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People v. Murray

People v. Murray (The 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 the pop singer's death on June 25, 2009, from a dose of the general anesthetic propofol.[1] 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 as a televised proceeding, reaching a guilty verdict on November 7, 2011.

This article is about the 2011 Los Angeles County Superior Court case. For the 1859 California Supreme Court case, see People v. Murray (1859).

People v. Murray

Los Angeles County Superior Court

People of the State of California v. Conrad Robert Murray

November 7, 2011

Murray found guilty of involuntary manslaughter

Murray was sentenced to four years in prison; he was released on October 28, 2013 after serving 1 year and 11 months.

Michael E. Pastor

The prosecutors in the case, David Walgren and Deborah Brazil,[2] 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 ultimately killed him. The whole thing is tragic, but the evidence is not that Dr. Murray did it", Chernoff said.[3] Testimony during the trial showed Murray stayed with Jackson at least six nights a week and was regularly asked—and sometimes begged—by the 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,[4][5][6][7][8] and he was sentenced to four years in prison, but was released after one year and eleven months on October 28, 2013, owing to prison overcrowding and good behavior.

Amir phoned to say Jackson was finished with rehearsals at 12:10 am and to meet him at the house. Amir got there at 12:30 am; Jackson arrived between 1:05 and 1:10 am.

Jackson showered; Murray put cream on his body because of dermatological issues.

At 1:30 am, Murray put an IV saline drip in his leg to treat for dehydration from dancing at rehearsals and gave the sedative Valium (10 mg, 1 tablet, orally taken) to help him sleep. He did not sleep.

At 2:00 am, Murray gave Jackson 2 mg of lorazepam diluted in saline and pushed slowly over 2–3 minutes into the IV line. He observed Jackson stay wide awake for an hour. Jackson complained he could not sleep.

At 3:00 am, Murray gave Jackson 2 mg midazolam. Jackson was still awake. Murray tried to get Jackson to meditate and turned down the lights and music. His eyes closed and he fell asleep between 3:20 and 3:30 am; 10–12 minutes later he was awake again.

At 4:30 am, Jackson was still awake and complaining, "need to sleep, must be ready for the concerts, would have to cancel the trip because I cannot function if I don't get sleep." "The medicine doesn't work."

At 5:00 am, Murray gave Jackson 2 mg lorazepam. Jackson was still awake and complaining about canceling rehearsals, not satisfying fans and there being much pressure.

At 6:00–6:30 am, Jackson was still awake and still talking.

At 7:30 am, Murray gave Jackson 2 mg midazolam. It had no effect, and he wondered why Jackson was not responding.

At 10:00 am, Jackson was still awake. He said he wanted "milk" (propofol) so he could sleep, saying "I know it works."

At 10:40 am, Jackson said "Just make me sleep, no matter what," "I can't function without sleep," "I have to cancel concerts." Murray claimed that he was under a lot of pressure from Jackson, so he switched to propofol.

At 10:50 am, Murray administered Jackson a dosage of 25 mg propofol diluted with Lidocaine slowly infused over 3–5 minutes. Lidocaine was used because the propofol could burn the vessels. It had a very quick effect.

Because of the other drugs in his system, Murray gave 25 mg (the usual dose was 50 mg) before starting the drip to keep him asleep. Murray was asked how often had he given Jackson the "milk," and he answered: "2 months, every day." He was also asked: "before you became his doctor, did you know he was taking it?" Murray said he was surprised about how much Jackson knew about the drug. He knew it worked, he knew how much to put in, knew how to inject it, he said it was the only thing that worked, the lidocaine was needed with it to stop it burning (Jackson called it anti-burn, "anti-burn makes it comfortable"). Other doctors allowed Jackson to push it himself, and Murray "wouldn't allow it" because it made him sleep instantly. Murray kept telling Jackson that it was artificial sleep. Murray said that Jackson's veins were coarse, dried up and filled with clots caused by too much IV use over time. He could not get an IV in his hands.

At 11:00 am, Jackson was asleep but not snoring. Usually he would be in a deep sleep and snoring, so Murray thought Jackson would wake up again. Murray watched Jackson. Oxygen saturation was 90, heart rate was 70.

