Appeals Court Rejects Murray's Urgent Request

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright September 9, 2011
All Rights Reserved.                                         

           Jury selection began today in the involuntary manslaughter trial of 58-year-old Dr. Conrad Murray, the personal physician of the late pop singer Michael Jackson.  Murray’s defense team, led by Houston-based Ed Chernoff, tried to delay the trial set for Sept. 27 by demanding to sequester jurors. Screening about 160 jurors in a process known as voir dire with a 30-page juror questionnaire, Murray’s defense team hoped to cherry-pick jurors with an abiding suspicion of the police and court system.  Prosecutors hoped to find jurors giving the police the benefit of the doubt, open to evaluating evidence, despite prior awareness to the facts surrounding the case.  Judge Michael E. Pastor already found out that not one of the 160 prospective jurors had not heard of the case against Dr. Conrad Murray.  Murray was accused of administering a lethal dose of Propofol to 50-year-old Jackson June 25, 2009.

            California’s San Francisco-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Chernoff’s emergency petition to sequester jurors because of the circus-like media event expected at Murray’s Sept. 27. manslaughter trial.  Murray’s defense teams claims that Jackson’s propensity toward prescription drug abuse together with deliberately ingesting Propofol himself caused the pop singer’s death.  Prosecutors claim Murray engaged in gross and reckless negligence giving Jackson an operating room anesthetic to treat his chronic insomnia.  With Judge Pastor refusing to accept Murray’s witness list designed to demonstrate Jackson’s prescription drug abuse, child molestation and financial problems, the defense has run scared formulating a coherent defense.  Floating trial balloons over the last six months, the defense seems focused on convincing jurors that Jackson overdosed himself.

            Chernoff’s argument to the appeals court was a real long-shot, when you consider it’s the trial court judge’s decision to sequester jurors.  Losing the early appeal already sets a bad tone with Pastor, walking a razor’s edge trying to appear impartial to both defense and prosecution.  Quarantining jurors would have put additional stress on jurors no longer having access to families and normal routines while dealing with the rigors of the trial.  Now deceased former O.J. Simpson lead defense attorney Johnnie L. Cochran successfully convinced Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance Ito to sequester jurors for eight-and-half months, placing jurors under extraordinary stress.  Prolonged sequestration, like incarceration, causes a Stockholm Syndrome where prolonged coercion leaves jurors subject to influence, causing what many saw as the defense’s manipulation and brainwashing.

            While there’s really no comparison with the 1995 O.J. Trial, Murray’s trial is expected to last only one short month, nearly nine months.  Starting out on the wrong foot, Chernoff must play by Pastor’s rules or risk alienating the judge.  Judges make judgment calls through cross-examination involving the admissibility of evidence.  Despite already restricting the defense’s witness list, Pastor can allow testimony that helps or hurts the defenses case.  Over objections from the prosecution, Pastor can allow certain relevant facts into evidence related to Jackson’s character.  While he’s committed to trying Murray and not Jackson, good rapport with the trial judge pays rich dividends when it comes to getting out the defense’s case.  If nothing else, the O.J. Trials showed that any type of evidence can be impeached, no matter how convincing.  Evidence in Murray’s trial is far less convincing than in O.J’s.

            Jury selection in today’s trials involve a complex process of cherry-picking juror to fit both prosecution and defense.  Pastor want the trial to be about Murray not the late pop singer.  Chernoff knows that Judge Ito allowed the defense to put the Los Angeles Police Department on trial, ultimately convincing jurors that the prosecution’s case could not be trusted.  If Chernoff plays his cards right, he’ll still be able to impeach Jackson’s credibility, hoping to get to that one juror to hang the jury.  “We didn’t expect you’d been under a rock,” said Pastor, in response to the question of whether or not jurors had heard something about the case.  “Or made a pit stop to mars,” showing the kind of flamboyance reminiscent of O.J. judge Ito.  Judging by Pastor’s initial responses, there’s going to be high-theatrics when you consider a televised trial.  TV affects how everyone responds to the cameras.

            Getting off on the wrong foot, Chernoff must let go of his stalling tactics and gear up for trial.  Sequestering jurors, even for one month, would have increased the defense’s chances of influencing jurors.  If the defense keeps a good rapport with Pastor, Chernoff will be allowed to paint an unfavorable picture of Jackson to the jury.  Whether or not prosecutors have an easy case, the defense always has the chance of getting to at least one sympathetic juror.  So far Chernoff has showed little sense of humor.  Now that jury selection has begun, he’d better start charming jurors and building sympathy for his client.  If the jury is any cross section of the public, they’re going to have sympathies for a beloved entertainer that touched many peoples’ lives.  More than attacking the prosecution case, Chernoff needs to have rapport with the judge and jury to get a leg up on the prosecution.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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