Michael Jackson's convicted doctor wishes he testified

Dr. Conrad Murray

The physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, convicted of killing Michael Jackson
regrets not testifying on his own behalf while on trial last year, two
defence lawyers said.
The Lawyers said Murray stated this when they visited the jailed
doctor on the third anniversary of the pop star's death.
Murray, hired as the ``Thriller'' singer's personal physician in 2009,
began serving a four-year jail term in November after a jury found him
guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors argued during the six-week trial that Murray was grossly
negligent in administering the surgical anaesthetic propofol as a
sleep aid to Jackson and that the doctor failed to properly monitor
Jackson on the drug.
They also presented evidence that Murray delayed in calling for
emergency assistance when the singer stopped breathing the night of
his death and that the doctor failed to tell arriving medical
personnel he had given the performer propofol.
Defence lawyers say Murray gave Jackson a small dose of propofol to
help him sleep. But they argued the singer was dependent on the drug
and likely gave himself an extra, fatal dose and swallowed a handful
of sedatives without Murray knowing.
Two of his lawyers visited Murray at the Los Angeles County jail where
he is incarcerated.
Attorney J. Michael Flanagan said the doctor was ``adapting fairly
well for a person who is serving time and who is actually innocent''.
Jackson was found lifeless at his Los Angeles mansion on June 25,
2009, about three weeks before he was due to begin a series of
concerts in London aimed at returning him to the limelight after the
humiliation of his 2005 trial and acquittal on child molestation
allegations.
Murray's attorneys denied he was guilty of criminal negligence.
But the physician himself never took the witness stand in his own
defense, a decision he has come to regret, according to his appellate
lawyer, Valerie Wass, and Flanagan, the co-counsel for his
manslaughter trial.
Flanagan said that Murray's lead trial attorney, Ed Chernoff, was
adamant that Murray not take the stand.
Flanagan said he strongly disagreed with Chernoff, but Murray
ultimately followed Chernoff's advice and declined to testify.
``Murray now realises that he should have testified,'' Flanagan said,
adding that there were various nuances in the case that Murray alone,
as the only person who was with Jackson in the last hours of his life,
could adequately explain to the jury.
``Now he says that the biggest mistake he made in the trial of the
case was not testifying,'' Flanagan said.
``We had so many gaps in the case that needed to be filled, that could
only be supplied by Dr. Murray.''
If the verdict were to be reversed on grounds of an error of law by
the court or over an issue of admissibility of evidence or flawed jury
instructions, leading to a retrial, the defence would then seek to put
Murray on the stand, Flanagan said.
Wass, who is working on an appeal for Murray, suggested that jurors
might have been influenced by information they inadvertently saw about
the case through social media that they were allowed access to during
the trial.
``I think during the trial, it would have been difficult not to go on
Twitter and see anything about the case,'' she said.
Flanagan said it would have been better to sequester the jury due to
the extremely high profile of the trial.
He said he expected that Murray would end up serving no more than two
years of his term, and could find himself released before his appeal
ran its course, under guidelines that allow for reduced time for good
behaviour.