LOS ANGELES — The first week of the manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor has had all the trappings of other courtroom spectacles involving the King of Pop: Dozens of sign-toting fans, TV crews, Jackson lookalikes and the familiar faces of the Jackson family enduring yet another public crucible.
Inside the courtroom, jurors heard intimate, riveting details of the pop superstar’s life, including recordings of his drug-slurred voice, his hopes for a major comeback tour, even his love of spinach Cobb salad with organic turkey breast.
But jurors have been reminded regularly that someone else is on trial here. And despite all the courtroom drama, the involuntary manslaughter case against Dr. Conrad Murray is relatively straightforward. To win a conviction, prosecutors must simply prove that Murray acted with gross negligence as Jackson’s personal physician in the days and hours before his death.
Murray, 58, a Houston cardiologist, sat silently as prosecutors called witnesses who said he never told them to call 911 after Jackson was found unconscious in the bedroom of his rented Los Angeles mansion. They suggested Murray could have instructed security guards, a chef and Jackson’s personal assistant to make the crucial call, but he didn’t.
One security guard said Murray delayed the call while telling him to bag vials of medicine.
In the eyes of prosecutors, Murray did nearly everything wrong and even abandoned the singer in his hour of extreme need when he left his bedside to make a phone call. Defense attorneys are aggressively challenging such claims.
Attorney Adam Braun said the first requirement for prosecutors is to prove the cause of Jackson’s death.
A coroner’s report said he died June 25, 2009, of acute intoxication from the powerful anesthetic propofol, with the presence of sedatives known as benzodiazepines.
Prosecutors “have to show it was reckless both to prescribe and administer propofol and to leave it next to the bed,” Braun said.
Thus far, prosecutors have focused their evidence on alleged serious acts of omission by Murray. Witnesses said he delayed asking others to make the 911 call, failed to have the proper lifesaving equipment on hand and didn’t tell paramedics that he had given Jackson propofol.
Central to their case is Murray’s decision to provide the star with propofol, the drug Jackson called his “milk,” delivering it in a cozy home bedroom rather than a hospital room, where it is meant to be given with an anesthesiologist on hand and lifesaving equipment such as a CPR machine available for any emergencies.
Defense attorney Ed Chernoff contends that Murray was actually trying to wean Jackson from the drug when the singer downed a fatal dose while Murray was out of the room.
Murray may be the only person who can tell jurors why he did what he did. But experts say it would be risky for him to testify and open himself up to accusatory questions from the prosecution.
Updates. Follow the latest developments in the trial of Dr. Conrad
