Jackson Trial Jury Gets Ready

Jurors in the child molestation case against Michael Jackson will get a day off Tuesday as attorneys argue over what instructions the jury should receive before beginning deliberations.

CBS News Correspondent Steve Futterman, who has been covering the trial in Santa Maria, notes that the instructions are potentially very important as they will tell jurors what evidence they can consider and detail what they must conclude in order to find Jackson guilty.

Both sides rested their cases Friday after prosecutors played jurors a tape of the first law enforcement interview with the singer's accuser. Defense attorneys had said they might call the boy, his mother, and others back to the stand to question them about the tape, but made the surprise decision to rest instead.

Closing arguments in the case could begin as early as Wednesday, and jurors could get the case before the week is out.

Jackson's attorneys were expected to ask Judge Rodney S. Melville for standard jury instructions, saying the panel may reject the entire testimony of a witness they think has lied about a key point.

The defense has tried since the beginning of the case to portray the boy and his family as dishonest gold-diggers.

Because jurors will not be present for the arguments Tuesday, they will have four days to think about the videotape - a final, dramatic finish for the prosecution as they try to get the panel to sympathize with the boy.

"The tape was raw, powerful, and emotional," says . "The tape surely fills out and softens the image of Jackson's accuser that jurors will take with them into the jury room later this week. And in that sense, its presentation to the jury near the end of the case is a great move for prosecutors who had seemed until this moment at trial to be always and obviously one step behind their defense counterparts."

In the videotape, Jackson's accuser slumped in his chair as he described the alleged molestation in a low, halting voice. He also asked investigators not to tell his mother what he had told them.

Prosecutors are expected to argue that the request undercuts the defense's claim that the mother prompted her son to lie as part of a scheme to get Jackson's money.

Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting the then-13-year-old boy in February or March 2003, giving him wine and conspiring to hold his family captive to get them to help him respond to a documentary in which Jackson said he let children into his bed but it was non-sexual.