It is good news for Michael Jackson. He was found not guilty on all counts. He won’t have to serve any time, which I don’t think he could have survived. Even if he had been placed in one of those posh penitentiaries where insider traders go, I don’t think he would have made out nearly as well as Martha Stewart. It would have been an ugly thing to watch, seeing all his weird European fans freak out as he left the courtroom in an orange jumpsuit. It’s good also that he’s completely acquitted of all charges. He doesn’t have to do any community service hours, no picking up trash at the side of the freeway, no graveyard shift at the city morgue.
I listened to the verdict as it was read live by one of the jurors in a flat and tired voice. When she was finished, the crowd let out a collective sigh of relief, all cheers and few jeers. Lots of people on the radio afterwards were commenting on it, how this was proof that money could buy your innocence, as if that was something that we didn’t know already.
I can’t say whether Michael Jackson is innocent or guilty. What I know for sure is that even though they say Michael Jackson is a free man, he is actually in jail, and has been for most of his life. He is serving a life sentence without parole in the prison of public opinion. He would have never gotten a fair trial because of the media’s constant and unwavering coverage, condemning him far before all the evidence was heard. All the jokes about him on the late night talk shows, all the legal experts battling it out on the news channels, everyone talking about it with sly and sarcastic grins on their faces, like the whole thing was funny, that it was the best gossip ever. Sure it is, and I am feeling bad because I am guilty of it just like the rest of the world. What if he is totally, completely innocent – that he’d never harmed a child, would never molest anyone, is just a victim of sick circumstance compounded by his own overwhelming fame and inaccessibly neurotic personality? What then? Does he get out of jail now? How does he build a bridge back to the rest of society? How does he go back to living on the outside? I don’t think he can, ever.
I mentally list all the child molesters I know and even though they have committed that crime against me, I am not sure if I would want them to suffer the same fate as Michael Jackson has. I didn’t even get any Jesus Juice. Child molesters are the worst sort of criminals, and there are far more who get away with it than are ever convicted. Even if they are put on trial, the victims are made to live through it again, and it is worse the second time because of the burden of proof that the whole thing happened. And why would you accuse anyone if they didn’t really do it, branding them with an indelible mark that cannot be washed away with any verdict?
Anyway, the whole thing is awful. But I guess I can wear my ‘Thriller’ jacket once again and moonwalk all around this unfair and insensitive world.