Jackson verdict

[Stillhomewardbound]

Ridiculous.

If you believed the apocraphyl story about Catherine the Great's demise, then you'd be calling for the hanging of the man who had sold her the horse.

This was clearly, in my opinion, death by misadventure.

Michael Jackson was a highly disturbed personality who had the wealth to abuse both himself and minors without consequence and it strikes me as utterly wrong that he is now presented as the victim of a crime.

He was only the victim of his own complexity and largesse whose ultimate folly was that he had the means to self-medicate.

His death was to all intents at his own hand, albeit by proxy.

I don't demonise him for that but I think it is very unjust that someone else is picking up the tab.

[Serial_Apologist]

For America there always must be a happy ending......

[John Wright]

This was clearly, in my opinion, death by misadventure.

His death was to all intents at his own hand, albeit by proxy.

Eh, well no. The combination of drugs Murray gave Jackson is what killed him particularly the Propofol. Murray chose the drugs, introduced them to Jackson, administered them.

By your line of thinking drug pushers would be committing no crime?

[LeMartinPecheur]

Perhaps even in America there's still a slim chance that 'society' will feel that a doctor has a duty to do what's 'right' and in his patient's best interests, rather than just doing what said patient pays and shouts for?

[Mr Pee]

Really, I couldn't care less.

[DracoM]

Don't believe it to be honest.

I reckon behind the scenes such is the pressure from a HUGE number of sources whi simply have to make Jackson into a sad victim rather than a sadly misguided perpetrator that they have taken the easy way out. And any jury in that case.......? Poor them.

[Norfolk Born]

Really, I couldn't care less.

I bet I care less than you do!

[Lateralthinking1]

Jackson was never allowed to live his life in the absence of hysteria. From the overdrive of his father which demanded success to the manic adulation of fans in his childhood; from the sensation addicted press which followed his every move to the need for a scapegoat following his demise. His was never a normal life, in some ways I feel sad for him, and there is no doubt that he was murdered in a sense, probably by thousands. There is blood on many hands.

I don't think I ever believed fully in the worst of the allegations, nor could I wholly dismiss them. It seems to me that this is the most logical position given the bizarre nature of his personality and his life. Instinctively, I don't feel that he was a bad person. There has always been the thought that if the allegations were untrue - and we will never know - then the abhorrent nature of them actually belongs to American culture. It alone would have turned something well-meaning into something foul. His legacy might to some extent be safeguarded by the verdict. However, it should place the Jackson family, the media, the more hysterical fans and the legal system all in a bad light. It looks like revenge and that's not good.

Like many, I felt that his talent disappeared at the start of the eighties, just as he turned into a megastar commodity and health problems emerged. "Off The Wall" yes. "Thriller" no. I loved a lot of the Motown music in the 1960s and 1970s. Much of it was absolutely joyous, a rarer vibe than we all once thought. I choose to appreciate his great gift to us when he was a child and a teenager and tend to dismiss all the rest as being from someone sufficiently troubled to be someone else.

[DracoM]

Under Scottish law, might Murray's case not have been 'not proven'?

[burning dog]

I don't know that his talent disappeared but the world didn't want a soul singer, albiet with an unusual voice on a jazz - funk-disco album like occured with "Off The Wall" as much as an all singing, all dancing, pantomime "Pop Superstar" for kids. The skill and dedication that went into Off The Wall (at least as much from Temperton and Quincy Jones as Jackson) seemed to be spread thinly afterwards. He may well have done monsterous things, we may never find out the complete truth. The whole circus around a Pop personality whose best sounds were so much a collaberation is insane, but about par for the course.

A "Michael Jackson" record from the golden period.... but no MJ!

[Stillhomewardbound]

A friend of mine of Facebook added the following reply:

"Well... much of what you say was true but I followed the trial fairly closely and Murray was negligent. He was happy to trake the money and not the responsibility. He should not have prescribed the drug, he gave MJ too much of it and too much free access to it AND, crucially, he never mentioned the propofol to the doctors in the emergency room - information that may have helped save his life."


My reply: "Struck off for sure, and with no option ever to be involved in any associated medical or advisory capacity henceforth. To clarifiy my case, imagine the person who employs a proxy to assit in his predilection for auto asphyxiation ie. the person who will effectively carry out the 'self-strangulation'. Mistaking his master's distress for rapture, one time he goes too far. The writhing and twisting he took be ecstacy were actually expirative exhaustion.

Tragic though the circumstances were the situation would never have arisen if MJ had had to go to a registered practitioner like the rest of us. As I say, he was effectively self-medicating. To go back to my example, can the victim turn up at the Pearly Gates and say 'Sure, I wanted him to strangle me, but I never sed nuttin'about him murrdering me!' "

[burning dog]

Of being a terrible doctor - definitely guilty, beyond that it would be hard to PROVE his guilt I'd have thought

[Lateralthinking1]

I completely agree with your comments burningdog. Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton from Cleethorpes were vital components of Off The Wall. But it was the end of what had been an outstanding decade. Jackson was still just 21.

We can't know what pressures the doctor was under to provide what was requested. His biggest failing may have been not to have referred Jackson for mental health support but imagine being the one to have advised that!

[mercia]

what will Sky News do now it's all over? they gave the trial huge coverage (it seemed to me)

I watched Channel Five News one evening and the Euro crisis didn't get a single mention

[Mahlerei]

mercia

Indeed. What a relief it's over. What disturbs me most is the adulation/hysteria MJ - and celebrities in general - seem to attract. One woman outside the court house broke down in tears and screamed 'Thank you Jesus!' when the verdict was read out. Another huge banner read 'We miss you Michael'. How personal these 'relationships' are made to sound, even though they're not personal at all (in the sense that most of us would understand it). Profoundly depressing.