Jackson doctor found guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter

[LSN80]

From the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, via the Wire Reports:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_766051.html

Deliberations took less then nine hours yesterday for the jury in the Michael Jackson overdose case to return with a guilty verdict against Houston cardiologist Dr. Conrad Murray. Murray had abandoned his private practices in Houston and Las Vegas to become Jackson's personal doctor, traveling with him everywhere he went. For those not aware, Jackson was preparing for a large comeback tour, and was sufferring from extreme insomnia. He had sought treatment from several doctors, all of who declined to treat Jackson due to his request to be treated with the drug Propofol, which Jackson called his "Milk", and his "Salvation". What is Propofol, you ask?

A short-acting, intravenously administered hypnotic agent. Its uses include the induction and maintenance of general anesthesia, sedation for mechanically ventilated adults, and procedural sedation. Propofol is also used for sedation, for example, prior to endoscopic procedures, usually found to have less prolonged sedation and a faster recovery.

In short, Propofol is a medication often used by anesthesiologists to induce sleep prior to surgery. It has become one of the most preferred sedatives used in surgery due to the fact that most patients are successfully sedated, but not out for a long period of time, and the grogginess upon waking up is far less then other anesthethics. But it's for that very reason that many doctors refused to treat Jackson with the medication- It's not generally approved of by the FDA for usage outside of an anesthetic. So what made Murray say yes when other doctors said no?

According to prosecutors, he had 150,000 reasons:

Mr. Jackson planned to pay Murray $150,000 a month for an extended tour in Europe. However, the doctor was never paid a penny because Jackson died before signing the contract. Technically, there is no law against administering propofol or the other sedatives, but Dr. Murray acted well below the standard of care required of a physician.

The events that occurred during the night of Jackson's death were a matter of dispute throughout the trial. Expert witnesses as well as a thorough examination of Jackson's autopsy showed that Murray had given Jackson several other medications intraveneously prior to administering the lethal dosage of Propofol. Found in Jackson's system were the sedatives/anxiety medications Ativan, Diazapem, and Valium, all addictive sedatives on their own. With Jackson still unable to sleep, testimony showed, Murray administered 25mg's of Propofol, resulting in the pop star's death less then 10 minutes later. Murray's actions following Jackson's death were also suspect, according to the prosecution based on Murray's statement to police.

He(Murray) felt it was safe to leave his patient's bedside for a few minutes, but Jackson wasn't breathing when he returned to bedside. Jackson was likely dead at that point, but using propofol in a home setting without lifesaving equipment on hand was an egregious deviation from the standard expectations of medical care.

Murray's lawyers countered that he was an "angel of mercy" who was simply trying to provide Jackson with the sleep he so desperately craved. Several former patients of Murray's took the stand to vouch for his skills as a doctor and a compassionate man. Although Murray never took the stand himself, his defense team argued the following:

Dr. Murray formed a close personal friendship with Michael, cared for him greatly, and never intended to harm him. Jacksontook advantage of his friendship with Murray, as he gavehimself the fatal dose of propofol while Murray wasn't watching.

In the end, Murray was found guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter, the lowest felony that he could have been charged with. Murray was sentenced to four years in jail, and faces the likely revocation of his medical license.

Personally, I believe that even if Jackson did the administer the lethal dosage to himself, Murray still has a large level of culpability. In my eyes, he's an incredibly high-end drug dealer who put Jackson on a dangerous combination of sedatives, and failed to take the proper precautions necessary with regards to saving Jackson's life. Murray claimed that Jackson was addicted to the Propolol, and he was trying to lower the dosage gradually. Doesn't that addiction fall on Murray as well? Had he not provided the drug to Jackson, would Jackson have gotten it somewhere else? Likely, but for that, Murray isn't responsible. He is responsible for what he administered. In some cases with celebrity drug addicts, authorities hve rushed to judgment to find someone to blame to not "tarnish the memory" of the dead. Is Jackson partially responsible? Probably. But in this case, Murray isn't without culpability either.

Michael Jackson's sister LaToya said this following the verdict:

I feel much better now. Michael was definitely looking over us.

Donna Digiacomo, a former patient of Murray's, said this:

This man didn't deserve this. They needed a scapegoat.

Finally, Al Sharpton was unsurprisingly available for comment:

Certainly, I feel that more punishment could and should have been served, but I am pleased that this jury didn't blame Michael for his own death. Michael lost his life, and we lost one of the greatest entertainers that ever lived.

Did the sentence fit the crime here for Dr. Murray in Michael Jackson's death?
How much culpability does Michael Jackson deserve here? Was Dr. Murray unfairly scapegoated at all?

Should Dr. Murray ever be able to practice medicine again after serving his prison sentence?

