Rusty Kennedy/Associated Press
Michael Joseph Jackson’s story was a quintessentially American tale of celebrity and excess that took him from musical boy wonder to global pop superstar to sad figure haunted by lawsuits, paparazzi and failed plastic surgery.
At the height of his career, Mr. Jackson was indisputably the biggest star in the world; he sold more than 750 million albums. He spent a lifetime surprising people, in his last years mainly because of a surreal personal life, lurid legal scandals, serial plastic surgeries and erratic public behavior that turned him — on his very best days — into the butt of late-night talk-show jokes and tabloid headlines.
Mr. Jackson died at age 50 in Los Angeles on June 25, 2009. His death itself became an enormous spectacle. On television and on the Internet, tens of millions of people worldwide watched a memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
The cause of Mr. Jackson’s death was a mixture of the powerful anesthetic propofol and the anti-anxiety drug lorazepam, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office.
Two days after Mr. Jackson’s death his personal doctor, Conrad Murray, told detectives that he had been using propofol nearly daily for the last two months to help Mr. Jackson sleep. But he said that he had been trying to wean Mr. Jackson off the drug and had tried sedatives instead. Dr. Murray was charged with involuntary manslaughter for providing him with propofol.
Guilty Verdict and Sentencing
On Nov. 7, Dr. Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The jury deliberated less than nine hours. He could also lose his medical license.
On Nov. 29, Dr. Murray was sentenced to four years, the maximum he was facing. However, because of California’s chronically overcrowded prisons, it was unclear how much time he would actually spend behind bars. Dr. Murray was initially being sent to a county jail because of a state law aimed at easing overcrowding. Court observers said he was likely to spend two years there and then serve out the rest of the time under house arrest.
The trial focused on whether Dr. Murray abdicated his duty as a doctor, recklessly providing Mr. Jackson at home with a powerful sedative that is typically used in hospitals with extensive monitoring.
Judge Michael E. Pastor, before announcing the sentence, castigated Dr. Murray for his lack of remorse. “To hear Dr. Murray say it, Dr. Murray was a bystander,” the judge said. “Talk about blaming the victim. Not only is there not any remorse, there’s umbrage and outrage.”
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