Now that jury selection is over, the speculation has begun: What does it mean that Michael Jackson's jury is mostly women, and mostly white? That not one panelist is black?

While some criticize the makeup of the jury, suggesting that it's going to seal the singer's doom, legal experts point out that race and sex demographics aren't the only — or even the main — factors that will determine how these 12 panelists weigh the evidence in the trial to come.

"What makes for good TV is if we say 'we want black,' 'we want white,' 'we want men,' 'we want women,' " jury consultant and defense attorney Paul Lisnek said of the selection process. "And those factors do come into play, but what we have to look at is life experience. That's what's going to influence the way they respond to the evidence in the case, not just whether they are of one race or one religion or another."

More significant then, is that eight of the panelists have children, and two said someone close to them had committed or been accused of sex crimes. One woman juror has a grandson who is registered as a sex offender, while another woman has a brother-in-law who molested his nieces (that same juror's sister was also raped, at age 12). But while the conventional wisdom is that mothers would be tougher on accused sex offenders, it's actually fathers that Jackson needs to worry about more.

"All you have to do is look at the O.J. case," Lisnek said. "The prosecution briefly in that case said, 'I want African-American females.' "

"A 50-year-old mother of three says, 'This could be my child,' " former New York sex crimes prosecutor Linda Fairstein said. "But women sometimes, a lot of studies prove, tend to give a break to the celebrity in the box, no matter how heinous the crime. Adult males tend to be tougher on men who do this kind of thing than women do. And every jury study in celebrity cases proves that if there are male jurors, even if they grew up knowing, liking, approving of [the celebrity's] career, they are more likely to separate that out and be tougher on him."

Celebrities get a lot of support as it is, Fairstein pointed out, noting how it's so prevalent to wonder what's wrong with the parents who allow their children to sleep over at Neverland, instead of wondering what's wrong with what allegedly happened there. People react much differently to celebrities charged with crimes than "most of us [would] had we heard our neighbor had been charged with molesting a 10-year-old boy who slept over at his house."

Other factors that determine how jurors are likely to think include how they vote and what they read. "All of this can lead to and feed biases and values people hold," Lisnek said. "If somebody tells you, 'I watch FOX News,' you are probably dealing with somebody more conservative. If somebody tells you they watch CNN or MTV, they're perhaps a little more liberal." FOX News jurors are "rule followers," he explained. "They come to an intersection at three in the morning and wait for the red light to turn green." But CNN or MTV jurors, he said, are "more skeptical, more open."

For full coverage of the Michael Jackson case, see "Michael Jackson Accused."