Jackson doctor convicted in star's 2009 drug death

[Manifestor_of_Light]

Source: Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A jury has convicted Michael Jackson's doctor of involuntary manslaughter in the singer's 2009 drug death.

The jury reached its verdict Monday after deliberating less than nine hours. Prosecutors depicted Dr. Conrad Murray as a reckless physician who abandoned Jackson while he was under the effects of the powerful anesthetic propofol.

Attorneys for the Houston-based cardiologist countered that Jackson was addicted to the drug and self-administered the fatal dose when Murray left his bedroom.

Murray agreed to become Jackson's personal physician as the singer prepared for a series of comeback concerts in 2009.



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MICHAEL_JACKSON_DOCTOR?SITE=OHCIN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[onehandle]

1. Now we can all sleep easy at night. nt

[karnac]

2. another black man guilty as charged.

sarcasm on or off,.. you decide.

but utterly true.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

3. But, but, but....O.J. is still looking for the real killer! From his prison cell!!!

:shrug:

[KansDem]

6. Now, now, let's not be too hard on OJ

After he was acquitted, he did start looking for the real killer. Just because he started on the world's golf courses shouldn't be held against him...

[Name removed]

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[elfin]

4. Looked like Conrad gave himself some prophynol

to get through the event. Glazed eyes, non-expressive etc.

Given the overcrowding at prisons, he may do just a very short time.

[JuniperLea]

5. Perhaps this will deter other doctors...

From over-prescribing.

I think Jackson was an addict... I didn't hear all the testimony, or the jury instructions, so I'm as in the dark today as the day Jackson died. I'm just hoping there is a positive effect here somewhere.

You can't OD on pot... just sayin'.

[KansDem]

11. "I think Jackson was an addict... "

I wondered the same thing. Here we have a "super star" with oodles of money. If he were an addict, perhaps his doctor was a high-priced Beverly Hills pusher?

I just don't buy the "Jacko was under a lot of stress with his comeback plans." Here's a man who live an entire life in the high-stressed entertainment industry and they're telling us he needed drugs to help facilitate his "comeback?"

Doesn't pass the smell test...

[lbrtbell]

18. He was stressed due to uncontrollable insomnia

There's no "smell test" involved here. MJ was terrified because he couldn't get enough sleep to perform. That's why, in desperation, he asked the doc for something to help him sleep, when none of the other drugs worked.

Whatever was wrong with MJ, he was far too physically ill to be performing. I've suffered from incredibly severe insomnia in the past, and I know that feeling all too well. He was being pressured to do more shows than he felt he was able to do in his condition.

With all the plastic surgery he had, MJ very likely became addicted to painkillers as a result. Not to mention his history of abuse at the hands of his father, which clearly messed him up. Unlike, say, Rush Limbaugh, who pops pills because he's a self-indulgent greedy fuck.

[Frank Cannon]

20. Propofol is NOT a sleep aid and does not provide restful sleep.

It is a general anesthesia drug and requires skilled personnel and a great deal of special monitoring equipment, life support equipment, etc., on hand in order to be used properly.

The good doctor knew this and did what he did anyway. Basically, the only favors he did Michael Jackson were to take a buttload of his money while gravely (pun intended) jeopardizing his life.

This clown probably won't spend even a day in jail, but at least he'll not be able to practice medicine again, as well he shouldn't.

[me b zola]

15. Very wealthy people will always be able to find people who will do whatever they want done for them

But it does make it harder for someone like me, whenever i have access to medical care, to get pain relief when i need it.

Just my 2 cents.

[TheMadMonk]

17. May well have been 9 kinds of addict, but his problem was a sleep...

...disorder. And it only got worse with time since anasthaesia is no a substitute for sleep. It would not surprise me at all to discover that Whacko Jacko was clinically insane at the time of his death.

But Jacko is Jacko, he paid for what he wanted and his agents found a doctor willing to deliver.

[HopeHoops]

7. Jackson's not dead. I just saw him at the 7-11 passing a 40-oz Schlitz around with Jesus, Osama,

Khadaffi, Elvis, and Jimmy Hoffa.

