UNDATED, July 14: Millions of Americans followed the televised trial of George Zimmerman, who was acquitted yesterday of murdering unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, a shooting death that sparked a national debate over race and gun rights. Here are 10 other trials that have gripped the American public in the past decade:
* Casey Anthony: Many television viewers were transfixed by the seven-week murder trial in 2011 of 25-year-old Casey Anthony, accused of the 2008 killing of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. Anthony initially told police the toddler had been kidnapped by a nanny, triggering a nationwide search. Six months later, the child’s skeletal remains were found with duct tape dangling from her skull in woods near the young mother’s Florida home. The jury found Anthony not guilty, sparing her a possible death penalty and triggering a public outcry.
* Conrad Murray: The late pop star Michael Jackson’s personal doctor was accused of giving the “Thriller” singer a fatal dose of the powerful anesthetic propofol – normally used in surgery – that was ruled the main cause of the celebrity’s death on June 25, 2009. His six-week trial captivated Jackson fans around the world. Prosecutors argued Murray was grossly negligent in administering the propofol to help Jackson sleep. Defense attorneys said Jackson delivered the fatal dose to himself. In November 2011, the jury found Murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to a four-year prison term.
* Phil Spector: Another legal spectacle was the trial of Spector, an eccentric music producer, in the shooting death of Lana Clarkson, 40, a B-movie actress. Clarkson died of a shot to the mouth, fired from Spector’s gun in the foyer of his home outside Los Angeles on February. 3, 2003. The two met hours earlier at a Hollywood nightclub. The man once revered for revolutionizing pop music in the 1960s with his layered “Wall of Sound” production technique was found guilty of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison in May 2009.
* Scott Peterson: Reporting his pregnant wife, Laci, missing from the home they shared in Modesto, California, on December. 24, 2002, Peterson told police he had gone fishing in San Francisco Bay early that morning and returned to find her gone. Her body and that of her unborn child washed ashore the following April. In a sensational 2004 trial, prosecutors argued that the 40-year-old former fertilizer salesman had suffocated or strangled his wife on Christmas Eve or the night before and dumped her body in the bay, weighting it so it would not surface. A jury convicted him of murdering his wife and unborn son and sentenced him to death.
* Michael Jackson: The pop singer went on trial in 2005 on charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 2003, as well as conspiring to abduct the boy. The singer faced nearly 20 years in prison if convicted. Jackson abandoned his “Dangerous” world tour during the media frenzy over the allegations. The four-month trial ended in June 2005 with Jackson being acquitted of all charges.
(agencies)
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