Why Jackson Went Free

Attorney Andrew Cohen analyzes legal issues for CBS News and CBSNews.com.

Michael Jackson today won the fight of his life when a jury of his neighbors -- but certainly not his peers -- gave him the benefit of the doubt and acquitted him of molestation and conspiracy charges. It's a verdict that tells the world, at least those of you who care, that it is not a crime in America to be just about the biggest freak on the planet.

The reasons for Jackson's acquittal are not a mystery. The so-called King of Pop is free now because his Santa Barbara County jury refused to believe the story offered by his accuser, a young man who seemed on the witness stand to be more like a street punk than a victim.

Jackson is free because there was no physical evidence against him and very little compelling eyewitnesses to his alleged crimes. He is free because his lawyers were much, much better than prosecutors. And he is free because he faced one of the weakest criminal cases I have ever seen.

He is free because ordinary citizens, people the complete opposite of him in uncountable ways, weren't willing to cut prosecutors a break on their duty to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson owes his life to this jury; he owes the rest of his days on this planet to their willingness to refuse to take the easy way out and send him packing out of his palatial Neverland for a dozen years or so. This verdict is a testament to their ability to separate Jackson's lifestyle from the allegations against him in this case; to judge the man and the moment by different standards.

It's a verdict that says to the world that under our justice system a tie goes to the defense; that allegations of monstrous evil aren't enough when the person making them leaves genuine doubt about the sincerity of his story. I'm sure that these jurors feel bad for the young man and his family who leveled charges at Jackson. And I'm also sure that the panel feels little love toward Jackson, who was, at best, a negligent and irresponsible host. But this verdict reaffirms the rule that this type of sympathy or empathy for the accuser, and this type of antipathy for the accused, is simply not enough to convict someone of a felony and doom them to prison (and, for Jackson, probably death).

Jackson is free because Santa Barbara County District Attorney Thomas Sneddon backed the wrong stable of horses. Putting his personal reputation on the line in this case, the old-school prosecutor endorsed the testimony of a family that he might have instead sought to indict. Sneddon knew or should have known long before trial that the accuser and his mother had terrible reliability and credibility problems; he knew or should have known that they would come off as shady to jurors; and he knew or should have known that Jackson's lead attorney, Thomas Mesereau, would skewer them on the witness stand. Why he picked this family, above all the other families whom he believes also were molested by Jackson, is beyond me. If Sneddon just took his last best shot at Jackson it was a feeble volley indeed.

And yet Sneddon went ahead with the latest trial of the century anyway, figuring I suppose that a Santa Barbara County jury, in its old-fashioned splendor, would see the case as an opportunity to run Jackson out of town. Sneddon must have presumed that jurors would give his witnesses and his theory the benefit of the doubt. But they surprised him, this group, and by the middle of the trial it was clear that they were scoffing at the case against Jackson. One of the many sad sights in this trial was the sight of Sneddon, the hometown boy, pouting and slouching at counsel table when things didn't go his way. I have seen lawyers get angry when they lose a motion or an argument over an objection. I have never before seen them act like a toddler.

It was a bush league performance at the major league level. Somewhere, O.J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark is sighing in relief. Now Sneddon joins her in the pantheon of lawyers who have failed miserably when the spotlight shone the brightest. Only in many ways Sneddon has more to answer for than Clark. Unlike Clark, Sneddon could have waited to bring his case against Jackson or chosen not to bring it at all. Over and over again at trial, prosecution witnesses said things that seemed to surprise Sneddon; over and over again witnesses told jurors that law enforcement officials had not interviewed them before trial.

Even a huge mid-trial ruling by Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville, which allowed prosecutors to parade before jurors other Jackson accusers, could not make up for the obvious deficiencies in the case against Jackson. The judge had said early at trial that he would not save a weak case by allowing these prior "bad acts" witnesses to testify. And then he did precisely that. This case would have been over long ago, in favor of Jackson, if prosecutors had not been able to pour these other witnesses into the breach. If Jackson had been convicted, this ruling surely would have formed the basis of his appeal. But now Jackson doesn't have to worry about all that.

What he still does have to worry about, however, is a civil lawsuit brought by this same family asking for money from the star. If and when this lawsuit comes about, Jackson will be required to testify, under oath, in private in a deposition, and then again in public in a courtroom should the case get that far (don't bet on it). So we have not seen the last of this fight, I suspect, and a lot of what the principals say now in the aftermath of this verdict will be said with a view toward that future litigation. Don't bet your own private Neverland, in other words, that Jackson will be doing any more prime-time interviews.

Unfortunately for Jackson, it's not clear whether he'll be able to use Mesereau in that civil case. Without the silver-haired, silver-tongued counsel, Jackson today might be in prison garb despite the lack of a good case against him. The defense lawyer was masterful. He successfully convinced jurors that Jackson was the prey and not the predator in this story; sold them on the idea that a man who accused of using his power and fame to lure the innocent into sex was instead the innocent being lured into financial catastrophe. Mesereau right now is the Paris Hilton of lawyers. Only his hair is better.

So it's finally over, this grand, gross spectacle of Ick. A man who acts like a kid came up against a kid who acts like a man. Prosecutors backed the kid and the jury backed the man. And I'm fairly sure that no one involved is ever going to be the same again.