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"An attempt by Jay Leno to joke about Casey Anthony&amp;#039;s acquittal on murder charges drew virtual silence from his Tonight Show audience on Tuesday. Leno was in the midst of his nightly monologue when he joked about a Florida jury&amp;#039;s verdict to acquit Anthony of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse in the 2008 death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. The Tonight Show host quipped: &amp;quot;In a stunning decision, Casey Anthony found not guilty... This [verdict] means President Obama&amp;#039;s economic team is only the second most clueless group of people in America.&amp;quot; The joke met with almost no audible response from The Tonight Show&amp;#039;s studio audience, prompting a confused Leno to ask his bandleader Ricky Minor: &amp;quot;Is the mic off? I don&amp;#039;t think they heard the joke.&amp;quot; The audience reacted more favorably when Leno retold the joke, leading the comic to move ahead with his prepared monologue. Anthony escaped conviction on the three most serious charges levied against her by prosecutors, but was found guilty on four misdemeanor counts of lying to investigators. Her sentencing is scheduled for Thursday in Florida. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno airs weeknights at 11:34/10:34c on NBC. Former NBC executive Jeff Zucker recently accepted responsibility for deciding to give The Tonight Show back to Leno in 2010 and sack previous host Conan O&amp;#039;Brien. &amp;gt; Jimmy Fallon: &amp;#039;Conan, Leno treated badly by NBC&amp;#039; Watch Jay Leno joke about the Casey Anthony verdict below:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/news/a328566/jay-lenos-tonight-casey-anthony-joke-draws-silence/>