Any other thoughts or discussion on this story are welcome.

 

[#hamler]

I think everything is fair here.

Murray didn't actually kill Michael Jackson. Is it possible he contributed to his death, sure but Michael knew the shit he was getting into. He knew it wasn't healthy and Propofol came with a high risk of death. Murray was an idiot. When dealing with someone the general public often looks up to, it would seem like you'd take extra precaution when dealing with said patient. Murray didn't have the necessary equipment to administer any dangerous drug like Propofol. He was damn sure negligent here no matter who he was dealing with.

I think this is a case of "nothing bad will ever happen to me". I think Murray got to comfortable when dealing with Jackson. First, he was probably very safe when dealing with the drug. Pretty soon he starts getting more relaxed then he starts leaving the room a few minutes after giving the drug to make a call. I think he let his gaurd down I guess you could say. But damn is he an idiot.

Michael is definitely at fault too. Everyone who is placing blame solely on Murray is a dumbass. Michael wanted the drug and had Murray not been there, he would've found different, perhaps more deadly ways to sleep. I think it was only a matter of time. Michael never looked healthy to me. He was a walking drug addict and needed help. I normally wouldn't feel sorry for any type of drug abuser but Michael was dealing with a lot. 50 shows is a lot to do. He wasn't healthy and should've never booked the "This Is It" tour. Combine that with the genral view from the public regarding Jackson and child molestation I can see why he wanted to sleep heavily nearly all the time. I don't want to sound crude or anything but perhaps Murray did him a favor.

Regardless, it would really suck if you spent all that time becoming a doctor only to have your license revoked. However, it probably should be. Negligence is a horrible thing to get over as a doctor. Whether his medical license is taken away or not, what patient would trust him?

 

[Mustang Sally]

How much culpability does Michael Jackson deserve here? Was Dr. Murray unfairly scapegoated at all?

Dr. Murray was involved in a noble profession; the practice of medicine. By his own choice, he abandoned his position as a healer of many to become a healer of one. I'm sure he enjoyed the financial windfall of being paid by the ultra-rich person he worked for (and not having to deal with all those pesky Medicare and Medicaid claims he would have dealt with in treating the general populace) and he no doubt basked in the notoriety of being the personal physician of Michael Jackson.

But if a doctor has only one patient......and his sole responsibility is to see to the medical well-being of that patient........ it seems that losing his one patient to a drug overdose is going to point the blame at no one but him, no matter what the circumstances.

If Dr. Murray had other people administering the lethal medication, it's still his fault.

If Dr. Murray left the medication where Michael himself could administer it to himself, Murray still bears the blame.

After all, he's your only patient; you're not spread too thin by other responsibilities to handle it, are you?

I guess the involuntary manslaughter charge is sufficient; after all, it's not as if he wanted Michael to die. For one thing, it was his only source of income, no? But for his defense team to try and shift the blame away from a doctor who has only one patient to look after is absurd.

He could have saved us all time by pleading guilty and making a deal.

 

[SSJPhenom]

Michael may have been addicted to prescription medication; but so what.

Dr. Murray knows that propofol is an anesthetic used for surgeries. Any doctor worth their merit would have told Michael no! Idc how much Murray was being paid. He should have never let Michael use the stuff.

I think the charge fits the crime. Murray was definitely guilty and deserves some jail time and should not be able to practice medicine ever again.

 

[hatehabsforever]

If the end result of this is a four year prison sentence and the permanent suspension of his license to practice medicine in the United States, then he should be extremely pleased and consider himself very fortunate. Because as far as I'm concerned, what the man did was atrocious and he deserves a far stiffer penalty than that. Let's face it, he can serve his time in prison, then once he is out, he can likely disappear to some other country where he can attempt to eke out a meager existence on whatever money he saved from the $150,000/month he was being paid. The man does not need to ever practice medicine again. Not to mention the fact that he'll probably sell his story, write a book, whatever, and make another pile of money as well.

The man was clearly incompetent. Not only that, but he was negligent as well. I don't care what Michael Jackson requested, hell even demanded him to do, you cannot administer a medication which is clearly and universally known to be a drug which should only be administered in a hospital environment, in Jackson's home. Especially after already giving him a bunch of other drugs as well. You cannot leave the man unattended after doing so. You cannot be so slow to call 911 for assistance. I don't care how much money he was being paid, he took an oath to practice medicine along accepted standards, keeping the patient's health and safety uppermost in mind. He failed to do so on so many levels, and his level of greed and negligence deserves a stiffer brand of justice than he is going to receive. Shameful actually.

 

[Remix]

Did the sentence fit the crime here for Dr. Murray in Michael Jackson's death?

