Judge instructs jury as end of Jackson case nears

SANTA MARIA, California  - The judge in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial told jurors today how to weigh the law and evidence - including a crucial videotaped interview with his young accuser - one day before closing arguments were set to begin in the case.

The final recitation of the charges the laws governing how the jury should treat some of the trial's highly charged evidence - including the July, 2003 interview - cleared the way for jurors to begin deliberating as early as Friday.

Jackson sat impassively as Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville spent 90 minutes reading detailed written instructions to the jury that will decide Jackson's fate. His parents and two brothers sat in the front two rows of the courtroom gallery.

"I think he is nervous. It's very difficult to sit there and hear all those charges. Like you and I, he is human. Of course he was upset by that," Jackson spokeswoman Raymone Bain told reporters after court.

She added, "He has strong faith in God and strong faith in the judicial system, but he realizes his fate lies in the hands of 12 people."

More than 2,000 media credentials have been issued for the Jackson trial and the courtroom was packed as Melville instructed jurors and then dismissed them for the day.

The judge gave prosecutors four hours for closing arguments to clinch their portrayal of Jackson as a serial pedophile who befriended young boys and lured them to his Neverland estate in order to prey on them.

VIDEOTAPED INTERVIEW CONSIDERED KEY

Jackson's lawyers will then have four hours to sum up their argument that the accuser's family schemed to extort money from the 46-year-old pop star.

Legal experts have said the defence team successfully countered charges that the pop star conspired to imprison the family of his accuser and force them into participating in a video intended to shore up his reputation in 2003.

But a dramatic videotape of Jackson's then-13-year-old accuser describing molestation by the singer for the first time was the last evidence presented to jurors and was widely seen as having bolstered the prosecution's case.

Melville cautioned jurors that none of the statements made by Jackson's accuser in that tape could be taken "for the truth of the matter," instead saying that they could only consider the narrow question of whether it advanced the prosecution claim that the boy had not been coached by his mother.

With neither side seen as having delivered a clear knockout blow in the trial to date, the stakes were especially high for the closing arguments before jurors.

On Wednesday, defence attorney Robert Sanger made a failed bid to have the judge reconsider an order from the day earlier allowing jurors to determine that the singer gave his young accuser alcohol but did not abuse him. Under that scenario, they could convict Jackson of a lesser charge.

Jackson, who has pleaded innocent, faces more than 20 years in prison if convicted on all 10 counts, including the felony count of giving his accuser alcohol in order to molest him.

The jury must consider the testimony of 50 defence witnesses and 85 prosecution witnesses, including Jackson's young accuser, the boy's younger brother and his mother.

Jackson did not testify on his own behalf, but Melville told jurors not to draw any conclusions from the decision by his lawyers not to call him to the witness stand.

- REUTERS