Michael Jackson's death - manslaughter or murder?

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Michael Jackson memorial programme

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At the 52nd Grammy Awards on 31 January, Prince and Paris Jackson accepted the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of their late father, Michael Jackson.  Prince’s poignant first words were, “We’d like to thank God for watching over us for these past seven months.”  It’s good that they were taught to place their trust in God, since outside of their close family it will remain hard for them to know who to trust now.

Earlier this year, the doctor at the centre of Jackson’s death, cardiologist Dr Conrad Murray, was photographed looking downcast and forlorn at the star’s crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Far from feeling sorry for him, many see this as just another calculated publicity stunt.  After all, Murray’s You Tube video last year saw him use that essential minute of filming to protest his innocence rather than to show any remorse or sympathy.  

On 8th February, over seven months since Jackson passed away, Dr Murray was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter.  He arrived in suit and sunglasses and walked in with officers, but no cuffs, which seems considerably unjust considering the police acted swiftly in handcuffing and publicly humiliating Jackson back in 2003, sending 70+ cars to raid his home for a crime he did not commit.

To this day, Murray has maintained his innocence, saying that he ‘gave nothing to Michael Jackson that should have led to his death.’  The question is, if he didn’t, who did?  

Those who knew Michael Jackson are well aware that he had been reaching out to the few people he felt that he could trust in a desperate attempt to let them know that something was amiss.  For many years, he had been saying that ‘they’ were going to kill him.  When asked who, he would warn confidantes, “for the Beatles catalogue. They're all around me, they're going to kill me."

In another taped conversation with a spiritual advisor, he said that he mistrusted his manager Dr Tohme Tohme to the point where he wanted someone in the fold to keep an eye on him.  He said that Tohme had taken charge of all his finances to a point where he didn’t see what came into or went from his own accounts any more.

So many questions remain outstanding. What happened to the CCTV tapes from the house on that fateful night?  Why was the will ‘signed’ in Los Angeles when Jackson was actually in New York City on that date?  Most importantly, how could it be that Jackson had passed away four hours before the 911 call was made?  Was Conrad Murray even in the building at that time? Why, as a qualified cardiologist, did he not at least do CPR on a hard surface rather than on the bed? And who were the mobile calls to that the police traced he made in between administering the drug and making the 911 call?

If Jackson was indeed ill – or even an addict – as some malevolent sources might like us to believe, then how did he pass the medical?  If he was fit and well other than suffering from insomnia, which the autopsy confirms, then how could a 25ml dose of Propofol (the amount Murray says he administered) lead to his death?  

Sources say Murray could avoid a trial by plea bargaining a deal to a suspended sentence with a guilty admission, but what message would this send out to other doctors who are abusing the medical profession and risking lives by administering sometimes lethal doses of cocktails - to those who can offer them enough money?  It has been claimed that Murray’s defence team will suggest that Jackson was long term addict whose body had become tolerant to large doses of medication, but even if this were the case, if Murray knew he was dealing with an addict, why was he supplying a multitude of prescription drugs to that 'addict'?

By focussing on Dr Murray alone, the whole picture is left wanting.  Who authorised the medical for insurance purposes and what did it entail?  Who forced Jackson into fifty shows even when he himself said he wasn’t up to doing that many? How many concerts did the insurance cover and when was it issued? It’s like that there are far more people involved than Dr Murray, and that he is just the tip of the iceberg.  Press reports have shown Murray to be incompetent and clumsy with his personal life, and it’s likely that such incompetence and disregard has led to the biggest mess he’s ever had to face, but is Murray a killer, a ridiculously incompetent doctor or a credible fall guy?