US: The tension is becoming almost too much for the already overwrought Michael Jackson fans gathered outside the Santa Maria courthouse, as they wait for the eight women and four men of the jury to deliver their verdicts on the molestation and conspiracy charges against their beloved star.
Yesterday was particularly frustrating for them as Judge Rodney Melville allowed the jury to go home after less than three hours to attend high school graduation ceremonies.
Many fans have come from Europe and Asia, including Sean O'Kane, a 23-year-old Derry man with bleach-blond hair, who had taken leave from his job as an anti-racist facilitator in Liverpool to show his love for Jackson.
"I'm a supporter first and a fan second," he said. The pop star was a victim of a discredited American criminal justice system, he explained.
As he took a break from picketing the courthouse, an African- American co-demonstrator from Sacramento, Tiger Rucker, took a turn at holding aloft O'Kane's green, white and orange cardboard slogan with the words: "Ireland Believes in You, Michael."
All around fans lay on the grass verge shading themselves from the hot sun under placards with similar messages such as "Japan Loves You Michael" and some saying simply "Innocent" or "Michael, You Are Bigger Than Elvis".
The fans have developed a contempt for the media and in particular high-profile reporter Diane Diamond from Court TV. A group of fans gathered and shouted obscenities when she did a broadcast in the alley of awnings and closed-circuit television sets.
On a Libertarian TV show, commentator William Wagener had mocked the reporter, saying "Watch Diane Diamond's face turn shades of rage when the Not Guilty verdict comes in".
The trial of Jackson, fumed Wagener, was an example of the "sleazy, uneven enforcement of the law" and a "modern-day financial lynching".
The fans angst over Jackson's fate was heightened by a much-read report in the Los Angeles Times yesterday speculating on the prison conditions that face the singer if he receives a jail sentence. He would likely be sent to the most secure prison unit in California, about 50 miles south of Fresno in cotton fields. Driving near the prison I saw signs warning "Do not pick up hitch-hikers".
Its Protective Housing Unit is designed to protect celebrity prisoners and mass murderers and if convicted, Jackson could find himself sharing a compound with the notorious Charles Manson, who slaughtered Sharon Tate and six other people. Sirhan Sirhan, the man who assassinated Robert Kennedy, was also held there until recently.
"It's like a Beckett play," Fresno lawyer Catherine Campbell said, "full of very strange people packed in together".
The jury, which was given its instructions last Friday, will return for a full day's deliberations this morning as Jackson's defence lawyers fret that the longer it is out the worse it will be for their client.
The panel is considering 10 counts against Jackson, including four of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 2003, four of plying him with wine for the purpose of committing "lewd acts", conspiracy to kidnap the boy and his family and an attempted molestation.
Early yesterday morning Jackson left the Neverland ranch, less than an hour's drive away from Santa Maria, for a follow-up visit to the Santa Ynez Valley hospital where he had emergency treatment on Sunday for a back problem.
His black sports utility vehicle sped back to the ranch with curtains drawn an hour later.
He has complained of a back problem since early March, when he made a morning emergency room visit and raced back to court in his pyjama bottoms when the judge threatened to have him arrested.
Yesterday Michael Jackson's lawyer issued a statement distancing himself from comments made about the entertainer's health by the Rev Jesse Jackson, who has been giving him spiritual counselling.
Defence lawyer Thomas Mesereau said he had not authorised anyone to hold news conferences on the pop star's behalf.
The statement appeared aimed at reassuring the court that the defence team had not violated the judge's gag order.
The Rev Jackson said that Mesereau's statement didn't stem from his public comments but that Mesereau had also expressed concerns to him.
"He made it very clear that he wanted to make sure the judge did not think he had a surrogate spokesperson," he said.