What’s the Longest Jury Trial in American History?
A few weeks ago, I had a case resolve itself shortly before trial. When I mentioned to someone back in May that I planned to be on trial for a few weeks, they asked “is that a long trial?”
In some sense, it’s an interesting question. Is a three-week trial long or short? It depends on who you ask. The length of trials varies tremendously by practice area. Straightforward personal injury cases can be quick, resolving in a few days. Criminal cases and anything involving mass injury tend to be a lot longer. As a consequence, for some lawyers, anything over a few days is painfully long. For others, anything under a month is shockingly short.
But let’s say that we take things to the absolute limit. What was the longest jury trial in American history? And why did it take so long?
By most accounts, the longest jury trial in American history – and likely world history, because nobody does things like we do – was the first McMartin Preschool abuse trial. [1] There were two defendants, charged with multiple counts of child molestation, and the trial spanned 919 days, from July 14, 1987 until January 18, 1990. By comparison, the O.J. Simpson murder trial, frequently cited as shockingly long, lasted only 252 days. [2] The inequity of such a long trial in a criminal case is striking – despite the fact that neither defendant was ever convicted, between them they were incarcerated for approximately seven years while awaiting a verdict. [3] The state of California is said to have spent over $15 million in taxpayer money on the case, only to emerge with literally nothing to show for it.
How did this case get so far off the rails? Arguably the same way that the Salem Witch Trials did, a mass hysteria turbocharged by the commonly held [4] but deeply false notion that children cannot lie.
The whole thing began with a call from a mother named Judy Johnson, who told the local police that her two-and-a-half-year-old son had been sexually molested by a school aide at McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California. [5] In an interview shortly thereafter, the child confirmed Johnson’s story – as much as a 2 ½ year old can confirm anything – but notably was unable to identify the person he was accusing, Ray Buckey, from photographs.
Indeed, there were some issues with the accusation from the start. Johnson turned out to be a chronic alcoholic suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and the details of her story were bizarre, with claims that Buckey “flew in the air” during the abuse and that “the goatman was there” for a “ritual-type atmosphere” of abuse in some kind of “armory.” [6]
But in spite of these potential problems, the Manhattan Beach Police Department arrested Buckey and sent a letter to all of the parents at the McMartin Preschool. [7] The letter told them that a Buckey had been arrested for child molestation, that they believed that he was making child pornography with the kids at the school, and asked them to question their children about whether they’d ever been molested while they were there. This predictably led to absolute chaos as hundreds of concerned parents demanded an investigation by the police department, which wasn’t remotely equipped to handle it. [8]
Hoping to manage the situation, the local prosecutors chose to outsource much of the investigation to the Children’s Institute International (“CII”), a private company and purported expert in child abuse. Authorities encouraged parents to send their children to CII to be interviewed. Approximately 400 children ultimately were. [9]
Unfortunately, CII’s investigator, Kee MacFarlane, conducted in the interviews in a manner that would now be considered unreliable and wildly unethical. [10] Children were fed graphic details about purported abuse that they were pressured to confirm and told that their friends and classmates had already done so. They were encouraged and promised rewards when they substantiated accusations of abuse and were treated with deep skepticism when they claimed that nothing happened. MacFarlane infamously used anatomically correct dolls and directed play to encourage the children to “show” what had happened to them and then used the anatomical knowledge that the children gleaned from the dolls as further evidence of abuse.
This method resulted in 384 of the roughly 400 students being “diagnosed” as abused. [11] The stories that the children told became progressively wilder, with claims that the children had been taken to a cemetery to drink blood and exhume corpses while horses and rabbits were slaughtered in front of them. [12] An elaborate series of tunnels and secret rooms at the preschool were described as the site of the abuse, none of which existed despite extensive efforts by police and architectural experts to find them.
Facing pressure from worried parents (and a tight re-election campaign) the local DA indicted seven people, including Buckey, his mother, sister, elderly grandmother, and three other teachers. [13] The defendants were charged with hundreds of counts of child abuse and were vilified in the media. Indeed, it was later discovered that MacFarlane, the CII investigator, was romantically involved with a WABC reporter who broke the story and reported extensively on the salacious details. In addition, an editor for the LA Times, which spent years hyping the story, was reportedly dating one of the key prosecutors. [14]
What followed was a preliminary hearing for the ages, lasting a whopping 18 months. Thirteen children testified, along with prosecution “experts.” Seven sets of defense lawyers actively cross-examined each witness. They had a lot of ammunition. The child witnesses told bizarre and contradictory stories about sexual assaults at farms, in circus houses, or even car washes. [15] One child identified Chuck Norris and a city attorney as two of the perpetrators from photos shown to him by the defense. [16] Despite all of this, the judge ultimately allowed claims against all seven defendants to proceed to trial.
