Attorneys for Michael Jackson’s former physician Conrad Murray, on trial for involuntary manslaughter in the death of the pop icon, want a sequestered jury during Conrad’s trial, court papers showed on Friday.
‘There is reasonable expectation that Dr Murray’s trial will be the most publicised in history,’ wrote the doctor’s attorneys in court papers given to Judge Michael Pastor. ‘It is necessary to sequester the jury in order to ensure that it is free from outside influences and guarantee the defendant a fair trial by an impartial jury,’ said attorneys Edward Chernoff and Nareg Gourjian. Judge Pastor will review the request, and a hearing is set for August 25.
In July, the judge said he did not support sequestering the jury, and he estimated that the measure was unnecessary and said the system cannot afford the costs associated with isolating the jury for six weeks.
The defendant’s attorneys called it ‘Pollyanna to expect the jury members to go home each workday and weekend for six weeks and entirely avoid the mass of exposure this trial will engender’. They added that isolation is the sole way to ensure the jury’s decision-making process is not tainted.
Photo: AP