and he was driven from his art and his country by a mob
of ignorant fools called Americans.
In the entire state of California in 2002 (the last year for which statistics are available), there were 236,471 felony charge dispositions and just 766 acquittals–about three-tenths of 1% of all cases, according to the California attorney general’s office. The overall conviction rate is about 83%.
In Santa Barbara County, where Michael Jackson was prosecuted, the district attorney wins even more consistently, about 87% of the time. In 2002, there were just three acquittals out of 2,407 felony cases.
Assuming that between 5% and 10% of the felony cases go to trial (with the rest resolved by plea bargain), the overall statewide post-trial acquittal rate is between 3% and 6%. In Santa Barbara County, the rate is between 1.3% and 2.6%.
Seventy (70!) deputies from the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department raided Michael Jackson’s estate in November 2003.
View the video here: Raid on Neverland
The trial cost the Santa Barbara County taxpayers about $2.7 million—the costliest criminal trial in Santa Barbara history.
After all this, a jury acquitted Michael of all charges.
“Michael Jackson is the ultimate traffic accident,” said Jeff Zucker, the president of NBC Entertainment. “People can’t take their eyes off him.”
Network executives—who apparently consider themselves the sole arbiter of such things—said the public was now less interested in Jackson’s talent than in his increasingly eccentric behavior. But ask yourself, which sells more televised sponsored products and newspapers: Michael Jackson’s next musical output—so great in size, force and extent as to elicit awe—or media-driven stories of his so called eccentricities?
A district attorney, hell bent on conviction regardless of the facts, and a ratings-crazed media was a recipe for disaster for Michael Jackson.
True copy of “Notice of Motion and Motion to Set Aside the Indictment (Penal Code § 995); Memorandum of Points and Authorities” filed in the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara
What, Exactly, is Martin Bashir’s Game?—by Ian Herbert
