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N o vem b er 9. 2011
Page 11
Jury Finds Jackson’s Doctor Guilty
Caregiver
was reckless;
faces four
years in prison
(AP) — Michael Jackson's doc
tor was convicted Monday of invol
untary manslaughter after a trial that
painted him as a reckless caregiver
who administered a lethal dose of a
powerful anesthetic that killed the
pop star.
The verdict against Dr. Conrad
Murray marked the latest chapter in
one of pop culture's most shocking
tragedies — the death of the King of
Pop on the eve of the singer's heavily
promoted comeback concerts.
M urray sat stone-faced and
showed little reaction at the verdict.
He was handcuffed and taken
into custody without bail until sen
tencing on Nov. 29. Murray ap
peared calm as officials led him out
of the courtroom.
There was a shriek in the court
room when the verdict was read,
and the crowd erupted outside the
courthouse. The judge polled the
jury, and each juror answered "yes"
when asked whether their verdict
was guilty.
The jury deliberated less than nine
hours. Murray, 58, faces a sentence
of up to four years in prison. He could
also lose his medical license.
Jackson died on June 25, 2009.
The complete story of his death
finally emerged during the six-week
trial. It was the tale of a tormented
Dr. Conrad Murray is found guilty o f involuntary manslaughter in the death o f Michael Jackson during
trial in Los Angeles.
There was a shriek in the courtroom
when the verdict was read, and the
crowd erupted outside the courthouse.
The judge polled the jury, and each
juror answered "yes” when asked
whether their verdict was guilty.
genius on the brink of what might
have been his greatest triumph with
one impediment standing in his way
— extreme insomnia.
Testimony came from medical ex
perts, household employees and
Murray's former girlfriends, among
others.
The most shocking moments,
however, came when prosecutors
d isp la y e d a larg e p ic tu re o f
Jackson's gaunt, lifeless body on a
hospital gurney and played the
sound of his drugged, slurred voice,
as recorded by Murray just weeks
before the singer's death.
Jackson talked about plans for a
children's hospital and his hope of
cementing a legacy larger than that
of Elvis Presley or The Beatles.
"We have to be phenomenal," he
said about his "This Is It" concerts
in London. "When people leave this
show, when people leave my show,
I want them to say, 'I've never seen
nothing like this in my life. Go. Go.
I've never seen nothing like this. Go.
It's amazing. He's the greatest enter
tainer in the world.'"
Throughout the trial, Jackson
family members watched from the
spectator gallery, fans gathered
outside with signs and T-shirts de
manding "Justice for Michael," and
an international press corps broad
cast reports around the world. The
trial was televised and streamed on
the Internet.
Prosecutors portrayed Murray
as an incompetent doctor who used
the anesthetic propofol without
adequate safeguards, and whose
neglect left Jackson abandoned as
he lay dying.
Murray's lawyers sought to show
the doctor was a medical angel of
mercy with former patients vouch
ing for his skills. Murray told police
from the outset that he gave Jack-
son propofol and other sedatives as
the star struggled for sleep to pre
pare for his shows. But the doctor
said he administered only a small
dose on the day Jackson died.
Lawyers for Murray and a de
fense expert blamed Jackson for his
own death, saying the singer gave
himself the fatal dose of propofol
while Murray wasn't watching. A
prosecution expert said that theory
was crazy.
Murray said he had formed a
close friendship with Jackson, never
meant to harm him and couldn't ex
plain why he died.
The circumstances of Jackson's
death at the age of 50 were as bizarre
as any chapter in the superstar's
sensational life story.
Jackson was found not breath
ing in his own bed in his rented
mansion after being dosed intrave
nously with propofol, a drug nor
mally administered in hospitals dur
ing surgery.
The coroner ruled the case a ho
micide, and the blame would fall to
the last person who had seen Jack-
son alive — Murray, who had been
hired to care for the singer as the
comeback concerts neared.
America’s Poor Grows to 49 Million
Higher costs
make it harder
for people to
stay afloat
(AP)— The ranks of America's
poor are greater than previously
known, reaching a new level of
49.1 million — or 16 percent —
due to rising medical costs and
other expenses that make it harder
for people to stay afloat, accord
ing to new census estimates.
The numbers released Monday
are part of a first-ever supple
mental poverty measure aimed at
providing a fuller picture of pov
erty. It is considered experimen
tal and does not replace the Cen
sus Bureau's official poverty for
mula, which continues to deter
mine eligibility and distribution of
billions of dollars in federal aid for
the poor.
Based on the revised formula,
the number of poor people ex
ceeds the record 46.2 million, or
15.1 percent, that was officially
reported in September.
Broken down by groups,
Americans 65 or older sustained
the largest increases in poverty
under the revised poverty for
mula — nearly doubling to 15.9
percent, or 1 in 6 — because of
medical expenses that are not
accounted for in the official rate.
Those include rising Medicare
premiums, deductibles and ex
penses for prescription drugs.
Working-age adults ages 18-
64 also saw increases in poverty
— from 13.7 percent to 15.2
percent — due mostly to com
muting and child care costs.
For the first time, the share of
Hispanics living in poverty sur
passed that of African-Americans,
28.2 percent to 25.4 percent. That
is due to an increase in the pov
erty rate for Hispanics under the
new measure because of lower
participation of immigrants and
non-English speakers in govern
ment aid programs such as hous
ing and food stamps.
Kathleen Short, a research
economist at the Census Bureau,
said many of the shifts in poverty
reflect the large numbers of older
people who hover near the pov
erty line after receiving Social
Security cash payments. The
poverty line is defined under the
official measure as $ 11,139 for
an individual, or $22,314 for a
family of four.
Because of Social Security ben
efits, only 9 percent of seniors, or
roughly 3.5 million, live in pov
erty according to the official for
mula. But that number increases
by roughly 2.7 million when tak
ing into account the additional
health care costs. If it weren't for
those health care costs, the pov
erty rate for seniors would have
dropped to 8.6 percent. "The
medical expenses are very large,"
Short said.
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