After a lengthy round of closing arguments delivered Thursday by both sides over the involuntary manslaughter trial against Michael Jackon's personal physician, the fate of the cardiologist now rests in the hands of the panelists.
Deputy District Attorney David Walgren and defense attorney Edward Chernoff traded jabs during the day's court proceedings at the Los Angeles Superior Court, with Walgren accusing the pop star's doctor Conrad Murray of performing an "obscene experiment" on Jackson for treating his insomnia with powerful anesthetic Propofol.
"Did Michael Jackson yell out for help? Did he gasp? Did he choke? ...We'll never know because of the neglect and negligence by Conrad Murray," Walgren said, referring to Murray's alleged criminal negligence which resulted in the pop superstar's June 2009 death.
Walgren, who during his two-hour argument called Murray's treatment of the pop icon "unethical, unconscionable, and an extreme deviation from the standard of care," said Murray demonstrated "consciousness of guilt" by failing to tell paramedics and emergency room doctors that he had given the singer the potent drug.
He said the former doctor only told the police about the anesthetic two days later, knowing that investigators had already found the medication at the singer's rented Holmby Hills mansion.
He said Murray misled the investigators by saying he only left Jackson's side for about two minutes to use the bathroom, after giving the superstar a 25-milligram dose of Propofol on the morning of June 25. The drug was slowly infused over three to five minutes beginning at about 10:40 a.m., the prosecutor said.
Walgren also challenged a defense expert's conclusion that Jackson had died after self-ingesting Propofol, calling it "junk science."
To support his points, Walgren presented a telephone records to the seven-man, five-woman jury, which contained calls made to and from Murray's two cellular phones in the hours leading up to Jackson's death. He also lambasted Murray's failure to immediately call 911 which delayed the arrival of help that could have saved Jackson's life.
In lengthy and impassionate closing arguments delivered after Walgren, Chernoff tried hard to drive home the point that the prosecution lacked the proof that Murray had set up a Propofol drip the day the singer died, which in turn failed to hold Murray accountable for Jackson's death.
Throughout the six-week proceedings, the defense has insisted that it was Jackson who killed himself by self-administering a fatal dose of Propofol after Murray left the bedroom at his mansion.
"We would not be telling you that Dr. Murray never made any mistakes ... But this case that you're deciding, it isn't a medical board hearing," Chernoff said. "This isn't a civil lawsuit. This isn't about money. It's about liberty."
The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office ruled that Jackson, who was in Los Angeles rehearsing for a soldout series of 50 concerts in O2 Arena in London dubbed "This Is It," died from acute Propofol intoxication.
Prosecutors seek to prove Murray had failed to properly monitor Jackson after giving him a lethal dose of Propofol. They contended that the cardiologist "repeatedly acted with gross negligence, repeatedly denied appropriate care to his patient, Michael Jackson, and that it was Dr. Murray's repeated incompetence and unskilled acts that led to Mr. Jackson's death on June 25, 2009."
Defense attorneys argued Murray was weaning Jackson off the medication. Murray was hired by Jackson to care for him two months before his death.
Murray, who has been set free on a bail of 75,000 U.S. dollars, faces up to four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of the felony charge.