juror number 12

The miserable postscript for a Casey Anthony jurorBy Kerry Sanders, NBC News
Her name remains a secret. She’s known simply as juror number 12. And while she has a certificate from Florida’s 9th Circuit, embossed with calligraphy thanking her for her duty as a member of the Casey Anthony jury, her life since being released from that duty has been one of cat and mouse.

A red-haired woman in her 60s who moved to Florida from Michigan, she told the court she worked at a Publix Grocery when she was questioned as a potential juror.

Now, she’s in hiding.

Juror number 12 left Florida. Her husband, fighting back tears, tells NBC News he’s not sure when she’ll return to her home in Florida.

Why? He says she fears half of her co-workers want her head on a platter.

The other may understand what she did, but she didn’t want to face them.

She was due to retire in the fall, but Juror number 12, after being released from sequestration, chose to call her boss to announce she couldn’t come to work. She didn’t feel safe.

She retired over the phone.

The husband, who sat with two NBC News producers, glanced repeatedly at his blood pressure monitor on the coffee table and the Bible next to it.

This God-fearing family describes the after-effects of the Anthony verdict as traumatic.

First, for 44-days, he was separated from his wife.

And she was separated from the quiet life they once shared. And now he remains concerned about her health.

And now, they both face vitriol from those who are unwilling to accept a jury of peers reached a fair verdict based on the evidence presented.

In a back room, the husband has a manila envelope filled with letters.

Each is a request from a different news organization asking Juror number 12 for an interview.

Her husband had packed his own bag and says he’s ready to leave if and when the court releases his wife’s name. For now, the court record of all the jurors’ names remains sealed.

Her husband says, before she left the state to escape, she told him “I’d rather go to jail that sit on a jury like this again.”