Absolutely. For it to have been murder, Murray would have had to have intended to kill Jackson, which for many reasons he wasn't. What he did was unprofessional, unethical and resulted in Jackson's death. Murray could have and should have dealt with the situation differently though.

How much culpability does Michael Jackson deserve here? Was Dr. Murray unfairly scapegoated at all?

Very little, and not at all. Jackson is not medically trained, Murray is. Murray's job was to keep Jackson healthy using aforementioned medical knowledge. He should have stopped giving Jackson "milk" to get him to sleep and tried to actually, ya know treat the cause of the insomnia imo.

Should Dr. Murray ever be able to practice medicine again after serving his prison sentence?

Fuck no.

Side note: One of Murray's former patients said words that more or less proclaimed that Murray was a good doctor that had been set up. Harold Shipman's patients and the pharmacists from whom he picked up his diamorphine all thought he was a top notch bloke too before he got convicted.

 

[Larry]

Did the sentence fit the crime here for Dr. Murray in Michael Jackson's death?

I think it should have been a bit heavier of a penalty. The sentence itself of involuntary manslaughter was acceptable, but I think there are other things that were impacted as a result of this mans actions and incompetence that he is not atoning for within this sentence. Think of all the people who bought tickets for "This is It" who were robbed of seeing Michael Jackson perform one last time, think of all the people who were invested in this project who lost their asses on it because of this one mans poor decisions, think of all the people who were working on "This is It" getting their big breaks and never got to see that come into fruition, Think of AEG who footed the bill for everything, they won't be getting back their losses from Dr. Conrad Murray now will they?

The life that was lost can never be brought back, Michael is dead, he ain't coming back. Dr. Murray will get out of prison, but the time he spends in there will never, never make up for the loss that the world suffered due to his negligence and unprofessional decisions. "This is It" was going to be the biggest concert and tour of all time, we never got to see that and will never get to see that now because of what he did. There is no making up for it, no punishment that can atone for it, and no way to fix what he broke.



How much culpability does Michael Jackson deserve here? Was Dr. Murray unfairly scapegoated at all?

Michael was addicted to pain and sleep aids, and was trying to kick the stuff in the time leading up to the concert. He had been clean of that stuff leading up to that fateful night but had to have just one more fix to get through the night before heading to London to do the final rehearsals. He didn't ask to be overdosed, he was a man with a problem and who only knew one way to deal with it. Murray was in no way a scapegoat. He was the one who gave him the drugs, who gave him too much, and who abandoned the oath he took as a doctor to look out for the best interests of his patients and bring them no harm.

He knew that propofol wasn't meant to be used outside of a medical facility or operating room, he knew that Jackson was on too much stuff, and he should have known if he didn't already, what the consequences were going to be of giving him all that stuff at once. Part of the reason it was a fatal amount was because Jackson had been off of the drugs for a period of time and didn't have the tolerance for it all that he previously had. Murray should have known better and should have acted with more caution and care for his patient.

Should Dr. Murray ever be able to practice medicine again after serving his prison sentence?

No, plain and simple.

Any other thoughts or discussion on this story are welcome.[/QUOTE]

I think it's one of the greatest tragedies of all time. Here was a man who had been a victim of the media, some of his own personal demons and ailments, and been ostracized from society for the most part due to the negative light that people consistently painted him in. Here he was about to make the comeback of a lifetime and reclaim his rightful place in the world as the King of Pop, the greatest entertainer, dancer, singer, performer of all time, in the biggest concert and tour of all time, and all of it was stopped because of one man and his refusal to do his job the right way, and his pure incompetence.

The world was going to see one more time what Michael Jackson was all about and why we all fell in love with him in the first place. It was to be his great redemption and rise back into grace after years of torment in the public eye. It was going to be his time again, and here we are a couple years later. None of that happened, he is gone, we were all robbed of him and the magic he was going to make one more time, and nothing can be done about it.

 

[#hamler]

I think it should have been a bit heavier of a penalty. The sentence itself of involuntary manslaughter was acceptable, but I think there are other things that were impacted as a result of this mans actions and incompetence that he is not atoning for within this sentence. Think of all the people who bought tickets for "This is It" who were robbed of seeing Michael Jackson perform one last time, think of all the people who were invested in this project who lost their asses on it because of this one mans poor decisions, think of all the people who were working on "This is It" getting their big breaks and never got to see that come into fruition, Think of AEG who footed the bill for everything, they won't be getting back their losses from Dr. Conrad Murray now will they?

I see where you're coming from. Me, being a huge fan of Michael Jackson all throughout my life, I wanted Murray to be guilty. But the sentence was completely fair. The court tried its hardest not to focus on Michael Jackson the celebrity but Michael Jackson the person. Murray shouldn't be given more jail time because of what was planned for Jackson's This Is It tour. The charge is "manslaughter" not "you ruined thousands of people's plans so you need to go to jail". You're basically saying Murray should get a longer sentence because Michael is above everyone else. Sure Jackson had talent but his death is no more important than the death of an individual who had plans in their own future.

