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D.A. expected to wrap up case Thursday

By Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times
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The prosecution’s star witness, Dr. Steven Shafer, will continue his testimony Thursday in what is expected to be the final day of its involuntary manslaughter case against Michael Jackson’s personal physician.

Shafer, an expert on propofol –- the drug that killed Jackson -- testified that the pop star would still be alive today if he had an appropriate doctor-patient relationship with Dr. Conrad Murray.

During testimony on Wednesday, Shafer described Murray’s treatment of Jackson as “pharmacological never, never land.”

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“If the patient should request something that is foolish or dangerous, it is the doctor’s obligation to use his medical judgment and say no,” Shafer said.

He also said Murray’s delay in calling 911 was “completely and utterly inexcusable.”

The defense is scheduled to begin presenting its case on Friday. Murray’s attorneys contend that Jackson swallowed a handful of sedatives and then injected himself with propofol.

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Harriet Ryan

Harriet Ryan is an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Since joining the paper in 2008, she has written about high-profile people, including Phil Spector, Michael Jackson and Tom Girardi, and institutions, including USC, the State Bar of California, the Catholic Church, the Kabbalah Centre and Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin. Ryan won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting with colleagues Matt Hamilton and Paul Pringle in 2019. She and Hamilton won the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability in 2023. She previously worked at Court TV and the Asbury Park Press. She is a graduate of Columbia University.

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