Longest criminal trial

The longest jury trial in history was the McMartin Preschool Trial, a criminal case brought against members of a family that operated a preschool in Manhattan Beach, California. The McMartins and their employees were accused of running a child sexual abuse network on the basis of testimony from children who attended the school. The trial ran for 919 days from 14 July 1987 to 18 January 1990, and ended with the jury acquitting one defendant (Virginia McMartin) on all counts and deadlocking on the other (Ray Buckley).

The McMartin Preschool Trial was a defining event in a movement known as the "Satanic Panic", which swept the US in the 1980s. This movement, which was taken entirely seriously by law enforcement officials, was based on the supposition that there was a large secret network of Satanists and occultists operating in America, who used venues such as preschools to acquire children for violent and or sexual rituals.

The McMartin case started on 12 August 1983, when the parent of a child at the McMartin preschool, Judy Johnson (who was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia), accused staff member Ray Buckley of molesting her son. The scope of the investigation rapidly grew after the police sent a letter to all parents at the school, suggesting that their child might have been abused, and requesting that they ask what would now be considered highly leading questions about it.

Testimony from the children soon came pouring in, and despite much of it being easily disproven, contradictory or simply fantastical (people flying, hidden tunnels accessed by being flushed down toilets, trips on secret airplanes) charges were brought against seven members of staff (later narrowed down to just two).

The trial was almost abandoned before it started, when they prosecution were found to have withheld evidence from the defence. It featured a varied cast of opposing experts, dubious jailhouse informants, and coached child witnesses. The media were a constant presence, sensationalizing every detail and repeating the often nonsensical accusations uncritically in the national press.

After the first trial collapsed, a second trial was held with Buckley as the sole defendant. It ran from 7 May 1990 to 27 July 1990, and resulted in the acquittal of Ray Buckley.