Jackson crowd courts publicity

Most mornings, the Michael Jackson case jurors have been greeted outside the Santa Maria courthouse by an assortment of fans from around the world protesting his innocence.

In the climactic few days, the crowd took to chanting "Go, Michael, go!" at the defence team and "Liars! Liars!" at the prosecution. On Saturday the spectacle was compounded by the arrival of a local contingent of peace activists protesting against the war in Iraq - they have been turning up weekly to take advantage of the media presence.

Some of the intermingling banners were hard to distinguish. Was "Stop the Madness" a reference to Jackson's ordeal? Was the sign that read "The so-called evidence in this case stinks" something to do with Iraqi weapons of mass destruction?

- INDEPENDENT