Trial of Conrad Murray

California v. Murray
Court	Los Angeles County Superior Court
Full case name	People of the State of California v. Conrad Robert Murray
Decided	November 7, 2011
Case opinions
Murray found guilty involuntary manslaughter
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	Michael E. Pastor

The trial of Conrad Murray (People of the State of California v. Conrad Robert Murray) was the American criminal trial of Michael Jackson's personal physician, Conrad Murray, who was charged with involuntary manslaughter for murdering the pop singer on June 25, 2009, from a massive overdose of the general anesthetic propofol. The trial, which started on September 27, 2011, was held in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Los Angeles, California, before Judge Michael Pastor and it was televised.

The prosecutors in the case (David Walgren and Deborah Brazil, both Los Angeles deputy district attorneys), in their opening statement, told jurors: "misplaced trust in the hands of Murray cost Jackson his life". Murray's defense counsel (Edward Chernoff, Matthew Alford, J. Michael Flanagan and Nareg Gourjian) claimed Jackson, who was tired and under pressure from rehearsing, took eight tablets of lorazepam (Ativan), a sedative. "When Dr. Murray left the room, Jackson self-administered a dose of propofol that, with the lorazepam, created a perfect storm in his body that killed him instantly. The whole thing is tragic, but the evidence is not that Dr. Murray did it", Chernoff said. Testimony during the trial showed Murray stayed with Jackson at least six nights a week and was regularly asked—and sometimes begged—by the insomniac singer to give him drugs powerful enough to put him to sleep.

Murray told authorities Jackson was especially eager to be administered propofol, a surgical anesthetic that put him to sleep when other powerful sedatives could not. Testimony indicated that propofol, in conjunction with other drugs in Jackson's system, had played the key role in his death. In 2011, the jury found Murray guilty after about eight hours of deliberation, and he was sentenced to four years in prison, but was released after two years on October 28, 2013, owing to prison overcrowding and good behavior.

Both sides made opening statements. The jury viewed a photograph of Jackson lying on a gurney, taken minutes after he was declared dead. The jury also heard a tape of Jackson's slurred speech near the end of his life. Murray's attorney told the court that Murray is not to blame for Jackson's death, that Jackson gave himself a dose of drugs that killed him so quickly Jackson "didn't even have time to close his eyes". "What happened during that time frame is that the acts and omissions of Michael Jackson's personal doctor Conrad Murray directly led to his premature death at age 50," prosecutor Walgren said. "That misplaced trust in Conrad Murray cost Michael Jackson his life." The first witness, Kenny Ortega, was called to testify.

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