Two Jackson Jurors Regret Acquittal

Yahoo News ^ | Aug. 8, 2005

[COUNTrecount]

Two of the jurors who voted to acquit singer Michael Jackson of child molestation and other charges say they regret their decisions.

Jurors Ray Hultman and Eleanor Cook, who both have pending book deals, planned to appear Monday night on the new MSNBC show "Rita Cosby: Live and Direct."

In a preview shown Monday on NBC's "Today," Cosby asked Cook if the other jurors will be angry with her.

"They can be as angry as they want to. They ought to be ashamed. They're the ones that let a pedophile go," responded Cook, 79.

Hultman, 62, told Cosby he was upset with the way other jurors approached the case: "The thing that really got me the most was the fact that people just wouldn't take those blinders off long enough to really look at all the evidence that was there."

Hultman has said previously that when jurors took an anonymous poll early in their deliberations he was one of three jurors who voted for conviction.

On June 13, the jurors unanimously acquitted Jackson of all charges, which alleged that he molested a 13-year-old boy, plied the boy with wine and conspired to hold him and his family captive so they would make a video rebutting a damaging television documentary.

Explaining the turnaround by Cook and Hultman, Larry Garrison, who is working with both on their separate books and a combined television movie, said all the jurors "had an agreement (to be united) and then basically when they went on 'Larry King Live,' both Eleanor and Ray couldn't tolerate what was going on anymore. They said, 'Enough is enough.'"

Cook told Cosby: "The air reeked of hatred and people were angry and I had never been in an atmosphere like that before."

In June, Hultman told The Associated Press about the verdict: "That's not to say he's an innocent man. He's just not guilty of the crimes he's been charged with."

During an appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America" with five other jurors in June, Cook was one of three who raised their hands when asked if they thought Jackson may have molested other children but not the 13-year-old boy.

"We had our suspicions, but we couldn't judge on that because it wasn't what we were there to do," she said at the time.

Hultman's book will be called "The Deliberator" and Cook's is "Guilty as Sin, Free as a Bird," said Garrison. Part of the profits from their book sales will go to charity, he said.

Both were in seclusion and unavailable for comment until after the MSNBC broadcast, Garrison said.

[Oztrich Boy]

Further proof that juries consist of people who are too stupid to get out of jury duty.

Whatch who you are calling stupid. Do you have a pending book deal?

[Freemyland]

Thanks. So basically, this lady thought Jackson was guilty, and thought the prosecution had met its burden of proof, but still voted "not guilty" in part because the mother snapped her fingers?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Two of the jurors who voted to acquit singer Michael Jackson of child molestation and other charges say they regret their decisions.

Jurors Ray Hultman and Eleanor Cook, who both have pending book deals, planned to appear Monday night on the new MSNBC show "Rita Cosby: Live and Direct."

These two sentences are all the author needed to write. They had their chance.