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Firm in Its Conviction There Was Too Much Doubt
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What's more, they said, Judge Rodney S. Melville had given the jury 98 pages of instructions, which required their own careful consideration.
It took two ballots for them to reach unanimous agreement.
The jurors' remarks highlighted one of the most troubling aspects of the case brought by Santa Barbara County prosecutor Thomas Sneddon: Jackson's accuser, and his family, had credibility problems. Lead defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. was able to introduce evidence supporting his claim that the boy and his family were "con artists" seeking to fleece an international star.
The mother of the accuser appeared to make no friends with the jury with her histrionic performance on the stand early in the trial.
"I disliked it intensely when she snapped her fingers at us," commented juror No. 5, the grandmother. "I thought, 'Don't snap your fingers at me, lady!' "
Juror No. 2, the foreman, said that incident, and the accuser's mother's attempt to create some kind of cultural bond with him -- both are of Hispanic descent -- were upsetting, too. "She looked at me when she snapped her fingers and said, 'You know how our culture is.' And I said, 'No, that's not how our culture is.' "
Sarah Murray, a jury expert at Trial Behavior Consulting of San Francisco, said the mother's testimony and actions may have been the single most damaging factor to the prosecution's case.
"She did not respond like a typical mother would when hearing that her son was molested," she said. "She went and consulted a lawyer -- not the police, a psychologist or a counselor. . . . I think that in any criminal case, it's a high standard to prove something beyond a reasonable doubt. In this case there were major credibility issues. The defense benefits when there are dueling credibility issues because the prosecution has to meet a high burden of proof."
Asked by a reporter about Jackson's earlier "victims" -- meaning two young boys whose families settled molestation allegations in the early 1990s -- one of the jurors was quick to append a modifier to that description.
"Alleged" victims, she interjected.
Staff writer Dan Zak contributed to this report.
