Prosecutors have called a cardiologist as an expert to testify against the doctor charged in Michael Jackson’s death.

They called Dr. Alon Steinberg to explain to jurors the role of a cardiologist and explain how Dr. Conrad Murray’s treatment of Jackson deviated from general standards.

Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Authorities contend he gave Jackson a lethal dose of the anaesthetic propofol, but Murray’s attorneys claim Jackson gave himself the fatal dose.

Steinberg is one of three expert witnesses who are expected to wind down the prosecution’s case against Murray, who faces four years behind bars and the loss of his medical license if convicted.

Steinberg told jurors he is not an expert in anesthesiology, sleep treatment or addiction.

Source: Forbes.com

An anesthesiologist is expected to take the stand Wednesday in the trial of Michael Jackson’s personal physician to testify about Dr. Conrad Murray’s use of the surgical anesthetic propofol to treat his pop star patient.

Dr. Steven Shafer, a professor of anesthesiology at Columbia University and editor in chief of the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia, is one of a series of medical experts expected to testify about Murray’s administering of the powerful drug in a home setting.

Propofol, which is known to carry a risk of respiratory or cardiac depression, is typically used for surgeries in hospital operating rooms.

Shafer was retained by prosecutors in Murray’s involuntary manslaughter case and prepared several reports giving his expert opinion.

One of Shafer’s reports, which offered the opinion that propofol would not have any effect if taken orally, led defense attorneys to ask for a delay in the trial earlier this year.Shafer said that if ingested orally, the liver would have metabolized 99% of the drug before it entered the bloodstream. The defense has theorized that Jackson either drank or injected himself with propofol and caused his own death.

Jackson died June 25, 2009, from acute intoxication of propofol.

A coroner’s medical examiner testified Tuesday that he ruled the pop star’s death a homicide because of the inadequate condition in which Murray gave the drug, and because he did not believe Jackson could have given himself the lethal dose.

If convicted, Murray faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

Source: LATimes.com

One of the most chilling moments of the Conrad Murray trial was the playing of that slurred audio recording of Michael Jackson, allegedly taped by Dr. Murray.

For many, that recording is proof that the King of Pop suffered from substance abuse. However, Dr. Murray alleges that he had no idea that other doctors were supplying MJ with drugs, in his jaw-dropping statement to police.

Dr. John Dombrowski, an anesthesiologist and pain-management specialist, appeared on Dr. Drew’s HLN show Tuesday night to discuss this issue.

“When a patient comes to me in the operating room, I have to know every medication he or she is on, so I know how the anesthetic will interact with the individual,”

Dr. Dombrowski explained.

“We as anesthesiologists are personally responsible for that patient … you have to know the medication he is getting. If you use propofol, you will know how to monitor the patient and how much to give the patient.”

Ryan Smith, host on truTV’s In Session, asked if that meant Dr. Murray may have failed Jackson by not getting to know who Jackson was interacting with … affecting his treatment.

Dr. Dombrowski replied by saying that it’s important to make sure all the medical professionals are coordinating together so they get the right care to the patient.

“When he’s [Dr. Murray] providing this level of care to Michael Jackson, he sees what medication is around him,”

Dr. Dombrowski noted.

“He can’t help but notice it. He can pick up the bottle, read what he’s taking – my goodness – ‘[say], let me give this physician a call.’ We do it all the time as anesthesiologists and people that specialize in pain medicine.”

Dr. Dombrowski ended the interview with another significant point.

“Any time you give anyone an anesthetic, you never leave the patient,”

he said.

“You don’t say, ‘he self-administered – he drunk it – went someplace else.’ I am always there in attendance to find out what goes on. You never abandon the patient at any time.”

Watch http://www.hlntv.com/DrDrew Dr. Drew weeknights on HLN at 9 p.m. ET and follow him on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/drdrewhln @DrDrewHLN

Source: CNN.com

Prosecutors plan to wrap up their case against the doctor charged in Michael Jackson’s death by calling three experts intended to help jurors make sense of the complex medical evidence they have been presented.