[trof]

9. Was Judge Crater there too? Who?

Receiving a phone call while on vacation

In the summer of 1930, Judge Crater and his wife, Stella Mance Wheeler, were vacationing at their summer cabin at Belgrade, Maine. In late July, he received a telephone call. He offered no information to his wife about the content of the call, other than to say that he had to return to the city "to straighten those fellows out".

The next day, he arrived at his 40 Fifth Avenue apartment but instead of dealing with business, he made a trip to Atlantic City with his mistress, a showgirl named Sally Lou Ritz. He returned to Maine on August 1, and traveled back to New York on August 3. Before making this final trip, he promised his wife he would return by her birthday, on August 9. Crater's wife stated that he was in good spirits and behaving normally when he departed for New York City. On the morning of August 6, Crater spent two hours going through his files in his courthouse chambers. He then had his assistant, Joseph Mara, cash two checks for him that amounted to U.S. $5,150 (equivalent to about $67,753 in today's funds<6>). At noon, he and Mara carried two locked briefcases to his apartment and he let Mara take the rest of the day off.
A ticket to see Dancing Partner

Later that evening, Crater went to a Broadway ticket agency and bought one seat for a comedy called Dancing Partner that was playing that night at the Belasco Theatre. He then went to Billy Haas’s Chophouse at 332 West 45th Street for dinner. There, he ate dinner with Sally Lou Ritz and a friend of his who was a lawyer. The lawyer later told investigators that Crater was in a good mood that evening and gave no indication that anything was bothering him. The dinner ended a little after 9 pm, a short time after the curtain rose on the show for which Crater bought a ticket, and the small group went outside.
Last known sighting

Crater's two dinner companions entered a taxi outside the restaurant. Both later testified before a grand jury that they last saw Crater walking down the street (this differs from the popular story that Crater entered a taxi and waved to his companions before speeding away).<7> What happened to him after that remains a mystery. Theories about his disappearance have suggested that he was murdered, that he ran off with another woman, or that he had been involved in corrupt practices which were about to be revealed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Force_Crater

[LuckyLib]

10. Now there's a motley crew!

LOL!:smoke:

[Seedersandleechers]

8. Now we need to convict

MJ's plastic surgeon.

[alp227]

12. As expected. nt

[undeterred]

13. Sounds like a good decision.

I can't see how he could justify the whole propofol at home setup and not getting emergency care for Michael Jackson when he needed it.

[2Design]

14. Sorry to see this - he was someone in the wrong place at the wrong time

a long list of people help the addict to the drug - not sure this was a good idea - but it is what it is

[undeterred]

19. As a physician his behavior was grossly irresponsible

and should be punished. Doctors should have a code of ethics they do not bend for celebrities or anyone with money, for the sake of the integrity of their profession and the safety of their patients. This doctor threw it all out the window because he was so awed by Jackson, and Jackson is dead because of it.

[closeupready]

25. No offense, but this post is laughable and self-important.

Doctors LAUGH about taking the Hippocratic Oath. OPENLY. Give me a fucking break.

[TorchTheWitch]

28. Murray isn't laughing now, is he?

This isn't about the Hippocratic Oath anyway. It's about LEGAL responsibility as a physician... not an oath or ethics but LAWS. Murray is directly responsible for Jackson's death by his gross negligence in administering an anesthesia drug outside of a hospital for a reason its use is not permitted and doesn't even work for the reason he administered it, and he didn't even bother to be there monitoring Jackson while he was under. He did all this knowing full well the legal ramifications of his actions just for the fucking huge amount of MONEY he was being paid.

I've never been a fan of Jackson (though I do love the old Jackson Five group), but I AM a fan of justice. In this case, justice prevailed. Murray killed his patient through gross negligence in several forms, and I guarantee you that no doctor finds that FUNNY.

[classysassy]

16. Justice in America

where are you,Jacksons doctor will probably go to jail,but the butcher of Iraq and Afghanistan goes free.?

[Name removed]

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[closeupready]

26. All Your Base Are Belong To Us.

[closeupready]

24. Stupid verdict, IMO.

Unrecced for verdict, not against the threadstarter.