The standard is, and should be, "beyond a reasonable doubt."

The prosecution proved, conclusively, that she had lied to law enforcement during the investigation and that she was a sub-standard mother, chronic lier, and quite possibly a bit of a slut.

The evidence from the child's corpse makes it pretty clear that a homicide (and probably a murder) occurred and that there was certainly an effort by some person(s) to hide the evidence of that homicide. However, the state of the remains made it impossible to conclusively demonstrate the exact cause of death or who had attempted to hide the evidence. In short, there was room for reasonable doubt.

Regarding the child abuse counts, the jury apparently made a judgement that there was no pattern to indicate abuse (and there truly were no signs of her hitting the child or other "abusive" behaviors prior to her disappearance) and that the same lack of linkage noted above was also a lack of linkage to this horrific instance of abuse.


Note for political junkies: The verdict in this case is highly instructive as to why the Guantanemo detainees are a) still in Gitmo, and b) not in a civilian court.