Prosecutors told a judge overseeing the involuntary manslaughter case against Dr. Conrad Murray that their remaining witnesses will include experts in cardiology, pulmonary and sleep issues and a leading researcher on the anesthetic propofol, which is blamed in the pop star’s death, a transcript shows.

The government’s case against Murray may conclude late this week or early next, although an exact timetable remains unclear. Murray’s defense attorneys are likely to vigorously challenge the experts, especially Dr. Steven Shafer, a researcher and Columbia University professor who will be called upon to explain propofol and its effects.

Deputy District Attorney David Walgren told a judge he plans to call Shafer as his final witness.

Murray’s attorneys are expected to present a defense case that includes their own witness on propofol.

Authorities say Murray gave Jackson a fatal dose of the surgical anesthetic in June 2009. Murray has pleaded not guilty in the case. The Houston-based cardiologist’s lawyers say that Jackson gave himself the fatal dose.

The other experts are Dr. Elon Steinberg, a cardiologist, and Nader Kamanger, an expert in pulmonary and sleep issues.

Prosecutors hope the trio’s testimony will support their contentions that Murray acted recklessly by giving Jackson propofol as a sleep aid in the singer’s bedroom.

The outside experts’ testimony comes a day after a medical examiner told jurors that it was unreasonable to believe that Jackson gave himself the fatal dose of propofol when Murray left the room for only two minutes.

Dr. Christopher Rogers, who conducted the autopsy on Jackson, testified Tuesday it was more likely that Murray overdosed the singer when he incorrectly estimated how much of the drug he was giving Jackson to induce sleep to fight insomnia. He said Murray had no precision dosing device available in the bedroom of Jackson’s rented mansion.

“The circumstances, from my point of view, do not support self-administration of propofol,”

said Rogers, chief of forensic medicine in the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office.

Rogers analyzed two possible scenarios for Jackson’s death. The first was the defense theory that while Murray stepped away to go to the bathroom, Jackson gave himself an extra dose of the drug he called his “milk.”

“In order for Mr. Jackson to have administered the propofol to himself, you would have to assume he woke up and although he was under the influence of … propofol and other sedatives, he was somehow able to administer propofol to himself,”

Rogers testified.

“Then he stops breathing and all of this takes place in a two-minute period of time,”

Rogers said.

“To me, that scenario seems less reasonable.”

“Less reasonable than what?”

Walgren asked.

“The alternate scenario would be in order to keep Mr. Jackson asleep, the doctor would have to give him a little bit every hour, two or three tablespoons an hour,”

Rogers said, noting that propofol is a short-acting drug that wears off quickly.

Source: washingtonpost.com

Michael Jackson could not have given himself the powerful anaesthetic that caused his death, the medic who carried out the singer’s autopsy has testified.

Dr Christopher Rogers said it was more likely Jackson’s personal physician Conrad Murray mistakenly gave him too much of the drug propofol to try to help him sleep.

He added Dr Murray had no precision dosing device in Jackson’s bedroom.

Dr Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

His lawyers claim Jackson gave himself the fatal dose while Dr Murray was out of the room.

The doctor told police, in an interview heard in court last week, that he was away from Jackson’s bed for only two minutes on 25 June 2009 to go to the bathroom, and returned to find the singer was not breathing.

However Dr Rogers testified that Jackson – who was already heavily sedated – would not have been able to inject a lethal dose of propofol before Murray returned.

“The circumstances, from my point of view, do not support self-administration of propofol,”

the chief of forensic medicine at the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office said.

Dr Murray has admitted to giving Jackson 25ml of the drug to help him sleep, and would have had to give regular extra doses to keep the singer unconscious.

Dr Rogers said evidence found in Jackson’s bedroom included an empty 100ml bottle of propofol.

But he noted that as Dr Murray had no accurate equipment to check the doses being administered,

“essentially, the doctor would be estimating how much propofol he was giving”.

