Prosecution to Grill Defense Witness
The anesthesiologist who testified for the defense in the Conrad Murray trial last week will face cross-examination by the prosecution Monday.
Dr. Paul White said that singer Michael Jackson likely died from drugs he consumed outside Dr. Murray's perscription.
The defense has contended that Jackson's insomnia was unknown to Murray, and was a side effect of withdrawal from a Demerol addiction.
During his testimony for the defense on Friday, White said that the concentration of drugs in Jackson' body show that the singer must have injected himself with propofol after Murray had gone away after giving him another drug, lorzepam.
The Los Angeles County coroner who examined Jackson's body concluded that his death was caused by "acute propofol intoxication".
The prosecution, using the key testimony of one of Murray's colleagues Dr. Steven Shafer, has tried to prove that it was Murray's negligent ministrations of propofol that ultimately lead to Jackson's death.
Shafer said the evidence shows that Murray had put Jackson on a constant IV drip of propofol right before his death.
The jury will have to choose between the two theories presented by White and Shafer, who are themselves colleagues and are considered two of the world's top experts on propofol.
The jury will also have to determine whether the evidence shows that Jackson died from immediate cardiac arrest or whether he suffered respitory arrest first, followed by cardiac arrest.
Murray told detectives that the pulse oxymeter monitor on Jackson's finger registered his heart beat at 122 beats per minutes. White's theory depends on Jackson having had immediate cardiac arrest, which seems to contradict Murray's disclosure to detectives back on the scene in June, 2009.
Closing arguments are expected to come later this week or early next week, wrapping up the involuntary manslaughter trial.
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