It is interesting that in the Casey Anthony case the jury found her not guilty. She’s been given a “Get out of jail free” card. Or, has she? In reality, she hasn’t gotten out of punishment at all.

In prison she would have been locked up and possibly hurt by other inmates because of the crime of which she was accused. That would have been similar to sending a kid to sit in the corner at the front of the class.

On the outside, she will be ostracized and possibly assaulted by a very angry bystander.

She will be haunted for the rest of her life by this trial which is an interesting punishment in and of itself.

She will be forced to deal with the whispers of the people around her, being excluded from pretty much everything, save by those who thought she was innocent — if such a person exists.

According to a study by Professor Kipling Williams at Purdue University, ostracism has intensely negative effects on those who are shunned.

Being ostracized will cause self worth to drop, which will cause depression and anger.

So even if Anthony did escape a prison sentence, she may suffer something far worse.

The punishment will be possible depression, self-loathing, and maybe exclusion. Businesses have the right to refuse service, after all.

She simply traded a life sentence behind bars — or a possible death sentence as that’s what the prosecution sought — for a life of pain and misery, once abolished as cruel and unusual punishment, even if said punishment is mental only.

As stated earlier, this is an interesting result to an interesting case.

Rather than receiving judgement from the legal system, she will then instead face judgement from the rest of the world.