A jury acquitted Michael Jackson of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor at his Neverland ranch - exonerating the pop star, who insisted he was the victim of mother-and-son con artists and a prosecutor with a vendetta.
Jurors also acquitted Jackson of getting the boy drunk and of conspiring to imprison his accuser and the boy's family at the storybook estate - a total legal victory but one that may do little to improve his bizarre image.
The courtroom was deathly still as the verdicts were read on Monday.
One of Jackson's lawyers burst into tears as the first verdicts were announced, and Jackson later stood and was embraced by his chief lawyer, Thomas Mesereau Jr. Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon sat with his head in his hands.
"I would never have married a paedophile. And the system works," Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe said in a statement given to "Entertainment Tonight".
As he left court, Jackson, looking drawn, held his hand to his heart and blew kisses to the screaming crowd. He was escorted by his aides into a black sports utility vehicle, and made no immediate public statement.
Screams of joy rang out among a throng of fans outside the courthouse.
Fans jumped up and down, hugged each other and threw confetti in celebration of the news.
A woman in the crowd released one white dove as each acquittal was announced. Some of the women in the jury also wept and passed around a box of tissues.
After the verdicts were announced, the judge read a statement from the jury, which said, "We, the jury, feel the weight of the world's eyes upon us."
They asked to be allowed to return to "our private lives as anonymously as we came".
The verdict - reached after about 30 hours of deliberations over seven days - ended a star-studded, four-month trial that offered a global audience a lurid look into the weird world of Michael Jackson and presented jurors with vastly different portraits of him: a creepy pervert who preyed on little boys, or the victim of a frame-up by mother-and-son shakedown artists.
During the trial, defence 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.
The defence said the family exploited the boy's illness to shake down celebrities, then concocted the charges after realising Jackson was cutting them off from a jet-set lifestyle that included limo rides and stays at luxurious resorts.
Prosecutors who had been pursuing Jackson for years branded him a deviant who used his play land as the ultimate pervert's lair, plying boys with booze and porn before molesting them.
Jackson had faced several years in prison if convicted of all counts. The acquittals marked a stinging defeat for Sneddon, who displayed open hostility for Jackson and eagerly tried him - an opportunity denied him in 1993 when the star settled another threatened molestation case with a boy for $20 million. Later, Jackson derided Sneddon in song as "a cold man."
