You’re fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight.

There’s no escapin the jaws of the alien this time –

This is the end of your life.

Michael Jackson, “Thriller”

This April, in what many predict will be the most watched criminal proceeding since O.J. Simpson’s, Dr. Conrad Murray will be tried for involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. Meanwhile, the California Medical Board is filing a motion to revoke the cardiologist’s medical license. 

Thirty years ago, Dr. George Nichopolous, was tried on the same charges in the death of Jackson’s father-in-law, Elvis Presley. The Tennessee Medical Board also moved to pull his license. Nichopolous was acquitted of manslaughter charges, and the board suspended him for three months. 

In spite of the acquittal, Vernon Presley insisted that Dr. Nick had murdered his son. In The Death of Elvis, authors Thompson and Cole assert that the star’s father made an unsuccessful attempt to have the doctor assassinated at the Memphis Liberty Bowl. 

The Jackson family has repeatedly stated its belief that Michael was murdered by Murray, in league with “a shadowy entourage.” Father Joe has denounced the manslaughter charge as inadequate, saying that Michael himself had predicted he might be murdered. Should Murray, like Nichopolous, be acquitted, the Jacksons’ only remaining option may be in a Wrongful Death civil action, such as that the Goldmans filed against the acquitted O.J.

Meanwhile, in the next months Dr. Conrad’s defense team will be pouring over “thousands of pages of evidence,” according to litigator, Michael Flanagan. His colleague, Ed Chernoff, has pledged that they will “fight like hell.” A former prosecutor, Chernoff is now a defense specialist who has lost only one felony jury trial out of forty. The third member of Murray’s team, Joseph Low, has never lost a murder case. 

In spite of their collective talents comparable to O.J.’s Dream Team, the Murray team faces no easy task in proving to a jury that their client is not guilty of “gross negligence.”  

In presenting evidence of this, the Prosecution will claim: 1. Murray left the room after administering Jackson the powerful anesthetic, propofol. 2. He failed to intubate Jackson. 3. He improperly administered CPR. And, 4. He failed to immediately call 911. 

The Defense will have difficulty disproving the first two allegations. It will challenge the third with Murray’s own sworn statement that he placed a hand under Jackson’s back while administering CPR. Lastly, it will try to make credible Murray’s claim that he had no immediate landline to call 911, and that he couldn’t remember his street address for a cell phone call.  

Chernoff will likely assert that his client made diligent efforts to substitute propofol with less potent sedatives. Similarly, Dr. Nicholopous’s lawyers successfully persuaded the jury that he had tried to “wean” Elvis off narcotics by using placebos. Though unable to make the same claim, Chernoff will stress that his client strenuously resisted Michael’s demands for “my milk” – his propofol. 

Now Murray’s team will hammer on Jackson’s history of drug abuse and “doctor shopping.” It will remind the jury of the star’s own 1993 admission of painkiller abuse. It will outline the history of the Jackson family’s many unsuccessful drug interventions. It will enter into evidence documentation of the singer’s failed foreign dry-outs (Mexico, ’93; Seoul, ’99). 

The Defense may also call to the stand Jackson’s first dry-out doctor, Steven Hoefflin, who in ’93 warned the star’s managers: “Either the drugs are going to kill him or he’s going to die by flying out of a window, because he thinks he’s can fly.” Then it may call Michael’s favorite physician, Dr. Arnold Klein, who stated that, during the’96 HIStory tour, the singer had traveled with an anesthesiologist who “took Michael down at night and brought him back up in the morning.” 

Countering this evidence, the district attorney might point out that Jackson did not die on this anesthesiologist’s watch, as he did on Murray’s, because he was not grossly negligent. To prove that not all Michael’s doctors were “enablers,” the DA could call to the stand Dr. Eugene Aksenoff who refused him the stimulants he wanted, and his nurse, Cherilyn Lee, who refused to give him propofol.  

Presenting evidence from the searches of Murray’s offices, computer, and car, prosecutors may try to prove that he ran a “pill factory.” Enumerating the half a million dollar court judgments against him, as well as his credit card defaults, and child support nonpayments, prosecutors will portray the defendant as a scofflaw and financial desperado.