Michael Flanagan said in court today that an independent study by the defense showed swallowing Propofol would not produce fatal results.
Associated Press initially reported that Murray's lawyers were dropping the claim that MJ self-administered the fatal dose, but that is not accurate.
Lead lawyer, Ed Chernoff, said in opening statements that they would show MJ self-administered the drug. Chernoff can still argue that MJ injected the fatal dose after awakening and becoming frustrated.
Prosecutors just showed an image of Michael Jackson's dead, naked body sprawled on a gurney -- taken hours after the singer died.
The date on the tiles beside his body appears to read August 25th, 2009 -- but MJ's autopsy doctor Christopher Rogers claims the date is wrong ... it should read June 25th.
But difficult as it might have been for many to view, HLN correspondent and In Session anchor Ryan Smith says the controversial decision to show the picture may have been made to get the jury to "connect with the victim."
Dr. Conrad Murray's team is dropping its claim that Michael Jackson orally self-administered the lethal dose of propofol.
It's the argument they laid out in opening statements and had been working to build since the first witness took the stand.
But Dr. Murray's lawyers just told the court they will instead focus on a theory that Jackson used a syringe to inject the sedative through a catheter which was running into his left leg. Attorneys and experts have both said at various points throughout the trial that oral ingestion of propofol would deliver only minimal sedative effects, certainly not enough to prove fatal.
So already a major day in court, between this significant strategy switch and cardiologist Dr. Alon Steinberg rattling off six ways Dr. Murray deviated from the standard of care in his treatment of Jackson.
What do you think of this new defense claim? Will it help them prove their point? Or will jurors see it as a sign of desperation in their defense of Dr. Murray?
As the Conrad Murray trial continues, I’m constantly being reminded at just how complicated Michael Jackson's existence was. On the one hand, he was center stage for most of his life. But despite all his professional triumphs, and regardless of all of the love and adoration he received from his loyal fans, something still must have been missing that made him turn to drugs. When Harry Belafonte was here on Monday, we talked about the Michael Jackson that he knew. The two famously collaborated on “We Are the World,” and Belafonte remembers Jackson as a “sweet kid.” But it is telling indeed that in the same breath, Belafonte recalled that Michael “had a bad time growing up.” We can all speculate on what that missing component was for Michael, but one thing remains certain - it's not going to change how his public will remember him.
Pulmonary and sleep expert Dr. Nader Kamangar testified that Dr. Conrad Murray’s decision not to call 911 when he noticed Michael Jackson wasn’t breathing was “an extreme and unconscionable deviation of the standard of care.” Dr. Kamangar also said “The first rule of thumb in basic life support is to call for help. If you have someone present, next to you, you call them to call for help. But if you have nobody, the most important thing is to call for help.” Sounds basic enough, but several prosecution witnesses have testified that Dr. Murray failure to promptly call for help might have been the difference between life and death for the King of Pop. Dr. Kamangar investigated Dr. Murray's care of Jackson for the California Medical Board and reports he found “extreme deviations” from the standard of care. The deviations Dr. Kamangar discovered mirror the findings of cardiologist Dr. Alon Steinberg who testified earlier in the day.
