The first week of the manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson's doctor has had all the trappings of other courtroom spectacles involving the King of Pop: Dozens of sign-toting fans, TV crews, Jackson lookalikes and the familiar faces of the Jackson family enduring yet another public crucible. Inside the courtroom, jurors heard intimate, riveting details of the pop superstar's life, including recordings of his drug-slurred voice, his hopes for a major comeback tour, even his love of spinach cobb salad with organic turkey breast. But jurors have been reminded regularly that someone else is on trial here. And despite all the courtroom drama, the involuntary manslaughter case against Dr. Conrad Murray is relatively straight-forward. To win a conviction, prosecutors must simply prove that Murray acted with gross negligence as Jackson's personal physician in the days and hours before his death. Murray, 58, a Houston cardiologist, has pleaded not guilty. Murray sat silently as prosecutors called witnesses who said he never told them to call the emergency dispatcher after Jackson was found unconscious in the bedroom of his rented Los Angeles mansion. They suggested Murray could have instructed security guards, a chef and Jackson's personal assistant to make the crucial call, but he didn't. One security guard said Murray delayed the call while telling him to bag vials of medicine. In the eyes of prosecutors, Murray did nearly everything wrong and even abandoned the singer in his hour of extreme need when he left his bedside to make a phone call. Defense attorneys are aggressively challenging such claims. Attorney Adam Braun, who briefly represented a doctor charged with overprescribing drugs to Anna Nicole Smith, said the first requirement for prosecutors is to prove the cause of Jackson's death. A coroner's report said he died on June 25, 2009, of acute intoxication from the powerful anesthetic propofol, with the presence of sedatives known as benzodiazepines. Prosecutors “have to show it was reckless both to prescribe and administer propofol and to leave it next to the bed,” Braun said. Thus far, prosecutors have focused their evidence on alleged serious acts of omission by Murray. Witnesses said he delayed asking others to make the emergency call; failed to have the proper lifesaving equipment on hand; and didn't tell paramedics that he had given Jackson propofol.
