The company said this is the only interview Murray plans to give. Jackson died June 25, , of acute propofol intoxication after suffering cardiac arrest in his home.
Following the reading of the verdict, Murray was remanded to custody without bail. He will be sentenced on Nov. PT and could face up to four years in prison and lose his medical license. Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day. When the jurors walked in, then Mr. Jackson and his team stood up. He buttoned up his suit, and everybody grinned—he smiled at the jurors as they walked in.
In contrast, prosecutor Ron Zonen was very straight-faced. Maureen, the bottom line is somebody told Michael Jackson to start behaving.
He has really gotten his act together for today, shaped up. He looks thinner. He walks more purposefully. And obviously, he realizes how serious this is. What struck you as the process continued today? I was interested in the demeanor of the judge, Judge Rodney Melville. This is a guy who controls his courtroom with an iron fist. Today, he seemed to be talking about sort of the American part of this process.
ORTH: Yes. I mean, when—the first question the judge asked was, How many of you think you can serve, and boom, hands shot up. These are people who I think are interested in the case. They responded to what Judge Melville was saying, and they were saying, Yes, I can do this for six months How far are we?
And what, it was about 50 percent of the people said they were available to serve on this kind of trial? The ones that requested the judge dismiss them, it was mostly for financial hardship issues.
You know, as you know, a six-month trial, a lot of employers will not pay for that. What you end up with, however, specific to this community then, I believe will be the largest employers, the Vandenberg Air Force Base, the county governments, as well as the Lompoc Federal Penitentiary.
Now, those sort of places will pay. So you will end up with a lot of those types of jurors. Now, some of them came up with some very interesting stories today about why they were requesting to be off the jury. One man said that he did want to be on. And he says, I do want to be on. And so the judge said, OK, fine. Another man had spent—he told the judge that he had been in the county jail two years ago and had gotten into a little tiff with one black man, he said, and one white man.
Another man I want to talk about this statement Michael Jackson made this weekend, this in response to a leak of grand jury material. The judge actually approved this statement for Michael Jackson. Apparently, this information was leaked through transcripts in a grand jury proceeding where neither my lawyers nor I ever appeared.
The information is disgusting and false. He was sick. This, I thought, was supposed to be done by today. So you know, of course, this was They all say it at the beginning of every—My client wants to get on the witness stand, I promise you. Just nohow. ORTH: I mean, the arrest warrant is 82 pages long. But I just think that is so much of a risk. Mike, were you surprised, though, to see the Jackson statement come out now? Obviously, there were stories that it was coming out any day, any day now.
I was surprised, as you were, at the depth and sort of the subtle texture of the statement itself. And this was a very emotional statement. HOBBS: I would imagine that Judge Melville allowed Jackson to say as much as he did is because of the amount of detail that came out in the grand jury leak. And so you know, which was un-cross-examined. You know, a judge is not presiding over it.
ORTH: But at that point, they were—he was so much a bigger star and they were so afraid of his celebrity and putting up one little kid up against him. And obviously, the defense position is going to be to attack their credibility.
I appreciate it. When we come back: What kind of person is fit to be a juror in a case against Michael Jackson? What would each side really want? Does he have the money to pay? Please keep an open mind and let me have my day in court. I will be acquitted and vindicated when the truth is told. The question, as this jury selection process continues: Who is the ideal prosecution juror, and what is the defense looking for?
Joining me now, defense attorney extraordinaire, Gerry Spence, former prosecutor Paul Pfingst and jury consultant Marshall Hennington. But of course, he has to go through this trial and have to go through challenging those who brought it upon him. He feels that economically, with their money motives.
But beyond his music career, and his writing interest, and his spending his works to Africa are very much on his agenda. I mean, we keep talking and hearing in this trial about how he's broke. Michael has been, in some sense, cash-strapped, because he's not been on the road working at all. And unlike Disney, Neverland is a free theme park, which is a big outlay of cash. So he has been to some extent cash-strapped. But at some point in time, the loans he had were more than covered, like two-thirds greater than the loans, but there was an attempt to rush through a closure on him, which has been unnecessary and unthinkable.
But that stopped. And that process has been worked out. There's no longer that tension about, will he face foreclosure? That's not going to happen. And he's not selling the Elvis, and the Beatles, and the Jackson catalog, as well. Those are just rumors that really do not have foundation.
If he is found guilty -- and I know that you are hoping he's not, and he's hoping he's not -- but if he is found guilty, I'm sure he's going to turn to you for guidance once again. Is he going to be able to make it in prison? And a lot of people say, "Boy, Michael Jackson in prison, don't think he'll be able to make it.
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