At 11:18 am, Murray felt comfortable, so he got up to go to the bathroom and took some of Jackson's urine with him. Murray said he was gone for two minutes. When Murray returned, Jackson was not breathing and his heart rate was 122. He felt a pulse in Jackson's femoral artery; his body was warm and had not changed color. Murray started and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Jackson's chest was rising and falling upon ventilation. Murray looked at the telephone then remembered none of them worked. He could not move Jackson off the bed to do CPR, so he placed his left hand under Jackson's body to continue chest compression. Murray said he did not call 911 because he did not know Jackson's ZIP code. He called Amir to tell security to come up. There was no pulse now, so he lifted his legs to try to get the blood flowing to his heart. He then infused 0.2 mg flumazenil into the IV to try to counteract the lorazepam. He went to the landing to meet Alvarez. Alvarez came in, and Murray told him to call 911 and to help move Jackson onto the floor, which he did. Murray was still giving CPR and mouth-to-mouth when the paramedics arrived and intubated him. They saw PEA (i.e. pulseless electrical activity‍—  they could see a heartbeat but there was no contraction of the heart muscle) and administered atropine, epinephrine and sodium bicarbonate. After 20 minutes, the paramedics (while in contact with UCLA) wanted to call time of death. However, Murray got them to transfer care to him. Murray said "I didn't want to give up, I love Michael, he was my friend, I wanted to help, he was a single parent, thinking about the children, thinking about my own children." CPR continued down to the ambulance; once in the trauma bay, medical personnel tried for at least an hour. "[The emergency medical staff] would have given up without me," said Murray. They pronounced him dead, but Murray would not sign the death certificate because he did not know the cause of death.

CPR

Chernoff prompted Murray to tell the police about the last three days. Murray said Jackson wanted "milk" nightly, but Murray did not want to administer it, because it was not natural sleep and could be a hazard. "I tried to wean him off it with his knowledge to have more natural sleep. I had never seen any study where someone had been addicted to propofol." Murray gave him lesser amounts (lower doses and lower drip rate) and gave lorazepam and midazolam as well. Jackson told Murray he wanted to "go all the way, other doctors would do it." Murray said that the lorazepam and midazolam were not working. Jackson was suffering from withdrawal, and his mind was forcing him to stay awake. Murray stated he "tried all night, but nothing would work. Gave him propofol just so he would get a couple of hours of sleep." "I didn't want to hurt him, he was my friend, didn't want MJ to fail, I cared about his writing and his producing, I tried to wean him off, MJ was a bit restless, but it was working."

April 12, Easter Sunday: went to Jackson's house; he said he needed products for sleep.

April 19, Sunday morning: went out to Jackson's house; he said he "just can't sleep" and was having a lot of difficulty. Jackson expressed his desire for Diprivan (propofol), which he said was the only medication that makes him fall asleep straight away. Lee was concerned at Jackson's familiarity with this drug. Jackson told Lee he had been administered Diprivan before but only for surgery, not for anything else. Lee told Jackson she didn't know what Diprivan was, so she called a doctor friend of hers who said it was an anesthetic used for surgery in hospitals. Jackson told Lee that other doctors had told him that Diprivan was safe to use if usage were concomitant with his being monitored throughout. Jackson then asked Lee to stay that night so that she may see how he was unable to sleep; she did so. Jackson slept for five hours, then woke up and was upset both that he had not slept longer, and that the nutritional medicine wasn't working. He then said "the only thing that helps is Diprivan; can you find someone to help me sleep?" and added "As soon as Diprivan gets in my veins it knocks me out and I go to sleep right away." Lee replied "I know you want to be knocked out, but what if you don't wake up?" Jackson replied "I just need to be monitored." Lee told Jackson that no one who cared or had his best interests at heart would supply him with propofol. Jackson complained to Lee that not sleeping would "mess up my performance." Lee informed Jackson that one of the anesthetic's side effects was memory loss, and asked him "What if you forget your lines?" Jackson replied that he never would, and hugged her. Lee left; she never saw Jackson again.

June 21, 2009: Jackson's bodyguard called Lee and said Jackson wanted to see her. Lee could hear Jackson in the background instructing his bodyguard to tell Lee what was wrong, which was that one half of his body was hot, while the other half was cold. Lee replied that she was too far away (Florida) to examine Jackson, and that he should go to the hospital. Lee recognized the symptoms and suspected that Jackson was on propofol.

Release[edit]

Murray was released on October 28, 2013,[34] two years ahead of schedule, due to California prison overcrowding and good behavior.[35] Murray refused to testify[36] in Katherine Jackson's (unsuccessful) wrongful death lawsuit against his former employer, AEG Live, which argued that the concert promoter should be held responsible for Michael Jackson's death. According to the Associated Press, "Murray's medical licenses remain suspended or revoked in three states where he previously practiced medicine."[34]

Death of Michael Jackson

Lauren Marmaduke (October 21, 2011). . Houston Press.

"Music's Top 5 Dubious 'Dr. Feelgoods'"

at the Los Angeles Times

Trial coverage

at CNN

Trial coverage

at The Guardian

Trial coverage

at The Daily Telegraph

Trial coverage