Within the prosecution team, doubts were growing. One prosecutor actually quit his job at the office to assist with the defense. [17] Ultimately the prosecution agreed to dismiss charges against five of the defendants and elected to proceed to trial only against Buckey and his mother.
The trial began on July 14, 1987. The prosecution took over a year to present its case, resting in October of 1988. [18] Individual witnesses testified for extraordinary periods of time – MacFarlane alone was on the witness stand for five weeks. [19] The children called to testify were cross examined for extended periods of time. Because CII videotaped its highly suggestive interviews and the preliminary hearing was transcribed, the children were cross examined on several sets of lengthy, contradictory and often bizarre stories that they had told over the years.
In addition, the trial was lengthened by several strange detours by the prosecution. Defendant Buckey was a bit of an odd duck who believed in “pyramid power,” kept a pyramid over his bed, and sometimes wore a hat shaped like a pyramid. [20] There was extensive testimony on this issue, including from a woman who met Buckey at a pyramid convention and claimed that she had unsuccessful attempted to sleep with him. [21] The prosecution offered this as evidence that Buckey could not possibly be a “normal man” and must therefore be some form of pedophile. This angle backfired however, when the woman ultimately contradicted herself on the witness stand, testifying in response to defense questioning that she’d lied to prosecutors and had slept with Buckey after all. [22]
The jury began deliberations in November of 1989, more than two years after opening statements. They deliberated for two and a half months before acquitting on 52 of the 65 remaining charges, including all counts against Buckey’s mother. They deadlocked on the rest. [23]
Crazy as it may seem, the prosecution ultimately decided to try Buckey again, facing a great deal of public pressure from parents who still believed that their children had been abused. But the defense lawyers successful convinced an appellate court to order that the judge – who had presided over the 18-month preliminary hearing and multi-year trial – be replaced. The second trial before a new judge was completed in three months – not quick, but nothing that would set any records. The jury deadlocked again, but with a sizable majority favoring acquittal. [24]
Beyond setting records for length, the McMartin trial has left a sizable legacy in how child sex crimes are investigated and, in particular, how potential victims are interviewed. In some sense, it’s a victory for our justice system as no convictions were obtained despite enormous popular pressure and a media-stoked moral panic. But realistically, it’s a far greater indictment of the instructions involved, as an innocent man was incarcerated for five years and had his life destroyed by insane charges that never should have been brought and a legal process that was allowed to last for an essentially unlimited amount of time.
Will there ever be a longer trial? We can only hope not.
[1] There doesn’t appear to be any authoritative source for jury trial lengths, and the data collection issues across the fifty states would be difficult. But as a perpetual settler of barroom bets and other world records, consider: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/65583-longest-criminal-trial
[2] See https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/october-3/o-j-simpson-acquitted
[3] See https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/24/us/longest-trial-post-mortem-collapse-child-abuse-case-so-much-agony-for-so-little.html
[4] My sister coaches youth gymnastics and occasionally fields calls from parents asking why she said or did some totally nonsensical thing during practice. Some of these folks learn, for apparently the first time, that the stories that their children tell them may not be strictly accurate.
[5] Douglas O. Linder, The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial: An Account: available at: https://famous-trials.com/mcmartin/902-home
[6] See https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/24/us/longest-trial-post-mortem-collapse-child-abuse-case-so-much-agony-for-so-little.html
[7] Available at: https://famous-trials.com/mcmartin/901-lettertoparents
[8] See https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-17/crimes-of-the-times-mcmartin-preschool
[9] See https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/24/us/longest-trial-post-mortem-collapse-child-abuse-case-so-much-agony-for-so-little.html
[10] See https://famous-trials.com/mcmartin/910-sampleinterviews
[11] Douglas O. Linder, The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial: An Account: available at: https://famous-trials.com/mcmartin/902-home
[12] See https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-17/crimes-of-the-times-mcmartin-preschool
[13] See https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/24/us/longest-trial-post-mortem-collapse-child-abuse-case-so-much-agony-for-so-little.html
[14] Id.
[15] Douglas O. Linder, The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial: An Account: available at: https://famous-trials.com/mcmartin/902-home
[16] See https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-17/crimes-of-the-times-mcmartin-preschool
[17] See https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/24/us/longest-trial-post-mortem-collapse-child-abuse-case-so-much-agony-for-so-little.html
[18] Douglas O. Linder, The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial: An Chronology: available at: https://famous-trials.com/mcmartin/904-chronology
[19] Douglas O. Linder, The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial: An Account: available at: https://famous-trials.com/mcmartin/902-home
[20] See https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-17/crimes-of-the-times-mcmartin-preschool
[21] Douglas O. Linder, The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial: An Account: available at: https://famous-trials.com/mcmartin/902-home
[22] Id.
[23] Id.
[24] See https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-17/crimes-of-the-times-mcmartin-preschool