“I think it would be easy under those circumstances for the doctor to estimate wrong and give too much propofol,”

Dr Rogers said.

He also noted the lack of sophisticated medical equipment in Jackson’s bedroom where the drugs were administered, such as resuscitation equipment.

Dr Rogers said the cause of death was “acute propofol intoxication”, ruling the death a homicide.

The trial in Los Angeles Superior Court is expected to last five weeks, until the end of October.

If Dr Murray is convicted, he faces up to four years in jail.

Source: bbcnews.com

Smokey Robinson says he doesn’t want his sympathy for Dr. Murray to be misinterpreted as support, saying he does “feel sorry” for the guy …but still believes Murray is 100% GUILTY.

Earlier this week, Smokey told Access Hollywood:

“I actually feel sorry in a way for the doctor .. he was just under the influence of being so happy to be around Michael Jackson.”

Now, Smokey says he does not want anyone to be confused about his stance on the manslaughter case:

“Let me be clear, I believe Dr. Murray is responsible for Michael Jackson’s death through his absolute negligence.

I knew Michael Jackson since he was 10 years old and loved him like a little brother. His untimely death was one of the most tragic events in my life.”

Source: TMZ

A medical examiner, striking a major blow to the defense of Michael Jackson’s doctor, said Tuesday it is unreasonable to believe Jackson could have given himself a fatal dose of the powerful anesthetic propofol.

Dr. Christopher Rogers, who conducted the autopsy on Jackson, testified it was more likely that Dr. Conrad Murray overdosed the singer when he incorrectly estimated how much of the drug he was giving Jackson to induce sleep.

Rogers said Murray had no precision dosing device on hand in the bedroom of Jackson’s rented mansion.

“The circumstances, from my point of view, do not support self-administration of propofol,”

said Rogers, chief of forensic medicine in the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office.

Rogers analyzed two possible scenarios for Jackson’s death. The first was the defense theory that while Murray stepped away to go to the bathroom, Jackson gave himself an extra dose of the drug he called his “milk.”

“In order for Mr. Jackson to have administered the propofol to himself, you would have to assume he woke up and although he was under the influence of … propofol and other sedatives, he was somehow able to administer propofol to himself,”

Rogers testified.

“Then he stops breathing and all of this takes place in a two-minute period of time,”

Rogers said.

“To me, that scenario seems less reasonable.”

“Less reasonable than what?”

asked Deputy District Attorney David Walgren.

“The alternate scenario would be in order to keep Mr. Jackson asleep, the doctor would have to give him a little bit every hour, two or three tablespoons an hour,”

Rogers said, noting that propofol is a short-acting drug that wears off quickly.

“We did not find any precision dosing device, so the doctor would be estimating how much he was giving,”

the medical examiner said.

Murray told police he gave Jackson only 25 milligrams of the drug, a very small dose that usually would have kept him asleep for no more than five minutes.

Rogers said he examined evidence found in Jackson’s bedroom and noted there was an empty 100 milliliter bottle of propofol.

Rogers said the cause of death was “acute propofol intoxication and the contributing condition was the benzodiazepine effect.”

Two sedatives from that drug group — lorazepam and midazolam — were found in Jackson’s system after he died.

Rogers said he considered a number of factors in ruling the death a homicide. Among them were Murray’s statements to police and the lack of sophisticated medical equipment in Jackson’s bedroom, where the superstar had been receiving the anesthetic.

He said there was no EKG monitor, no resuscitation equipment and no precision dosing device present in the room.

Rogers also testified it would be inappropriate to use propofol outside a hospital or medical clinic.

Walgren illustrated testimony about the autopsy by showing a stark photograph of the singer’s body on an examining table with his genitals covered. He appeared thin but not emaciated. The doctor said he was 5 feet 9 inches and weighed 136 pounds.

“I believe he was healthier than the average person his age,”

Rogers said, explaining Jackson had no fatty buildup in his arteries common to people his age.

Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Rogers’ testimony came after jurors heard the end of Murray’s June 27, 2009, recorded interview with police in which he first disclosed he had been giving Jackson propofol to help him sleep.

Prosecutors played the remaining 40 minutes of the interview, which included Murray’s description of informing Jackson’s mother and children that the entertainer was dead.

“After they cried and cried and cried, then his daughter uttered a lot of words of unhappiness,”

Murray told detectives, saying Paris Jackson was afraid of being alone after her father’s death.

“’I know you tried your best, but I’m really sad,’”

he continued, recounting her words.

“’I will wake up in the morning, and I won’t be able to see my daddy.’”

Jackson’s mother, Katherine, dabbed her eyes with a tissue as the recording played. She and other members of the Jackson family left court and did not see the autopsy picture.

A police detective who helped conduct Murray’s interview told jurors that Murray seemed surprised when, toward the end of the interview, he learned that three bags of medical items had not yet been recovered from the star’s bedroom.

The recording ended shortly after the physician explained the items could be found in a closet.

The interview helped transform the investigation into Jackson’s June 25, 2009, death from a simple death inquiry into a homicide case.

Prosecutors were expected to call an expert on propofol as a witness later in the day.

Source: washingtonpost.com

Michael Jackson was reportedly healthier than most people his age when he died from acute Propofol intoxication in 2009.

The ‘Thriller’ hitmaker – who died from acute Propofol intoxication in 2009 – was in good physical according to Dr Christopher Rogers, who ruled his death a homicide, and was most likely killed by the cocktail of sedatives in his body.

According to TMZ, the doctor said in court today (11.10.11) that he came to the decision 50-year-old Michael’s death was not self-inflicted because the Propofol was administered by another person other than the patient.

Meanwhile, Dr. Conrad Murray claimed Michael never told him he was seeing other doctors.

The medic is currently on trial for the involuntary manslaughter of the ‘Thriller” hitmaker and although Conrad knew Michael visited other doctors regularly, he says the pair never discussed it.

During a taped interview with police – recorded two days after Michael’s death and played in court in Los Angeles today – Dr. Murray said:

“When [Michael] came back [from Klein's office], he was basically wasted and required 24 hours for recovery.”

The doctor added that he regularly spotted prescription pill bottles by the singer’s bedside, bearing other doctors’ names.

Source: femalefirst.co.uk

A coroner who conducted the autopsy on Michael Jackson says there is no evidence supporting the theory by attorneys for Dr. Conrad Murray that Jackson gave himself a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol.

Dr. Christopher Rogers also testified Tuesday that the singer was healthier than most people his age and his heart did not show the usual signs of fatty buildup generally seen in men the same age.

Rogers explained to jurors how coroner’s officials determined the 50-year-old singer died in June 2009 from acute propofol intoxication.

The determination led to prosecutors charging Murray with involuntary manslaughter. The cardiologist has pleaded not guilty.

Source: ABCNews.com

The L.A. County Coroner has just officially announced the cause of Michael Jackson’s death – Acute Propofol intoxication.

The report says “other conditions contributing to death: Benzodiazepine effect.” Benzodiazepines are a group of drugs (see below) used to treat anxiety and insomnia.

The manner of death is ruled: “HOMICIDE”

The Coroner did not release the full autopsy report — just a press notice. It goes on:

The drugs PROPOFOL and LORAZEPAM (Ativan) were found to be the primary drugs responsible for Mr. Jackson’s death.

Other drugs detected were: Midazolam (Versed), Diazepam (Valium), Lidocaine (topical anesthetic) and Ephedrine (used to treat hypotension associated with anesthesia).

The final Coroner’s report, including the toxicology report, will remain on security hold, per the LAPD.

The Jackson family just released a statement:

“The Jackson family again wishes to commend the actions of the Coroner, the LAPD and other law enforcement agencies, and looks forward to the day that justice can be served.”

