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LoginJury selection in Jackson trial proves difficult
By Martin Kasindorf, Special for USA TODAY
Updated 4/11/2011 2:03 PM |
LOS ANGELES — The marathon search for a jury in the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor for the singer's death is testing whether it's possible to find unbiased jurors in the age of Twitter, blogs and celebrity-news websites.
This week, lawyers will get their first look at what potential jurors think about the case when 29-page juror questionnaires are turned over to the defense and prosecution.
Jackson, the 50-year-old "King of Pop," died in June 2009 from an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol mixed with sedatives, a coroner's report said.
Conrad Murray, 58, is charged with involuntary manslaughter. He was treating Jackson for insomnia as the entertainer rehearsed for his "This is It" comeback concerts in London. Murray, a cardiologist, has pleaded not guilty and is free on $75,000 bail. If he is convicted, the maximum penalty would be four years in prison.
"Everybody's heard of the case," prosecution spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons says. So weeding out potential jurors with unchangeable views on guilt or innocence has taken on the elaborateness of celebrity trials like that of football star and actor O. J. Simpson, who was acquitted at the same courthouse in 1995.
Coverage by mainstream news outlets isn't the main problem, says Ed Chernoff, Murray's chief defense lawyer: "Blogs and other stuff that comes out, they're not objective."
Trial proceedings began March 24 when potential jurors arrived for preliminary screening. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor ordered them not to talk or read about the case in any form — Twitter, social networks, TV, magazines or newspapers.
Pastor erupted on the bench March 24 after the TMZ.com gossip site published six questions that potential jurors supposedly were being asked on a sealed questionnaire. Not one of the questions was in the survey, but Murray's defense fired its publicist after she admitted leaking to the website questions that had been suggested by the defense but not adopted by the judge.
Pastor and the attorneys expect so many legal challenges over bias that an unusually large group of 470 potential jurors was summoned to court over three days. Only three told Pastor that they hadn't heard of the case. Pastor excused those who said serving during the expected two-month trial would cause hardship.
Among 117 questions, panelists were asked whether they regularly view websites or blogs including TMZ, PerezHilton, SmokingGun and RadarOnline and whether they themselves have "posted any blogs concerning Michael Jackson or Conrad Murray."
On May 4, both sides will start questioning panelists in court. Lawyers' opening statements are scheduled for May 9. The trial will be televised and streamed on the Internet.
Prosecutors have said Murray breached medical standards by giving Jackson access to the powerful propofol outside of a hospital setting and failing to monitor his condition. Chernoff has raised the possibility that a sleepless Jackson, addicted to propofol, injected himself while Murray was in the bathroom at Jackson's rented mansion.
"The crux of the defense is going to be that Michael Jackson engaged in a desperate act and took desperate measures that caused his death," Chernoff said in court Wednesday. "We believe at the time Michael Jackson died he was a desperate man in relation to his financial affairs."
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Posteddocument.write(niceDate('4/11/2011 1:15:18 PM'));4/11/2011 1:15:18 PM | Updateddocument.write(niceDate('4/11/2011 2:03 PM'));4/11/2011 2:03 PM
