Three months ago, nationally known death penalty attorney Andrea Lyon spoke in Orlando at a seminar on capital punishment put on by The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Lyon was back in town Thursday, this time garnering the spotlight as the newest addition to Casey Anthony's defense team.
Needing to find a death penalty attorney that meets the state's criteria, which includes having five years' trial experience and being lead attorney in at least nine state or federal jury trials of serious or complex cases, Anthony's defense team secured someone who easily fills the role. Lyon, a DePaul University law school professor, has handled more than 130 murder cases and more than 30 potential capital cases.
"She is a fighter," said Terence M. Lenamon, a death penalty attorney from Miami who briefly worked on the Anthony's case last fall. "She will do things the way she thinks they need to be done."
Anthony, 23, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie. The toddler's remains were found Dec. 11 in woods less than a mile from her family home in east Orange County.
Last month, the state announced its plans to seek the death penalty against the single mother.
Lyon is a clinical professor of law and also directs the law school's Center for Justice in Capital Cases, according to her Web site.
In 1990, she founded the Illinois Capital Resource Center and served as its director until joining the University of Michigan Law School faculty in 1995.
Lyon also has a book coming out next year: Angel of Death Row: My Life as a Death Penalty Defense Lawyer. It tells the story of the first woman in the nation to serve as lead attorney on a death penalty case. (Maybe that is the reason she took the case, she has a book to promote. Because it can't be for the money, Casey has none. I still have to ask, where is all the money for Casey's defense coming from if they aren't selling photos and stories. Her legal bills have to be approaching a million dollars , if they haven't already exceeded that amount.)
Outside the Orange County Courthouse Thursday, Lyon was quick to say she may be the lead attorney on paper but considers herself an equal member of an "excellent team," which includes Jose Baez from Kissimmee, Linda Kenney Baden from New York and Todd Macaluso from San Diego.
She said prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for "strategic reasons."
"You will hear about those strategic reasons in motions that I will be filing, challenging their right to even ask for the death penalty in these circumstances," Lyon said. "I believe Florida law simply doesn't allow asking for the death penalty in these circumstances."
She does not expect a trial to start in October, as scheduled. More time will be needed to prepare the case, she said.
News of Lyon's addition overshadowed Thursday's hearing, which focused on phone records and whether a video of Anthony taken in jail the day she heard about child's remains discovered can be released to the public.
The defense team doesn't want it out. The county and state don't object to sealing the video.
Orange Circuit Court Judge Stan Strickland said he wanted to provide the media an opportunity to argue why it should be public record. No hearing date has been set yet.
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