Opening statements in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray for the 2009 death of The King of Pop Michael Jackson took place today in California today.
Prosecutor David Walgren opened with a photo of Jackson’s lifeless body while describing the gross negligence at the hand of Conrad Murray along with a voice recording Murray recorded of his then drug-induced patient describing his plans at wowing his fans with his tour and opening a children’s hospital.
Prosecution concentrated on the amounts of propofol that Murray had personally ordered for Michael, in which he had delivered to his girlfriends home and the fact that it wasn’t until two days after MJ’s death that Murray admitted to giving nightly doses of the powerful drug everyday for more than 2 months to put him to sleep.
“(Murray) Repeatedly acted with gross negligence, repeatedly denied care, appropriate care, to his patient, Michael Jackson, and it was Dr. Murray’s repeated incompetent and unskilled acts that led to Michael Jackson’s death,” stated Walgren
However the Defense opened painting a slightly different picture as Dr. Conrad Murray’s attorney Ed Chernoff told the jury Michael Jackson caused his own death. “Michael Jackson died when Dr. Murray stopped giving him Propofol” claiming Jackson died on “third day of this weaning process” and state that Jackson killed himself while Murray was out of the room.
Kenny Ortega, Co-creator and co-director of “This Is It” took the stand as the first witness for the prosecution stating that on June 19th he noticed a visibly ill Jackson that wasn’t well with chills and appeared lost. However on the 23rd and 24th of June just days before his passing he was full of energy, life and excited for the tour to begin.“It was a different Michael,” said Ortega.
If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Murray could spend four years in a California prison and lose his medical license.
TMZ.COM is live from inside the court room for additional coverage
I thought Randy jackson was LL Cool J for a second…hmmm, anyway, respect in power Mr. Jackson!
Janet looked absolutely beautiful. My prayers are with that family. This is so tragic…
This situation is very unfortunate, I pray for the Jackson family, on a side note Janet looks great!
I still love Michael and this feeling won’t go away, he broke my heart when he died, if I were there I would of taken the pain for him.
I know MICHAELA I felt the same way. I am still dealing with it everytime they play his music. I wonder if Elvis fans felt the same way when he died? Just a thought.
This is clearly a doctor who doesn’t adhere to the hippocratic Oath “…to do no harm…” The defenses theory sounds like complete nonsense. Why was he injecting Michael with a medicine used for surgery in the first place.
EXACTLY!! Very very wrong on his part especially after he saw what it was doing to him.
because MJ wanted him to…the sad reality is that Michael was an addict
We will miss MJ. It’s about time that ONE of these so called MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS go to trial for a celebrity’s death of overdosing on medication that was overly prescribed and most of all was inappropriate to give. We see time and time again a celebrity high on prescribed medications an ordinary man would not be able to get. These doctors hide, break laws, give multiple prescriptions under aliases, or the celebrity is most of the time able to get multiple diffrent medications from different doctors all at once. These deaths are ridiculous anymore. it is for the MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL, to be professional, in care to educate, treat and be responsible for the patients they are in charge of. yet, they abuse this system for secret monies given all to keep quiet until one day their client is QUIET FOREVER… Hollywood is “HOLLYHELL”. It’s ashame, I feel sorry for the celebrities.. because the average man normally has a doctor in his best interest.. & an average Doctor would have BEEN IN JAIL. This Murray dude, killed the right one… BUT!!! He was the WRONG ONE!!!! Hopefully, RIP MJ, ur death will hopefully set precedent for others…
You have a lot to say without knowing all the facts of the case. A lot of these celeb are very arrogant and stubborn; they will go against what has been advised by someone trained to give that advices. They think they’re above the norm to the point where nothing bad can happened to them. This was how Tiger got into the mess he’s in now. What aobut the people who were around Micheal regulary, did any of them adamantly expressed to him about the danger of taking all these different pills. What about his family, to want extant were they expressing their concerns to him. Not sure the answers to these questions, just saying know the full picture before we start pointing fingers.
I tried to explain the same thing to my mother yesterday… but she’s biased because she loves MJ but at the end of the day im pretty sure this doctor didn’t approach MJ about these drugs or force MJ to take these drugs!! MJ wanted them and if this doctor didn’t give them to him he would’ve went else where and SOME OTHER DOCTOR would have administered them for him (MJ). this is sad because he didn’t learn his lesson until it was to late!!
