As the much-touted Dr. Conrad Murray trial enters its third day, it is living up to its promise as the trial of the year. With the Jackson family arriving each day en masse to the courtroom, the director of This Is It testifying, and the jury treated to a few snippets of the film and testimony on MJ's physical state the two days before his death, all eyes are on the courtroom. But what is missing is the testimony of several prominent witnesses who if allowed to speak might reveal new twists in the case. Two weeks ago the presiding Judge Michael Pastor disallowed the testimony of many of the defense's key witnesses.
Ed Chernoff, lead defense attorney, responded by saying, “It essentially gutted our defense strategy.” (Although in the first two days of the trail they've managed to slip a little bit of it in.) But it hampered their ability to put forth into evidence as follows: the amount of stress (financial and otherwise) Jackson was under prior to the This Is It tour; Jackson's well-known long-term history of drug use and prior addictions to Demerol and Propofol; that favorite Hollywood pastime “doctor shopping”; and eyewitness testimony about Jackson's physical and mental state in the months prior to his untimely death on June 25, 2009. It has impeded the defense's ability to put forth their “pet“ theory—that may or may not yet be proven by science—that Jackson took the last dose himself.
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