Revealing no emotion, Michael Jackson sat motionless at the defense table for five of the most important minutes of his dizzying life, as the threat of nearly 20 years behind bars was finally lifted.

Instead of reacting jubilantly, with the kind of electricity he showed near the start of the case when he danced on top of an SUV, Jackson left the courthouse slowly and solemnly, waving weakly and blowing kisses to his shrieking fans.

He went back to Neverland - a free man.

Jackson, 46, was cleared on all counts Monday, exonerated on charges that he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003.

"Justice is done. The man's innocent. He always was," his chief lawyer, Thomas Mesereau Jr., said on a Jackson Web site.

Jurors also acquitted Jackson of getting the boy drunk and of conspiring to imprison the accuser and his family at Neverland, bringing an end to a four-month trial in which the pop star insisted he was the victim of mother-and-son con artists and a prosecutor with a vendetta.

The jurors remained guarded about details of their 30 hours of deliberations over seven days but offered some insight during a news conference, saying they were irritated by the testimony of the accuser's mother, who at one point snapped her fingers at them.

"I disliked it intensely when she snapped her fingers at us," said one juror, a woman. She said she thought to herself, "Don't snap your fingers at me, lady." The jurors were not identified.

MSU College of Law Professor Jeremy Harrison said Jackson's acquittal shows there is no justice in this country.

"These clowns are going to make some money off this," he said of the jurors, who appeared on TV after the verdict was read. "This system of justice today is like a game show - 'Let's Make A Deal.'"

Harrison said he still thinks it is suspicious that Jackson has "little boys and girls running around (his) house." The pop star was found innocent because of his celebrity status, he added.

"They're not looking at the children," Harrison said. "They're looking at the big star."

Still these acquittals marked a stinging defeat for Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon, who displayed open hostility for Jackson and had pursued him for more than a decade, trying to prove the rumors that swirled around Jackson about his fondness of children.

Sneddon sat with his head in his hands after the verdicts were read.

"We don't select victims of crimes, and we don't select the family. We try to make a conscientious decision and go forward," Sneddon said afterward. "I'm not going to look back and apologize for anything that we've done."

Fans outside the courthouse jumped up and down, thrust their fists in the air, hugged each other and threw confetti. A woman in the crowed released one white dove as each acquittal was announced.

The verdict means Jackson will be free to try to rebuild his blighted musical career. But his legal victory came at a terrible price to his image.

Prosecutors branded him as a deviant who used his playland as the ultimate pervert's lair, plying boys with booze and porn. Prosecution witnesses described other bizarre behavior by Jackson: They said he licked his accuser's head, simulated a sex act with a mannequin and kept dolls in bondage outfits on his desk.

Defense lawyers described Jackson as a humanitarian who wanted to protect kids and give them the life he never had while growing up as a child star. The boy had asked to meet the star when he thought he was dying of cancer.

Jackson was cleared of 10 charges in all, including four counts that he molested the boy in early 2003. Jackson also was charged with providing the boy with wine - "Jesus juice," as the pop star called it - and conspiring with members of his inner circle to hold the accuser and his family captive to get them to rebut the damaging documentary "Living With Michael Jackson."

In the program, Jackson held hands with the boy who would later accuse him, and he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.

The boy, now 15, testified that Jackson twice masturbated him while they were under the covers in the singer's bedroom. The boy's brother testified that he twice witnessed Jackson fondle the boy as he slept.

Under an unusual California law, prosecutors were allowed to introduce evidence of other instances of molestation on Jackson's part that never resulted in any charges, to prove that the alleged crimes were part of a pattern of behavior.

A parade of servants and other Neverland staff members described seeing Jackson grope or otherwise molest boys, with a one-time security guard saying he saw the singer shower with and perform oral sex on a boy who later received a settlement with Jackson.

The defense systematically portrayed the household help as disgruntled employees who were angry about being fired and peddled gossip about the pop star to the supermarket tabloids.

Witnesses for the defense testified that, during the weeks the boy and his family were supposedly being held against their will by Jackson's associates, they were taken on shopping sprees, the mother went to a spa for a body wax and the children had an orthodontist appointment - all paid for by Jackson.

In jumbled and tearful testimony, the accuser's mother claimed that Jackson's associates held her against her will, warning her that killers were after the family and that they might somehow disappear from Neverland in a hot-air balloon.

"Please don't judge me!" the mother implored jurors, holding out her arms. "He's wrong!" she said, pointing at Mesereau, an aggressive defense attorney with a mane of pure white hair and the build of a prize fighter.

Several celebrities testified for Jackson, including Macaulay Culkin and comedians Jay Leno and Chris Tucker. Tucker said he felt used by the family and warned Jackson to beware. Culkin said he slept in Jackson's bed as a child, but nothing improper ever happened, contradicting testimony that Jackson put his hands up the "Home Alone" actor's shorts.

Jackson never took the stand but spoke on several videos played in court.

They used one powerful tape of Jackson shot by his own video cameraman. The jury saw nearly three hours of introspection during which the star talked about his troubled childhood.

"I haven't been betrayed or deceived by children," he said. "Adults have let me down."

Staff writer Daniel Thai contributed to this report.

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City streets

What do you think about the Michael Jackson verdict?

"Based on the old evidence, it seems like he was guilty, but based on this new evidence, there may have been some reasonable doubt. It's too bad we're not talking about something more pertinent (to society)."

Jim Lyon
Lansing resident

"It does damage to our society in so many other ways than just letting him off because he has money. This could have been a landmark case."

Liz Fales
2005 graduate

"I blame parenting for the entire thing. How the hell are you going to leave your kid alone with a nutcase?"

Edward Moore
East Lansing resident

"No matter what anyone thinks, you have to have faith in the American justice system. That's good enough for me."

Nick Romley
political science junior