Four Michael Jackson wrongful-death jurors were 'stunned' by impact of verdict form
Lawyers for the family of Michael Jackson are submitting affidavits by four disillusioned jurors in a bid for a new trial in their unsuccessful wrongful-death case against the pop star’s concert promoter.
The jurors described their reactions as “stunned,” “upset” and “shocked” when they learned their answer to a question on the jury verdict form meant they could no longer deliberate liability, CNN reports. The jurors said a majority of the jury wanted to find concert promoter AEG Live liable for paying Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician convicted of involuntary manslaughter for giving the anesthetic propofol to Jackson to help him sleep.
The jurors reported debate over the question: “Was Dr. Conrad Murray unfit or incompetent to perform the work for which he was hired?” The Jackson family lawyers had sought to add “at any time” to the question, but the judge overseeing the trial refused, the story says.
A majority of the jurors answered “no” to the question after one juror said it was asking whether Murray was incompetent at the time he was hired, two jurors said.
“I feel so cheated because I sat through five months of trial and listened to a lot of evidence on the ethical conflict created—yet I never got to even deliberate at all on that issue or even review the hundreds of exhibits that had been brought in,” one of the jurors said in an affidavit.