MANY of these celebs are still out here doing this same thing paying doctors TOP DOLLAR to give them these drugs illegally, and to them (the doctors) MONEY IS MONEY. usually when these overdose deaths happen the doctor that prescribed the drug is NOT on site so they cannot be charged for the death unfortunately for this doctor he was on site and didn’t take the necessary precautions sooooooo this is his fate! this isn’t the first and certainly wont be the last we hear of celebs overdosing because they think they’re untouchable!! DEATH IS INEVITABLE FOR EVERYONE cannot be escaped so protect yourself and dont do things that could potentially harm you!!
I agree wit luv & banks!!! Noone can make u do some thing or take some u want!!!!
The issue isn’t whether MJ wanted the drugs because we all know he would have found a way to get them. The problem is that Dr. Murray should have removed himself from the situation. We all have a choice and he decided to stay around because of the $150K paycheck he was collecting every week/month.
Would you want a doctor to give you medication that you should not have even if you asked him for it knowing that death was a possibility? I’m thinking not.
@luvBw
What you just said is so irrelevant….I doesnt matter if mj wanted drugs or not, He shouldnt have supplied it to him knowing the dose was not healthy. he just wanted the check…point blank
Not saying that this Dr. should not be on trial but along side him should be every other Dr. before him!! Im sure he is not the only Dr. to aid in Mr. Jacksons apparent drug addiction!! It is unfortunate he had to die this way but from what Ive seen in my past a an addict will do and say what they need to get a fix and Mr. Murray unfortunately is left holding the bag!!! Truly this is tragedy for all parties involved
Did Anna Nicole’s doctor get charged for giving her all those meds she was taking? A lot of celebs have doctors they go to for a fix and if he gets charged then all of them should.
The medication was is used to put people under during surgery. Therefore, it should’ve never made it out of the hospital. He is guilty for that alone. Plus, he knew better than to give him so much. He knew what he was doing and now he’ll have to pay for it.
Kbanks, well said! I love MJ too but it’s clear that he was an addict!
I hate that MJ died like this, but I feel like the doctor needs to take the blame for this. This wasn’t just a prescription that he let MJ abuse.It was a med that was highly dangerous and supposed to be used in a hospital setting. On top of that this doctor didn’t even supervise him like he was suppose to when someone is on that kind of medication. His action after he found MJ unresponsive was also baffling. Which makes this sad because MJ paid people to care for him and they failed. As a doctor he should of put his foot down and protect his ownself when catering to MJ. Celebrity or not. His actions showed that he was nothing more than his personal drug dealer.
he killed te king of pop…and twelve people in the us killed themselves because of micheal jackson’s death..whatin the world….i was looking forward to listening to his new music!! R.I.P. M.J.
damn,obviously micheal liked taking them he did’nt complain/
It doesn’t matter whether Micheal Jackson was stubborn or not about what illegal use of drugs he wanted. Regardless, it is the RESPONSIBILITY of the DOCTOR to do what is legal, what is within his practice, what medications he is authorized to give and for what circumstances. It doesn’t matter if this was MJ, it’s black and white … He had no authority to give MJ medicatons used in a surgical setting for sleep…Point Blank.. Now illegally prescribing him other meds he may have abused is another discussion. Now whether or not the combo killed him, we will never know, but Murray dam sure should lose his practice, license and get jail time for illegal use of medications that may have contributed for this man’s death.
This is one time I must say that Latoya is speaking more of the truth, and reality of the situation, as well as Jermaine. Jermaine stated that Dr. Murray was the fall guy for Michaels death, as well as Latoya stated that is was a conspiracy. Dr. Murray will get some time after it all said and done, which may be 2 years of actual time. To really find out the truth, wiat til he is realeased and then follow his money. He will have more money coming in to him than even before this. You take the fall, we will make sure you will be taken c/o when you get out. This was not a nickle and dime scheme, this involved some very powerful people.
Here’s my take on this situation. I’m not taking either side of this situation but we have to think logically about it. Michael have been dealing with this doctor for awhile. Mike was paying him lucrative amount of money to keep his situation quiet. It was up to the doctor if he wanted to risk his career and the person’s life by doing something dangerous. He had a choice. What I find very strange is why didn’t his family get involved in Michael’s health before he died? I see why they are pointing fingers at the doctor who was there at the time of his death but they could have looked into the situation before it happened. Michael was very close to his mother and Janet but never shared or talked about his situation(s) with them??? I know family don’t like to get involve with their relative’s personal life but when something is not adding up or possibly becoming a life and death situation, it’s best for them to step in b4 it’s too late.
Also, I don’t know why Joe want to be all involved in the case. He didn’t care for his son. It was all about money and business to him. He is not getting a dime out of this case so he might as well stay his azz at home
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