Source: TMZ.com

Michael Jackson’s three children “cried and cried and cried” when an emergency room doctor told them their father was dead, Dr. Conrad Murray said in a police interview two days after the pop icon’s death.

Jurors were hearing the last 45 minutes of the police interview Tuesday morning, the 10th day of Murray’s involuntary manslaughter trial. Most of the audio recording was played in court Friday.

Jackson matriarch Katherine Jackson sat on the second row of court with her husband and several of her children Tuesday after being absent from the trial for more than a week on an international trip. The Jackson family listened as Murray described to detectives the reaction of her 11-year-old granddaughter, Paris, to being told her father was dead.
“I will wake up in the morning, and I won’t be able to see my daddy,” Paris said, according to Murray.
Murray is not expected to testify during the trial, but the interview playback means jurors will have heard his story — at least as he told it two days after Jackson’s death.

She was almost Michael Jackson’s doctor Jackson friend: Murray should do time Conrad trial testimony debated
The prosecution could benefit from the jury hearing Murray say he was away from Jackson for just two minutes before finding him without a pulse. Phone records and witnesses showed that moment came after he spent at least 45 minutes on his cell phone.

Murray’s defense, however, may gain by the more personal view jurors get of the doctor without subjecting him to prosecution questioning.

The jury on Friday heard Murray’s reasons for not immediately calling 911 for help, his explanation of his much-criticized CPR techniques, and his statement that he was trying to wean Jackson off a dependency on propofol.
Tuesday’s interview playback will begin with Murray relating how Jackson’s children “really were weeping, really weeping” when they were told doctors at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center were unable to save their father.

“I hugged them all, gave comfort to Paris, comfort to Prince, comfort to Blanket, which is the last little guy, because whenever they were sick, they would always ask for Dr. Conrad,”

Murray said.

Murray, who treated Jackson and his children for colds and minor illnesses when they visited or lived in Las Vegas, was hired as Jackson’s full-time physician just two months before his June 25, 2009, death.

“After they cried and cried and cried, then his daughter uttered a lot of words of unhappiness and, you know, she will live alone without her dad and she didn’t want to be an orphan,”

Murray said, referring to Paris.

“She asked me, ‘Dr. Murray, you said you save a lot of patients. You know, you save people with heart attacks, and you couldn’t save my dad,’”

he told detectives.

“I said, ‘I tried my best.’ And she said, ‘I know that, Dr. Murray. At least I know. I know you tried your best. I know you tried your best, but I’m really sad. You know, I will wake up in the morning, and I won’t be able to see my daddy.’”

Murray said he also was unable to explain Jackson’s death to other family members gathered in a conference room at the hospital.

“Do you know why he died?”

one of them asked, Murray told police.

“My answer was ‘No,’ and that’s the reason why I was recommending to the family to have an autopsy, because I also wanted to know,”

Murray said.

Prosecutors contend Jackson died because of Murray’s criminal negligence, including the use of the surgical anesthetic propofol in his bedroom, without proper monitoring equipment.

The Los Angeles County coroner ruled that Jackson’s death was the result of “acute propofol intoxication” in combination with several sedatives — all drugs Murray acknowledged in the police interview that he gave Jackson in the hours before his death.

But in the portion of the interview to be heard Tuesday, Murray points the finger away from him to other doctors.

“I was not aware of any other medications that he was taking, but I heard that he was seeing a Dr. Klein three times a week in Beverly Hills,”

Murray told police.

“And he never disclosed that to me.”

Defense lawyer Ed Chernoff contended at the start of the trial that Dr. Arnold Klein had addicted Jackson to Demerol, a narcotic pain reliever, during the singer’s regular visits to his Beverly Hills dermatology clinic in the weeks before his death.

“His production team had said to me recently that his worst days in the set is when he had gone to Dr. Klein’s office, which is about three times a week,”

Murray said in the interview.

“And when he came back, he was basically wasted and required at least 24 hours for recovery.”

