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Michael Jackson · S8 E2
The 2005 Trial
14 weeks in a Santa Barbara courtroom
January 31, 2005. Michael Jackson walks into a Santa Maria courtroom wearing a white suit and sunglasses, and the most-watched criminal trial since O.J. Simpson begins.
Stranger in Moscow, Michael Jackson (1997). Michael walks alone through the rain while the world around him freezes. The official video captures the paranoia, isolation, and quiet devastation of a man who feels like a stranger everywhere he goes. Written during the Dangerous World Tour in 1993, the song sounds like it was made for the trial years.
Stranger in Moscow, Michael Jackson (1997)
Michael wrote "Stranger in Moscow" in a hotel room during the Dangerous World Tour in 1993, shortly after the first allegation broke. The production by Michael and Brad Buxer is stripped to its bones: a slow, mechanical drum loop, faint synthesizer pads, and rain sounds that blur the line between the song and its music video. His vocal is barely above a whisper for most of the track, as if he is talking to himself in an empty room. Listen for how the reverb swallows his voice in the chorus, making him sound physically distant from the listener.
Sources
HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I album credits, Epic Records, 1995
Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story, J. Randy Taraborrelli, 2009
The Charges
Michael faces 10 felony counts, including conspiracy, child molestation, and administering an intoxicating agent to a minor. The accuser is Gavin Arvizo, the same cancer survivor who appeared in the Bashir documentary. Prosecutor Tom Sneddon, the Santa Barbara DA who investigated Michael in 1993, has waited over a decade for this moment. Defense attorney Tom Mesereau, a respected trial lawyer known for pro bono work defending death row inmates in the South, leads Michael's legal team.
Sources
People v. Jackson, Santa Barbara County Superior Court case records, 2005
Aphrodite Jones, Michael Jackson Conspiracy, 2007
TAP TO REVEAL: What was Mesereau's strategy to win?
The Circus Outside
The trial turns Santa Maria into a media carnival. Over 2,000 journalists are credentialed to cover the proceedings, helicopters follow Michael's motorcade each morning, and networks run daily coverage that rivals their election programming. Fans camp outside the courthouse with signs of support, while protestors gather on the opposite sidewalk.
Sources
Aphrodite Jones, Michael Jackson Conspiracy, 2007
Court TV and CNN trial coverage reporting, 2005
The Trial by the Numbers
Santa Barbara County Superior Court, 312 East Cook Street, Santa Maria, California
For fourteen weeks, this courthouse becomes the center of the media universe. Michael arrives each morning in a black SUV, walking past hundreds of fans and reporters to face the charges that could send him to prison.
Whatever Happens, Michael Jackson ft. Carlos Santana (2001)
A deep cut from Invincible featuring Carlos Santana's unmistakable guitar. The song is about two people facing an uncertain future, holding on with no guarantee of what comes next. During the trial, with his freedom on the line and the whole world watching, the lyrics read like a letter Michael wrote to himself: whatever happens, don't let go.
Whatever Happens, Michael Jackson ft. Carlos Santana (2001)
The lyrics describe a situation spiraling out of control, with outside forces pressing in and the only certainty being the bond between two people. Santana's guitar weaves through Michael's vocal like a second voice, answering and echoing every line. It is one of the few Invincible tracks where Michael sounds genuinely vulnerable rather than defiant.
Who was the lead defense attorney for Michael Jackson in the 2005 trial?
After seven days of deliberation, the jury files back into the courtroom. On June 13, 2005, the foreman stands up to read the verdict, and Michael Jackson's entire future hangs on the next word out of his mouth.
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