Jackson Jurors End 2nd Day
The jury ended deliberations Tuesday in the child molestation case against pop star Michael Jackson.
With ten different charges to consider, the lack of a verdict is no surprise, reports CBS News Correspondent Steve Futterman. The jurors did send one note to the judge with a question, but the question was not revealed. In two days of deliberations, the eight women and four men have met for around 8 hours, after receiving case late Friday.
"I never thought we would get a quick verdict in less than, say, 20 hours of deliberations," says CBSNews.com Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. "I think if we don't have a verdict by the end of the week, the lawyers will begin to worry that there's a problem inside the room."
There were fewer Jackson supporters outside the courthouse early Tuesday morning, although more arrived as the jury did. Some fans, instead, waited outside the pop star's Neverland ranch, about 35 minutes away.
Fans Monday night told CBS News they are unhappy with the press covering the trial, and that some protesters Monday morning threw eggs at them and destroyed their posters of Jackson. There was no independent confirmation of that harassment.
Some simply have to return to work or face loss of their jobs.
Jackson supporters outside the courthouse on Monday held signs declaring "Only love. No crime. He's innocent. Leave him alone," "We shall overcome" and "Peter Pan rules." One woman was spotted with a sign showing Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jackson.
News organizations protested the judge's decision not to reveal the question the jury asked.
Media pool coordinator Peter Shaplen said Judge Rodney S. Melville met with lawyers in his chambers to discuss the question and how it would be answered, but Melville did not plan to reveal to the public any details.
The procedure was considered unusual. Normally, questions from the jury are a public record since they are submitted in writing by the jury foreperson.
An attorney for news organizations including CBS News filed motions seeking a transcript of Monday's closed proceedings, immediate access to any questions from the jury, and to any proceedings concerning those questions.
Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor in 2003, plying him with wine and conspiring to hold his family captive to get them to rebut a damaging TV documentary about the entertainer. If convicted on the molestation counts, Jackson could get several years in prison.
Jackson himself stayed away from the courthouse Monday, but his father Joe and his brother Randy did show up, as did the Rev. Jesse Jackson, no relation, but a close friend of the pop star. The civil rights leader said that Michael Jackson was emotionally strong despite a recurring back problem that sent him to an emergency room over the weekend.
Jackson expects to be acquitted "if the jury uses reasonable doubt," the reverend said.
Experts say the singer's fortunes are unclear, even if he's acquitted. No one can say for sure what impact the scandal will have on the pop star's career, notes CBS News Early Show Correspondent Hattie Kauffman. And while Jackson has huge dollars pouring in, he's also deeply in debt.