Prosecutors in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson cardiologist Conrad Murray are going on the offensive, looking to prevent two defense witnesses from testifying and themselves hoping to display images of Jackson just days before his death.
Murray was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the wake of the death of the pop star. His attorneys want Dr. Paul White, an anesthesiologist and expert on the drug propofol, on which Jackson overdosed, and Dr. Joseph Haraszti, a psychiatrist, to testify on his behalf.
However, the prosecution wants Murray to testify first. According to reports, prosecutors believe the two doctors would testify using information from Murray that investigators still haven’t seen.
“This is simply a backdoor attempt to introduce the defendant’s new, self-serving statements without being subject to cross-examination,” the prosecutors write in Monday’s court filing, according to CNN. “Further, such expert opinions are unreliable and lack foundation, since they are based on untested hearsay.”
According to the Associated Press, the motion claims that “such information conflicts with what the defendant told the police in his prior interviews.”
The prosecution is also trying to show Jackson’s last days to debunk Murray’s defense that Jackson killed himself. Prosecutors David Walgren and Deborah Brazil said that video clips taken just before his death, will show Jackson as an “active, energetic” part of the tour he was preparing for.
“These video clips are completely at odds with someone who, as the defense has claimed, would recklessly take his own life just hours after the last clip was filmed,” they wrote, according to AFP, a news service.