Michael Jackson jury completes second day of deliberation

CALIFORNIA- Jurors completed their second full day of deliberations in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial as the pop star awaited a verdict at his Neverland estate.

The jury of eight women and four men has spent about 14 hours behind closed doors without reaching a verdict since Friday. Jurors sent a single note to Judge Rodney Melville on Monday but its contents were sealed.

Outside the courthouse in Santa Maria, dozens of Jackson fans, many from Europe, carried placards and listened to the pop star's hits as they have through the more than four months of the trial.

By late afternoon, as jurors were leaving for the day in a white van with a police escort, a children's choir from central California had taken centre stage in the growing fan encampment and was chanting slogans of support, including "Love is greater than hate."

A handful of fans also stood vigil outside Neverland in central California. Some had left messages in heart-shaped paper cutouts on the ranch's fence, including messages of support from Hong Kong, France and Germany.

Jackson has not been seen in public since Sunday, when he spent five hours at a hospital near Neverland for a back problem that has plagued him since the trial began in February.

Spokeswoman Raymone Bain has described Jackson, 46, as "pulling his hair out" while waiting for a verdict that could clear him of charges that he molested a 13-year-old boy or send him to prison for more than two decades.

Legal experts say the judge and attorneys for both sides must hope that jurors -- who are driven to court each day with a police escort, and deliberate in private -- remain oblivious to news coverage and the commotion outside court.

In some sensational California trials -- notably the "Trial of the Century" of former football star O J Simpson on murder charges -- the jury has been sequestered, but a former local prosecutor said that move was extremely rare in Santa Barbara County.

Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, who has been counselling Michael Jackson during the trial, told reporters the pop star was sure the jury would exonerate him.

"He's awaiting the outcome of the jury. He exudes a great sense of confidence," Jackson said.

The jurors must consider the testimony of 140 witnesses and sift through about 600 items of evidence in reaching a verdict on the 10 counts against Jackson. The written instructions to the jury run to nearly 100 pages.

Jackson, who has pleaded innocent, is charged with molesting a then-13-year-old at Neverland in February or March of 2003, giving the boy alcohol in order to abuse him and conspiring to commit child abduction, extortion and false imprisonment.

- REUTERS