Friday, October 28, 2011

Did the Defense Succeed in Sowing the Seed of "Reasonable Doubt"?

Today seemed to be a historic day for the defense in the Michael Jackson death trial as its star witness, Dr. Paul White debunked all the theories adduced by the prosecution's star witness, Dr. Shafer. Both men, Drs.White and Shafer are experts in the field of Anesthesia and the use of propofol but today's testimony by Dr. White leaves everybody wondering why on earth two experts in the same field can spar to the point that those listening to them are utterly confused. Last week, Dr. Shafer alleged that Dr. Conrad Murray was responsible for Michael Jackson's death given the fact that Dr. Murray repeatedly injected and infused Michael Jackson with deadly doses of propofol. Today, Dr. White debunked all of that by averring that Michael Jackson self-injected himself with propofol and orally took doses of Lorazepam which caused his death. Dr. White's testimony was based on Dr. Murray's statement to the police the day after MJ died. His argument was that the dose Dr. Murray claimed to have given MJ which the evidence on the scene of death also supports was not enough to cause a deep sedation to the point of unconsciousness and that the theory of Dr. Shafer which claimed that Dr. Murray drugged MJ to stupor was inconceivable. Dr. White stated that the amount of propofol that Dr. Murray supposedly gave to MJ was just enough to reduce anxiety and not fatal enough to cause death. Dr. Shafer in his testimony last week said he also did not rule out any possibility that MJ may have administered some of the drugs to himself which aligns with Dr. White's submission today creating grounds for reasonable doubt in the minds of Jurors but he strongly argues that Dr. Murray's culpability hangs on the fact that he was not supposed to leave MJ unattended in a situation like that. Dr. Shafer argued that even if MJ injected himself, it was Dr. Murray's job to monitor him and not allow anything unsavory to happen to him. Both experts agreed that close monitoring was necessary under such circumstances but the question remains: Was Dr. Murray guilty of improper monitoring having admitted to leaving MJ for 2 minutes to use the restroom only to return to meet MJ unresponsive and clinically dead? With these two anesthesia and propofol experts sparring over whether or not Dr. Conrad Murray was responsible for MJ's death, one wonders if the members of the Jury are more confused or more convinced as to the culpability of Dr. Conrad Murray in the untimely death of MJ. We hope to see more fireworks in the coming days as the prosecution takes its turn to cross-examine Dr. White. Will a verdict of "guilty" or "not guilty" be returned on this case? Your guess is as good as mine - confused for now.

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