It may not be the trial of the (young) century, but the trial of the late “King of Pop” singer Michael Jackson’s doctor has now begun — and it promises to have media coverage galore. The opening salvo by Dr. Conrad Murray’s lawyer: Jackson was responsible for his own death:
A lawyer for Dr. Conrad Murray, who is charged in the death of Michael Jackson, says the pop superstar caused his own death.
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Video: Dr. Conrad Murray manslaughter trial begins
Defense attorney Ed Chernoff told jurors in his opening argument Tuesday that Jackson, of his own accord, swallowed several lorazepam pills on the morning of his death and that was enough to put people to sleep.
He also claimed Jackson self-ingested the anesthetic propofol, creating a “perfect storm in his body” that killed him instantly.
Chernoff told jurors it was not their job to determine whether Murray was a good doctor. He said Murray and Jackson were actually friends and Murray was trying to wean Jackson off of propofol. Jackson, however, took a lethal dose before he died, the lawyer said.
At times during Chernoff’s opening statement Murray appeared to be crying and wiped his eyes with a tissue.
The defense’s remarks came after more than an hour of opening arguments by prosecutors who laid out their case against the Houston-based cardiologist with a multimedia presentation which featured an audio recording Murray made of Jackson under the influence of propofol, and an image of the pop star’s pale body lying on a gurney after he died from an overdose on the drug on June 25, 2009.
Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and he and his attorneys have denied he gave Jackson anything that should have killed the pop superstar.
Stay tuned. And I DO mean stay tuned because this will be covered in detail on cable TV.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.