The judge in Michael Jackson's child-molestation trial has instructed jurors how to weigh the law and evidence ahead of closing arguments.
The final recitation of the charges - the laws governing how the jury should treat some of the trial's highly charged evidence - cleared the way for jurors to begin deliberating as early as Friday.
Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville spent 90 minutes reading detailed written instructions to the jury that will decide Jackson's fate. The singer's parents and two brothers sat in the front two rows of the courtroom gallery.
The judge gave prosecutors four hours for closing arguments to clinch their portrayal of Jackson as a serial paedophile who befriended young boys and lured them to his Neverland estate.