SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- A California jury exonerated Michael Jackson on Monday of the child molestation, conspiracy and alcohol charges that could have sent him to prison for nearly 20 years.
The jury deliberated about 32 hours throughout the course of seven days before reaching its decision.
The forewoman read the verdicts in a packed courtroom while a large crowd of supporters waited outside the courthouse. Jackson fans cheered, wept and hugged upon hearing the verdicts.
Courtroom observers reported that Jackson dabbed his eyes with a tissue after his acquittal.
Prosecutors had charged the singer with four counts of lewd conduct with a child younger than 14; one count of attempted lewd conduct; four counts of administering alcohol to facilitate child molestation, and one count of conspiracy to commit child abduction, false imprisonment or extortion.
Santa Barbara County District Attorney Thomas Sneddon sat grim-faced during the reading of the verdict and said later that he would accept the decision.
"In 37 years (as a prosecutor), I've never quibbled with a jury's verdict, and I'm not going to start today," Sneddon said.
Asked if the acquittal ends California's prosecution of Jackson, Sneddon replied, "No comment."
A number of Jackson's family members accompanied him to the courthouse to hear the verdict and flanked him as he exited the courthouse as fans cheered.
Jackson did not address the throng before leaving the courthouse in a caravan of black sports utility vehicles.
His lead defense attorney, Thomas Mesereau Jr., told reporters on his way out of the courthouse that "justice was done.
"The man's innocent. He always was," Mesereau said.
CNN's Rusty Dornin reported that before the forewoman read the findings, silence gripped the courtroom. The only sound was that of the judge tearing open the envelope for each count.
Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, stared stiffly with hands clasped as he listened to the verdicts, Dornin said.
Jackson stared starkly at jurors with no visible signs of emotion, she said. Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville previously admonished courtroom observers to restrain themselves at the reading of the verdicts, Dornin reported.
Upon hearing the findings, Jackson's family members reached out to touch one another to support Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, Dornin said.
The matriarch sobbed at hearing the first "not guilty."
After the verdicts, the judge read a statement from the jury, Dornin reported. It stated: "We the jury feel the weight of the world's eyes upon us." They asked to return to their "private lives as anonymously as we came."
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