UGA law professor Ron Carlson was quoted several times in ABC News coverage of the Michael Jackson trial. He discussed the behavior of defense and prosecuting teams. He suggested, for example, that celebrity defense witnesses such as Stevie Wonder, Elizabeth Taylor and Diana Ross “will be called mainly as character witnesses, talk about what a good guy he is, that he has a good reputation in the entertainment industry, has spent all his life helping children. The defense may hope that jurors will think that if someone as reputable as this celebrity thinks Michael Jackson’s OK, then he must be an OK guy. You’ve heard of guilt by association. Well, this is sort of the reverse-innocence by association.”