 

[Larry]

I see where you're coming from. Me, being a huge fan of Michael Jackson all throughout my life, I wanted Murray to be guilty. But the sentence was completely fair. The court tried its hardest not to focus on Michael Jackson the celebrity but Michael Jackson the person. Murray shouldn't be given more jail time because of what was planned for Jackson's This Is It tour. The charge is "manslaughter" not "you ruined thousands of people's plans so you need to go to jail". You're basically saying Murray should get a longer sentence because Michael is above everyone else. Sure Jackson had talent but his death is no more important than the death of an individual who had plans in their own future.

Bold: I never said that he should receive more jail time. Actually, I wasn't very specific at all on my thoughts about how the penalty for his actions should have been stiffer, that's my bad as I left you to assume whatever. I was just noting though, he can never pay back everyone that effected, he can never fully atone for what he did, what he caused, what he prevented, and what he ruined. That's what I meant in saying how there are a lot of things he isn't atoning for with this sentence.

Italicized and Underlined: No no no, at no point was I trying to indicate that he should suffer under the law to a greater extent as far as his jail time is concerned. I am surprised AEG hasn't sued him for everything he has and everything he's going to have, because THEY are the ones who hired him to be MJ's personal physician. It was contingent in the deal made between AEG and the Michael Jackson Estate/MJJ Productions that if AEG was going to foot the bill for this and invest in a comeback for Michael, he had to be in shape and healthy, guaranteeing he would make all the shows and fulfill all the dates of the tour. So, considering all the money they lost due to his actions, I would almost expect him to have to take responsibility for all the financial hardship he caused that company and the people employed through that company that never got the payoff they were going to get from being apart of "This Is It" since it didn't get to happen on account of him.

I just wanted to clarify all that. I wouldn't be so unreasonable out of fandom or fury to suggest that his sentence should be longer simply because he killed Michael Jackson, and fucked up a lot of shit for a lot of other people. Those things stand outside the matters in the courtroom of determining his role in Jackson's death, his level of responsibility therein, and the weight of the sentence he should bare as a result.

 

[H33LTurn]

As far as the sentence fitting the crime goes, its the law and the law works how its supposed to work. He was negligent of his patient and therefore unable to assist him in an incident which resulted in his death. He didnt murder him purposely, and its entirely possible that MJ self injected the fatal dose but the fact that Murray wasnt monitoring him makes Murray partially accountable for that tragedy. Do I personally believe Murray should be in jail? Hell no. After watching the NBC documentary I saw a whole different side of Murray that the media refused to show before the trial, but that I had always though existed. i believe Murray's account of his story and the fact that he and MJ were close. If I was in his shoes would I have done the same? Probably. To people who said he just did it for the money, hes a doctor, its his job to provide medical care in exchange for money. When Murray needed help from the people in the Jackson household, nobody was there for him. There are a whole lot of people involved with Jackson's downfall and unfortunately Murray lost this game of hot potatoe. His patients do agree that hes a good doctor and therefore I think that he should continue to be allowed to practice medicine. Jackson was doomed from the start since the resources needed to save his life were not around. In a hospital, where Murray worked on his patients, there are more than enough resources for a medical emergency.

 

[gabby]

The purpose of law is to put our society in order. I saw the picture of this doctor in many website while facing trial. I can say that I feel some pity for the doctor. Who would want to be imprisoned anyway? However, no one is above the law that is why when a person commits a crime, it is a just for him to be punished. Now, some of us would think that Dr. Conrad Murray was guilty of medical malpractice. Instead he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the singer's death.

In medical malpractice actions, a claimant has the burden to prove a doctor deviated from accepted medical standards. A deviation that causes injury is the basis for malpractice damage awards, but the question posed in this case is whether it should also expose a doctor to criminal penalties.

Malpractice claims for wrongful death common. Manslaughter prosecutions for standard-of-care deviations are extremely unique — but not unheard of.

On the other hand, there is certainly a big misconception that medical negligence is simple to show whenever something goes completely wrong. The issue is that many complications such as bacterial infections along with other recognized threats aren't deemed malpractice as a general rule. To learn more about medical malpractice you need to take a look at this short article written by Mr. Haskell a well-known attorney in Spokane WA who's won quit a few million dollar law suits. http://haskellaw.com/article-medical-mistakes-a-primer-on-the-basics-of-medical-malpractice-4

Doctors must be equipped with enough knowledge and training and they must execute their job with due care for them to prevent mistakes. A single mistake could result to death of a certain patient.