Michael Jackson trial: Jesus Juice & Heteluchtballonnen...

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Beginning of the End:
Prosecution and Defense Trade Scathing Indictments in Closing Arguments



ON THE DOCKET
Day 65: Closing arguments



POINTS FOR THE PROSECUTION
• Prosecutor Ronald J. Zonen summed up the case as being about "the exploitation and sexual abuse of a 13-year-old cancer survivor at the hands of an international celebrity."
• Lest jurors missed his initial point, Zonen likened the waif-like Jackson to a "lion on the Serengeti" on the hunt for prey.
• Make that a "lion on the Serengeti" with a "drinking problem," another of Zonen's charges.
• Zonen said the defense's contention that the boy at the center of the case and his family have simply made up their allegations against Jackson was "unmitigated rubbish."
• Zonen tied in the prior abuse allegations to the current case by arguing that the prosecution proved that Jackson "molested [the current accuser] and numerous other boys." The pop star's MO, then as now, Zonen said, was to "seduce boys into his confidence, into his bedroom and into his bed."
• In the event that jurors missed the above point, Zonen made it again, only pithier, by saying Jackson's accuser was welcomed into "the world of the forbidden."
• Zonen argued that the accuser's mother would be unlikely to make up an allegation such as seeing Jackson lick her son's head because the behavior is so "bizarre." Also, he said, the woman had no way of knowing that Jackson had been accused of doing the "bizarre" deed to another child a decade ago.
• Freed of the judge's vocabulary restrictions, Zonen called porn "pornography," instead of "sexually explicit" materials. He reintroduced jurors to Jackson's pornography stash, too.
• Zonen charged that Mesereau broke a promise to jurors by failing to prove several damaging allegations against the accuser's mother.




POINTS FOR THE DEFENSE
• Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. summed up the case as being about "the life, future, freedom and reputation of Michael Jackson."
• Mesereau said his client "must be acquitted."
• While Mesereau did not manage to make a rhyme with "acquitted," he did manage to disparage the accuser and the boy's family as "con artists, actors and liars."
• Mesereau brought that above point home by saying, "There is no way in the world you can find [the accuser and his family] are trustworthy beyond a reasonable doubt."
• Mesereau accused the prosecution of a "barbaric attempt" to destroy Jackson by ridiculing everything from his penchant for legal porn to his reputedly troubled finances.
• Mesereau accused Zonen of being mean to him because the prosecutor didn't have a case.

BRON: EONLINE.COM

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Op vrijdag 3 juni 2005 19:58 schreef matthijst het volgende:
People in the courthouse are calling and reporting that we may have a verdict by 5.30 this afternoon! They requested an extension and it was granted by the judge.