Jacksons v AEG Timeline Legal

Defence want to show Jackson’s This Is It announcement: Murray trial update

By | Published on Thursday 22 September 2011

Conrad Murray

Conrad Murray’s lawyers have asked for permission to show footage of Michael Jackson’s 2009 press conference, at which he announced the fated ‘This Is It’ concerts, believing that it shows how frail the singer was in the final months of his life.

Murray, of course, is accused of causing Jackson’s death by negligently administering the drug propofol as a cure for insomnia. But Murray’s legal reps are expected to allege that Jackson self-administered the fatal dose of the drug in a desperate act to induce sleep, or, possibly, in a bid to end it all. As part of their case, Team Murray will endeavour to show that Jackson was in poor health in the months before his death, and was certainly not fit enough to go through with the 50 night ‘This Is It’ residency.

As previously reported, the Murray team hoped that outtakes from the rehearsal footage that was used for the ‘This Is It’ film might have shown just how frail Jackson was, but after viewing many hours of that footage they concluded it did not help their case.

However, they reckon that Jackson’s conduct at the London press conference announcing the O2 show demonstrates his ill health, while adding that his firm statement at that event that there would be just ten shows proves he was pressured into increasing the booking to a fifty night residency by promoters AEG Live, despite possibly not being fit enough to take on such a project.

Judge Michael Pastor is now considering the defence’s request to show footage of the press conference during the trial. Meanwhile, jury selection is ongoing, with the trial proper expected to kick off before the end of the month.



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