consciously was actually aware that her daughter had died." (Anthony reportedly thinks her life is pointless.)