U.S. mother cleared of murder gets jail term for lying

ORLANDO, Fla (Reuters) - Casey Anthony, a Florida woman found not guilty of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, was sentenced on Thursday to four years in jail for lying to police after the girl disappeared.

Anthony, 25, was acquitted of murder on Tuesday, to the surprise of many legal analysts and TV pundits after a televised trial that had gripped many Americans.

She will be let out of jail on July 17, four days later than was previously announced after her release date was recalculated, court spokeswoman Karen Levey said.

Court officials had earlier said Anthony would be released from jail next Wednesday, having received credit for the 1,043 days she spent behind bars since her daughter Caylee's death in 2008.

She received the toughest possible sentence for lying to police during the investigation.

Each of the four misdemeanour counts she was convicted of carried a maximum of one year in jail. Judge Belvin Perry ordered the one-year terms to run consecutively and imposed a $1,000 fine for each count.

Prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty if jurors had found her guilty of first-degree murder.

The prosecution said Anthony smothered Caylee with duct tape on June 16, 2008, drove around for several days with the body in her car trunk and then dumped the remains in woods near the family home.

The defence argued that Caylee died in an accidental drowning in the family's backyard pool.

Millions of Americans followed the trial for more than six weeks and many were stunned, even angered, by the verdict reached by jurors on Tuesday.

One juror told ABC News that there was not enough evidence to convict Anthony but stopped short of saying she was innocent.

Jurors also found her not guilty of aggravated child abuse and of aggravated manslaughter of a child.

(Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Jerry Norton and Eric Beech)

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