Reasonable doubt won the day for Jackson

After 14 weeks of trial, and seven days of deliberation, the Jackson case came down to a battle of two videos. Both videos played at the end of closing arguments showed the statement of the young accuser to the police, and the Bashir documentary outtakes that showed a side of Michael Jackson that is innocent and wistfully childlike.

In the end, the jury decided that Michael Jackson was not guilty of molestation.

Everyone knows that Michael Jackson is more than weird, he is a universe unto himself. But the jury may have leaned on a universe of innocent love and naïveté rather than a carnival fun house filled with animals, rides and a wicked perversion.

A leap of faith— or reasonable doubt?
To have completely supported Michael Jackson's innocence— like some of his fans— you just have to believe. Like Tinkerbell in Peter Pan.

But in a court of law, the test is not innocence but whether or not there is reasonable doubt. In this case, there is enough reasonable doubt. There were simply not enough hard facts to pick one side or the other and that alone meant that there is doubt. The following factors may have hurt the prosecution’s case:

• Credibility of accusers and lack of corroboration. The accuser and his family have a history of lying for money, and there wasn’t objective evidence to corroborate the accusations. The jury decided, and maybe rightly so, that a conviction need not turn on whether or not "you believe"—  it has to be based on evidence. And sufficient evidence was lacking.
• Other witnesses. The prosecution fell flat when it brought in biased former employees to claim that three young men including McCauley Culkin were molested. Instead, each of them testified that such a claim was "absolutely" ridiculous.
• “Prior acts” confused the case. To believe the accuser you also have to ultimately assume that Michael molested other young men so necessarily he molested this one. We know the old adage, "Where there's smoke, there's fire."  But is there really that much smoke? The 1993 so-called victim who received a $20 million plus settlement never testified. In his place was his mother who hasn't seen him since he was 14-years- old. That is very weak. In fact, Prosecutor Ron Zonan constantly attacked defense arguments by asking, "Where is the witness?" The same question applies to the 1993 victim. If he didn't testify, we really shouldn't be guessing about what happened.
• Prior accuser didn’t make the case for them. The press calls the prior accuser "youth pastor." He was strong in his belief that he had been molested. In fact, as defense counsel Tom Mesereau attempted to cast the touching as "tickling," he lashed out and made it clear that it was definitely a touching on a private part of his body. But is this molestation? Anyone who spends much time with children knows that incidental or accidental touching just happens and unless there is a sexual intent, it is just normal interaction with children. Most people viewed the youth pastor as being completely honest about what was touched. But his religious background, while helping his credibility, may have also colored his perception of wrongdoing. The jurors could have perceived him as being more prudish than the average person— so that he would more likely misinterpret an innocent and accidental touch.

For any normal person, the very thought of your child in the bed of a grown man, any grown man, is a sickening, terrible thought. No number of house cleaning chimpanzees, celebrity animal parties, video games or amusement park rides can cover the discomfort with a man age 40 who pretends to be a 12-year-old child.

But ultimately, the jury decided NOT to convict Jackson on his weirdness, and instead followed the letter of the law. They could not put a man behind prison with lingering questions and reasonable doubt.

Stay tuned to "Abrams Report" for more analysis and interviews, 6 p.m. ET weeknights on MSNBC TV.

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