Prosecutor holds Michael’s death case
Associated Press confirmed that seven months after Michael’s death, investigations into his death have ended, and the case will be submitted to a judicial examiner. A police source, who refused to give his name due to the sensitive nature of the case, said that Conrad Murray will be tried because of negligence in carrying out his duties, since his medical prescription for Michael was outside the boundaries of standard medical practice.
On June 25 last year, Michael died after being injected with a combination of sleeping drugs. The main cause of his death was reported as the presence of a lethal amount of the anesthetic propofol in his blood, whose effect was intensified by other sleeping drugs. Dr. Conrad Murray was the doctor Michael hired to take care of his health during his concert tour titled This Is It.
Murray was questioned extensively for injecting these drugs into Michael. A few months later, police determined Michael’s death to be a homicide.
Conrad Murray said that from early morning on June 25 until around 10:00 AM, he injected Michael—who suffered from chronic insomnia—with several strong sleeping drugs, but the drugs had no effect. At 10:40 AM, he administered the propofol injection. Murray said that after that, he left his patient alone—who was supposed to be under second-by-second care—to use the restroom. Also, his mobile phone showed that after Michael experienced a respiratory problem while sleeping, he spent 47 minutes talking on his mobile phone. When emergency responders arrived at Michael’s room at around 12:30 PM, they said that he may have died about an hour before their arrival.
The contradictions in Conrad Murray’s statements, the complexity of the times he gave, and Murray’s delay in contacting emergency services have been among the mysterious points of this case.
Michael’s body was examined twice by forensic medicine, and his brain was removed from his skull to conduct toxicology tests. After that, the doctor concluded that the propofol injection was not necessary. This powerful anesthetic is used only in operating rooms in hospitals and under immediate medical supervision. A patient’s breathing must be monitored continuously by an anesthesiology specialist.
On Friday, news that the investigation into this case had ended reached the media. After that, criminal defense attorney J. Michael Flanagan announced that he has been hired by him to defend Murray in court alongside Edward Chernoff, the other attorney for the accused.
Flanagan, a few years ago, was involved in a case in which he was accused of murder of a patient by a nurse for injecting propofol. Flanagan was able to prove that the nurse had no role in this injection. But Flanagan says there is a big difference between a nurse and an experienced doctor. He says that in order to convict Murray, the prosecution must prove that his client was indifferent to whether his patient lived or died.
“This trial could become a session to discuss whether a doctor’s mistake counts as a crime.”
A spokesperson for the Jackson family has not yet commented on their behalf.
Source: eMJey / AP