Murray's Star Witness Blows More Smoke

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright Nov. 1, 2011
All Rights Reserved.                                         

     Saving their best for last, Dr. Conrad Murray’s defense team presented their star witness Dr. Paul White to drop a bombshell on a beleaguered jury. White’s testimony diverted attention from Murray’s real act of “reckless negligence,” namely, using an operating room anesthetic Propofol to treat insomnia.  If Murray skates, it’s because Los Angeles County District Attorney failed to ask the right questions.  Bogged down in who injected Jackson with the lethal dose of Propofol isn’t the egregious act warranting conviction of involuntary manslaughter.  Murray’s act of concocting a Propofol-driven insomnia machine was sufficient reckless negligence for conviction.  Murray’s defense team, and the lack of precision by prosecutors, gave defense expert Dr. Paul White  credibility when he stated that, without any proof, that Jackson gave himself the lethal Propofol injection.

             White didn’t refute the Los Angeles County Coroner’s report that indicated Aug. 24, 2009 that Jackson died from an acute Propofol overdose  in the morning of June 25, 2009.  “You think it was a self-injection of Propofol . . . between 11:30 and 12 o’clock?” defense attorney Michael Flanagan asked White.  “In my opinion, yes,” answered White, making clear that it was only an opinion.  White bases his opinion on police reports that indicated that Dr. Murray insisted he gave Jackson  only 25 mg of Propofol.  Murray refused to testify under oath, instead let his lawyers do the talking.  White’s testimony directly contradicts the prosecution’s star medical expert, Dr. Steven Shafer, who testified that he believed Murray administered the lethal injection.  White’s testimony assumes facts that are not in evidence.  There’s no evidence presented at trial that Jackson injected himself with Propofol.

             Stating that Jackson self-administered the lethal injection is pure speculation.  If you consider the real facts in evidence it implicates Murray, not Jackson.  It was, after all, Murray that set up an intravenous Propofol drip for allegedly treating Jackson’s insomnia.  It was Murray that was paid by Jackson $150,000 a month to attend to his medical needs, including treating his insomnia.  Assuming that Jackson administered his own lethal injection is wild speculation.  Murray admitted in police records that he, in fact, administered 25 mgs of Propofol via IV to Jackson. When the coroner indicated that Jackson had 1,000 mg of Propofol in his urine, it forced the defense to deny that Murray gave himself the overdose.  Nitpicking about who administered the fatal shot isn’t really relevant to Murray’s conviction on involuntary manslaughter: Only that he engaged in reckless negligence.

             Physicians aren’t at liberty to make up risky treatments, experiment on patients and then explain why they died. Murray can’t say that his insomnia treatment worked but the patient died.  Prosecutors must remind the jury in rebuttal testimony and closing arguments that Dr. White’s opinion is pure speculation.  He’s assuming that Murray told the truth when he insisted that he only administered 25 mgs of Propofol to Jackson.  Prosecutors must remind the jury that the defense also wanted them to believe that other drugs in Jackson’s bloodstream, including trace amounts of Ativan and Valium, contributed to the pop singer’s death.  If Jackson really injected himself, Murray’s defense team wouldn’t have spent so much time about trace amounts of other prescription drugs found in Jackson’s system.  Letting Dr. White testify that he believed Jackson killed himself is outrageous.

             Despite White insisting that Jackson administered his own Propofol overdose, he continued to talk about trace amounts of lorazepam [Ativan] in Jackson’s stomach.  Jurors have already heard from the Coroner that said that Jackson’s death was due to an acute Propofol overdose, not anything else.  Murray’s defense team wanted the jury to ignore the Coroner and allow White to speculate on Jackson’s cause of death without any credentials.  “The fact that there is even a tiny amount of free lorazepam [in Jackson’s stomach] is consistent with the theory that he took lorazepam orally,” White told jury.  Whether or not Jackson took any other prescription drug had no bearing on his death from a Propofol overdose.  Murray’s attorneys want the jury to ignore the Coroner, reject the opinions of medical experts and accept a wild defense theory that has no proof or facts to support it in evidence.

             Before the Los Angeles DA blows another high profile case, prosecutors need to rehabilitate their case and tell the jury that no defense witness replaces the County Corners in the final say on Jackson’s death.  They also need to hear from rebuttal witnesses or closing arguments that Dr. Conrad Murray crossed the line to criminal behavior when he invented his own dangerous insomnia machine and accidentally killed his patient.  Permitting a medical defense expert to speculate wildly about the conjecture of Jackson injecting himself assumes fact not in evidence.  Jurors need to hear that Dr. Paul White is not the Coroner and must accept the finding of a Propofol overdose.  Whatever the dosage Murray gave Jackson, he had no business administering operating room anesthesia, crossed the line into criminal negligence when he killed his patient and now must pay the price.

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.