Three earlier prosecution witnesses testified that they were aware of Jackson’s frequent visits to Klein’s office and that Jackson’s speech would be slow and slurred afterward.

Toxicology tests did not find Demerol in Jackson’s blood at the time of his death, but the defense contention is that it played a role because Jackson was unable to sleep because he was suffering from withdrawal from the drug.
Murray told police that Jackson was “showing signs of a withdrawal,” but he suspected it was from propofol, which he said he was trying to wean Jackson off after two months of nightly use.

Jackson’s death came after two nights of not using propofol. Murray said he gave him a series of three sedatives — Valium, lorazepam and midazolam — on the third night without getting him to sleep.

“It wasn’t working,”

Murray said.

“So, was he going through a withdrawal from that agent? Was it his mind that was forcing him to stay awake?”

After 10 hours of trying, Jackson begged him to give him propofol again, Murray said, which the singer called his “milk.” He needed rest before an important rehearsal for his “This Is It” comeback shows.

“I’ve got to sleep, Dr. Conrad,”

Murray said Jackson pleaded to him.

“I have these rehearsals to perform. I must be ready for the show in England. Tomorrow, I will have to cancel my performance, because you know I cannot function if I don’t get to sleep.”

By 10:40 a.m., Murray said, he gave in.

“I then decided to go ahead and give him some of the milk, so he could get a couple of hours sleep so that he could produce, because I cared about him,”

Murray said.

“I did not want him to fail. I had no intentions of hurting him. And I was compassionate. But what I was doing, too, recognizing that Michael Jackson may have had a dependency to a substance. I was trying to wean him off.”

On the recording, Murray insisted he kept a close watch on Jackson after he finally fell asleep. The physician never mentioned the long list of e-mails and calls that cell phone records later revealed.
The doctor said he left the room for about two minutes to visit the toilet. When he returned, he realized his patient had stopped breathing, Murray said.

“Immediately, I felt for a pulse and I was able to get a pulse in the femoral region,” he said. “His body was warm. There was no change in color, so I assumed that everything happened quickly.”

Murray told police he immediately started one-handed CPR on the bed alternately with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Jackson.

“I couldn’t lift him off the bed by myself,”

Murray said.

“What I did was to improvise. His bed is fairly firm, so I got my left hand under his body and I compressed with my hand not moving in place.”

Jackson security chief Alberto Alvarez, the first person to join Murray in the effort, testified that he questioned Murray’s knowledge of CPR techniques because he was trained to put a patient on a hard surface and use two hands.
Murray said he did not call 911 for help immediately because he expected answering the emergency operator’s questions would take too much time away from the resuscitation efforts.

Instead, he ran down the stairs and shouted for the chef to summon help, and he placed a call to Jackson’s personal assistant, Michael Amir Williams, to ask that he send a security guard upstairs, Murray said.
Murray said he tried his best to revive Jackson.

In the portion of the interview played Friday, Murray said Jackson told him that hiring him as his personal doctor was “divine guidance.”

Murray said that when he agreed to be Jackson’s personal physician for his “This Is It” shows in London, he had no idea he would have to give him regular infusions of propofol.
But it was a drug Jackson told him he had used for years to get elusive sleep, he said.

“I was a bit surprised of his pharmacological knowledge,”

Murray told police.

“He explained that he used it frequently on his tours.”

During his two months on the job, he gave Jackson propofol “30 days a month, every day, with the exception of three days leading up to his death,” Murray said.

If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Murray could spend four years in a California prison and lose his medical license.

Source: CNN.com

Conrad Murray’s beautiful past and current girlfriends testified at his manslaughter trial Tuesday that they were on the phone with him the day that Michael Jackson died while in his care.

Prosecutors showed call and text logs between the then-married doctor and the women from June 25, 2009, including a call made to Sade Anding, a waitress who met Murray in a Houston steakhouse in 2009.

Anding testified she and Murray were chatting for about five minutes, just short of noon, when she realized that Murray was no longer on the phone and had apparently put the phone in his pocket without hanging up.

