The case against Dr. Conrad Murray has entered its final stage as the Los Angeles courtroom began on Tuesday with opening statements on the death of Michael Jackson in 2009 and whether or not his doctor was responsible. Jackson’s family was present alongside dozens of reporters and the proceedings are expected to be televised and broadcast online to a worldwide audience.

Dr. Murray stands accused of administering a killing dosage of sedatives to Michael Jackson in June 2009. The King of Pop was in the middle of rehearsals for a long-anticipated comeback tour when he suffered a heart attack at his rented mansion. The doctor allegedly gave the singer a lethal dosage of surgical anesthetics that was ruled as cause of death.

However, the doctor claims that Jackson administered the medicine himself. According to the BBC, the court listened to a message on an answering machine believed to have been left on the doctor’s phone by the singer shortly before his death. Jackson’s words are badly slurred as he attempts to talk about his tour.

The trial of the doctor is expected to last five weeks and it seems Michael Jackson’s death trial will end up as sensational as his life. On June 25, 2009, Dr. Conrad Murray gave local police a three-hour long interview, during which he admitted to injecting the singer with the off-licensed anesthesia which was meant to help the singer sleep.

It was this interview that led to the charges of involuntary manslaughter that threatens to send Dr. Murray in prison for four years. However, the doctor’s defense attorneys hope to convince jurors of a different theory: that the pop sensation ultimately caused his own death.

The first witness of the prosecution is Kenny Ortega, Jackson’s friend and choreographer. He will testify to details of the pop-star’s final days but has already said at a hearing earlier this year that Murray “warned him not to try to act as Jackson’s physician or psychiatrist” after Ortega thought Jackson “appeared to be sick” during a rehearsal and sent him home, according to Businessweek.com.

The prosecution will also utilize the interview of Dr. Murray and to a greater extend than before, challenge the doctor’s account of his actions. Dr. Murray has previously been noted as cooperative in the investigation, according to his defense, but recent evidence by the prosecutors point to four phone and email messages which were left unanswered in June and July, reports LAtimes.com.

This suggests a failure on Murray’s behalf to fully cooperate with the police and could harm his case. The authorities contend that Dr. Murray administered a lethal amount of the hospital drug alongside other sedatives, without taking into account the state of the 50-year-old star. It is also argued that the doctor lacked the proper lifesaving equipment says Businessweek.com.

Around a hundred jurors have to be cut down to 12 final members who will decide the final verdict. They have to go through dozens of witnesses and testimonies to get the first full account of what really happened the night Jackson died. We hope to know the truth in the next five weeks.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/bianhan/

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About the author

Claudia Sondergaard
Specialised in American foreign policy media discourse, I have a real passion for media and writing and feel comfortable in subjects such as human rights, politics, environment, social issues, movies, TV and books. Reporting from Denmark. Follow me @swirlgirlversus

1 Comment for Michael Jackson’s Doctor on Trial for Involuntary Manslaughter

Wayne

What was the final verdict

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