Even though Michael Jackson's fingerprints have been found on porn magazines, the procedures police used to process fingerprint evidence in the case are questionable.
The prosecution in the Michael Jackson's case ended last week by showing jurors its most controversial piece of evidence — a sexually explicit magazine containing fingerprints from teenage Jackson’s accuser and one from the King of Pop himself.
Defense lawyer Robert Sanger earlier tried to undercut the fingerprint evidence, saying some of the magazines had not been tested for prints until after they were used in grand jury hearings, where the accuser could have touched them.
"You cannot tell when a fingerprint was left," Spinner said when asked by prosecutors.
Jurors heard detailed testimony from experts who dusted the adult magazines taken from Michael Jackson’s residence for fingerprints belonging to the superstar and his teenage molestation accuser.
While the court in the California town of Santa Maria has heard that hundreds of prints were discovered on adult material in Mr. Jackson's home, only one has been identified to jurors so far - that of the accuser's younger brother.
Forensic experts were questioned on the stand over whether fingerprint evidence found on the magazines was processed properly and kept in uncontaminated conditions.
Jurors heard that detectives wore gloves when taking and processing the prints but that a clerk who checked the material into the court vault was not wearing gloves at all times when handling the evidence.
One of Michael Jackson’s lawyers, Robert Mr. Sanger, also got one expert to admit that the fingerprints could not be dated.
The defense claims that the accuser and his brother thumbed through the magazines when Mr. Jackson was not at home and that fingerprints on the publications in no way prove he showed the adult material to the children.
The next key arguments in the trial are expected to come on Monday, when Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville is set to rule on whether jurors will hear about the well-publicized 1993 accusations of molestation made against Michael Jackson.
That case was settled out of court and Michael Jackson never faced criminal charges.
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