“I said, ‘Hello? Hello?’ ” Anding testified. But, according to earlier testimony, Murray’s next phone call was to Jackson’s personal assistant, alerting him that Jackson had a bad reaction to medication.

Prosecutors allege Murray abandoned Jackson, pumping him full of propofol – a toxic sedative normally used in hospitals for surgeries – and did not watch him or use a breathing monitor that could be heard in the next room. Paramedics and doctors testified Jackson was dead too long for them to be able to revive him.

Other women who testified Monday they communicated with Murray on the day of Jackson’s death were:

• Michelle Bella, who recalled meeting Murray at a club in Las Vegas in 2008 – the year before Jackson died. (She got a text message from him; the other women spoke on the phone.)

• Bridgette Morgan, a Los Angeles-based girlfriend of Murray’s from 2003 to 2009.

• Nicole Alvarez, an actress in TV commercials who shares a son and an apartment with the cardiologist.

Alvarez appeared unfazed by taking the same stand as Murray’s ex loves. She had jurors smirking with her bubbly recollections of meeting Jackson and showing him her baby bump.

“Michael was very interested in the baby,” Alvarez testified. “He saw my stomach grow with the visits.”

Source: People.com

Raw video clips of Michael Jackson’s last rehearsals will not be shown in the involuntary manslaughter trial of the late pop singer’s personal physician, the judge ruled Monday.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor spent several hours at Sony Pictures Studio on Friday reviewing about a dozen hours of video that prosecutors or defense lawyers proposed for the jury to see.

“It was a waste of my time,” Pastor said.

It was not immediately clear if the prosecution would still be allowed to show parts of the “This Is It” documentary about Jackson’s preparations for his London comeback shows.

Defense lawyers had suggested clips “left on the cutting room” floor by the documentary editors might show that Jackson was in failing health in the days before his June 25, 2009, death.

“It’s quite the contrary,” Pastor said.

Lawyers for each side spent two weeks this month viewing more than 100 hours of video, narrowing down what they thought was relevant to the case. The prosecution selected 12 hours of video, while the defense identified four.

Defense lawyer Michael Flanagan said after a hearing last Wednesday that the video showed him that Jackson was “very talented, that he’s pretty good; even on his bad days, he’s good.”

The defense was looking for clues in the video to show that Jackson was in ill health in his final days, but Flanagan said it was not detectable in his performance video. Jackson also did not appear to be depressed in his final days, he said.

The defense will argue that none of the “This Is It” video is relevant to the criminal trial and would be “a big waste of time.”

“It shows him onstage performing,” Flanagan said. “I don’t know why that’s relevant as to what happened the night that he died when he couldn’t sleep.”

Jury selection in the trial is set to begin on September 8 in a Los Angeles County courtroom, with opening statements later in the month.

Source: CNN

The judge in the case against Michael Jackson’s personal physician said Wednesday that he will review about 12 hours of raw footage of the singer’s rehearsals shortly before his death to see if it should be shown to jurors, but he downplayed a defense suggestion that the jury be sequestered.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said he will visit Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City to review the footage, which prosecutors contend should be admissible in the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray.

Defense attorneys claim most of the footage is irrelevant, simply showing the singer performing.

Pastor said he expected to be able to review the footage by this weekend. Another hearing in the case is scheduled for Monday.

Source: AP

A lawyer for Michael Jackson’s doctor said Wednesday his jury should be sequestered to avoid contamination by TV pundits – specifically Nancy Grace.

Attorney J. Michael Flanagan said the televised, involuntary manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray could be prejudiced by “final arguments” being delivered daily on TV by Grace and other commentators.

When Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor asked if Flanagan would want jurors sequestered around the clock during the trial, the lawyer responded, “Every time Nancy Grace is on TV.”

“We would like a decision made on the evidence that appears in this courtroom rather than commentary on the Nancy Grace show,” he said.

Source: AP