Casey Anthony in court during jury selection.
Clearwater, Florida - It is the goal attorneys talked about for nearly two weeks now: getting 12 jurors in the case of Casey Anthony, the 25-year-old mother accused of murdering her 2-year-old little girl, Caylee, in the summer of 2008.
Attorneys arrived at 12 jurors just before 10 a.m. Thursday. But, those potential jurors are not being sworn in just yet as originally planned. The judge is continuing with the case for now.
The 12th juror is a white man, who is 57 years old with no children who works as a Verizon retention specialist.
Attorney back in court after illness
Lead defense counsel Jose Baez showed up back to court seemingly in good health, after mysteriously being absent from proceedings Wednesday afternoon. He had a smoothie in hand, as he stepped out of court during a recess.
Rumors ran wild on Wednesday within media and legal circles that with Baez's absence, a plea bargain must be in the works or Baez must be getting fired.
Neither was true.
Baez simply got sick during proceedings on Wednesday. He issued a statement warning the media to "stop the speculation." He said, "This is a private matter."
Nancy Grace in courtroom
Meanwhole, a notable network anchor showed up for court proceedings today during jury selection.
Nancy Grace from Headline News was in court Thursday. She coined the now infamous term, "tot mom," in reference to Casey Anthony and is known for her constant coverage of the Anthony murder case.
At the start of the case in the summer of 2008, she headlined her show with Casey's story for nearly eight months straight.
Baez granted several interviews to her in the beginning, but then refused any more after what he called relentless and unfair coverage.
Jury questioning continues
As Thursday's proceedings began, there were 12 people left in the jury pool to question.
The first woman to take the stand was excused right after talking about her feelings that Casey Anthony is guilty. The woman admitted that she could not put that aside in her decision-making process.
"As a former babysitter myself, I thought that is not what a normal parent does," the woman said, talking about Anthony's accusations about Zenaida Gonzalez.
Here's how the back strikes break down now for the remainder of jury selection: this leaves one strike left for defense, and three for the prosecution.
Judge Belvin Perry then told attorneys that he needed to formulate a decision on additional Pinellas County potential jurors who are here for other cases by noon.
He talked about possibly pulling them for questioning on hardships.
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