Twenty years after Michael Jackson was acquitted of child molestation charges, Netflix is taking a forensic look at the case. The streaming platform has released the trailer for Michael Jackson: The Verdict, a three-part docuseries premiering June 3 that revisits the pop icon’s 2003 charges, the resulting trial, and the media circus that surrounded it.
The series features firsthand accounts from jurors, witnesses, attorneys, accusers, defenders, and media figures who were present during the proceedings. With no cameras allowed inside the courtroom at the time, the filmmakers set out to give audiences the closest look yet at what actually unfolded during one of the most watched trials in history.
“It has been 20 years since the trial of Michael Jackson in which he was found not guilty. Yet, to this day, controversy still rages,” the filmmakers said. “No cameras were allowed in court, and so the public’s view of the facts at the time were filtered by commentators and presented piecemeal. It was time to take a forensic look at the trial as a whole.”
The timing is not incidental. The docuseries arrives in the wake of Michael, Antoine Fuqua’s Jackson biopic starring the singer’s nephew Jaafar Jackson, which while loved by fans, has drawn widespread criticism for sidestepping the criminal charges entirely by ending its story in 1988. Jackson was indicted on 10 criminal counts in 2003, including child molestation and administering alcohol to a minor, and was acquitted on all counts in 2005. He died in 2009. Michael Jackson: The Verdict does not share the biopic’s reluctance to engage with that chapter of his story.
Each of the three episodes runs approximately 50 minutes. Nick Green directs, with David Herman serving as showrunner and executive producing alongside Fiona Stourton and former ABC News president James Goldston. The series is produced by Candle True Stories.
Michael Jackson: The Verdict premieres on Netflix on June 3.