The Jacko Verdict

[charliechaplinfan]

Coming as I do from across the pond I'm not living and breathing this story, I do hope you guys are getting other items of news through. Forgive me for raiding a thread about something that has been done to death there but I've been a little confused as to how Dr Murray has been tried. My understanding is that he has been found guilty as the person who administered the drug to Jackson, I'm not sure that this is the case or if it can ever be properly proved, here you have to absolutely certain of the act before you can find someone guilty. I do feel Dr Murray is guilty for leaving the drugs around so that Michael Jackson could administer them himself, this is what I think happened. In my mind it's like leaving a pack of sweets with a very young child and trusting them not to touch them, this was a man desperate for sleep and desperate to give the best in his upcoming concerts, a man who has a history of prescription medicine abuse, Dr Murray is guilty for placing his patient in that position. He was paid tremendously well, it sounds like he was yet another of these doctor yesmen that we come across time and again with successful stars. I don't feel sorry for Dr Murray, he deserves his sentence for leaving the medicine lying around and not doing everything he could to revive Jackson, I'm only confused at how he got found guilty of administering the fatal dose as that doesn't seem to have been proved. I feel sorry for Jackson's children, at least they have the relief of knowing that their father didn't willingly commit suicide.

[moira finnie]

It's just my opinion, but from what I've read, the prosecution really did an excellent job making a valid case for Involuntary Manslaughter by Murray, based on his negligence of his patient (Jackson). The limp defense that Murray's lawyers suggested when they claimed that propofol could have been self-administered by the victim really didn't seem to hold water in a practical way, especially after expert testimony verified that if Jackson tried to drink it, the propofol would not have been fatal. The intravenous application of it without proper heart and lung monitoring ongoing was what helped to kill the man. (I've had this stuff prior to an operation more than once. Maybe Jackson was inured to the effects of the drug and was peppy enough after a dose, but frankly, no physical action is possible after a hit of this stuff and you're not exactly dancing on the ceiling after you wake up. Why anyone would want this stuff outside of a medical setting is a real head-scratcher).

I think that the case hinged on the undeniable admission by the doctor to the cops (and verified by witnesses) that he left the room after administering this powerful drug, neglected to call 911 immediately when he found his patient in distress (and he did not know how to administer CPR correctly, despite being a cardiologist), he did not tell the EMS and emergency room doctors what drug the man had in his system and he hid drug-related paraphernalia from them and the police. All this seemed to stem from his desire to forget his responsibility to this drug addicted patient for $150k monthly, because he needed the money (the man has seven children by many women). BTW, due to overcrowding, there seems to be little chance that the doctor will ever do the possible up to 4 years prison term he could be sentenced to by the judge. I don't think Murray will be practicing medicine again in the U.S.

The idiotic media and the fanatics will probably try to blow all this out of proportion, I suppose, though it just seems like a rich guy who didn't have any common sense and a needy, foolish medico who wanted cash, without caring how he had to earn it. I just hope that propofol becomes classified as a controlled substance (requiring a valid prescription and closely regulated) after all this folderol.

[charliechaplinfan]

Thanks Moira, I don't watch 24 hours news channels only the half hour segments and these have been brief, Jackson's trial often appearing way down the list of news worthy items, so it was hard to glean all the facts. Like you I've had anaesthesia in hospital (not sure it was propofol but it sure to have similar effects) I can't imagine anyone wanting to take such for a bit of sleep, here it's difficult to get the lowest dose of sleeping tablets because once you start it ca be a slippery road. I didn't know that it had to have been injected, although it still doesn't prove Murray did it. Aren't there pictures of jackson showing lots of puncture marks? All the other shortcomings of Murray make him at least an accessory to Jacko's death.

Going offthe clips that I've seen it doesn't appear to me that Jackson's imediate family came off too well and as for some of the reporters, I think sometimes they forget that a man has died and children have lost their father and try to sensationalise and continually repeat the same story.