Jackson Jury Wasn't Dazzled by Celebrity

Ann Althouse, substituting this week for Glenn Reynolds at GlennReynolds.com, reports that Court TV and CNN Headline judicial talking head, Nancy Grace, dismissed Michael Jackson's acquittal of ten charges for child molestation amounted to "not guilty by reason of celebrity."

This was not only intellectually lazy, but condescending toward the jurors. They, apparently unlike Grace, who should know better, understood their job: To presume innocence for these specific charges unless guilt was proven beyond all doubt.

Their statements after the trial indicate that they took that responsibility very seriously and that, though they may suspect Jackson to be a pedophile, they weren't charged with judging a suspected pattern of behavior. Nor were they asked to judge whether his sleeping with boys was wrong, weird, or ill-advised. They were to pass judgment on ten charges only, charges that were founded largely on the testimony of witnesses they did not find credible.

While driving around yesterday, I had the misfortune of listening to California-based sports talk show host Jim Rome for a few moments. (What can I say? I was desperate to listen to something on the radio.) He lamented that the jury couldn't have at least found Jackson guilty of something. "How about just for being Michael Jackson?" he asked.

Thank God we live in a country where idiotic logic--reflecting a judicial philosophy that might be more at home in the late Soviet Union or in Saddam's Iraq--doesn't prevail.

Jackson is weird.

He's probably a pedophile.

Anyone who would leave their kids with him is nuts.

I doubt that any jury of ordinary Americans would disagree with these three sentiments, including the one in Santa Maria that rendered its verdicts this week.

My guess also is that any randomly selected group of us, aware of Jackon's history and the strange statements he has made in defense of his lifestyle, would be predisposed to throw him into prison and maybe, to be resentful of his wealth and celebrity. In this case, Jackson was probably, in fact, disadvantaged by his weird celebrity.

But it's a tribute to these jurors that they didn't employ Nancy Grace, Jim Rome-justice. They were instead, Americans. And good ones at that!