Conrad Murray Trial: Prosecutors Play Shocking Recording of Slurring Michael Jackson (Listen)
by Richard Sharp
The world lost one of its biggest pop icons on June 25th, 2009, when Michael Jackson collapsed after ingesting a lethal combination of propofol, lorazepam and midazolam, a powerful combination of anesthetics, painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs.
The manslaughter trial for Conrad Murray, the physician who prescribed Jackson with many of these drugs, started today.
Murray’s defense claims he was not responsible for administering the doses of drugs that killed Jackson, and that he was in fact attempting to wean the pop star off the drugs.
Prosecutors played a tape during opening statements that captures just how bad Michael’s condition was in the weeks before he passed away. In the tape, Jackson is allegedly under the influence of the drugs he died from and is slurring and borderline incoherent as he talks about future goals to build a children’s hospital.
It’s disturbing and very sad stuff to listen to, particularly when paired with an accompanying multimedia presentation showing how many bottles of similar drugs Jackson’s doctor had procured after hearing the state the singer was in.
Whether he administered the final dose that did Jackson in or not, after jurors have heard the tape, it's certainly going to be hard for Murray to argue that he wasn't aware of just how serious Jackson's drug problem had become.
Listen to a tape of a badly slurring Michael Jackson from Conrad Murray’s manslaughter trial: