Jackson’s doctor face court deadline

Dr. Conrad Murray’s lawyers face a court deadline as the judge on the case has told them they have to be back in court and provide the necessary information to the prosecution as defined by the law.

No end is in sight as to how dirty this trial could become so are we really surprised evidence is not being handed over?

Lawyers defending Jackson’s doctor in his involuntary manslaughter case must meet a Tuesday deadline to satisfy a judge’s order ahead of the trial’s start.

They have been ordered to hand over to prosecutors all of the statements and reports gathered from potential defense witnesses. This must according to California court rules occur on both sides 30 days before a trial starts.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor seems to be losing patience.

“We’ve been down this road before, and I hope we don’t have to go down it again,” said during a hearing Monday after prosecutors complained that the defense was holding back.

What seems to be at the heart of the issue is that the prosecutors have not seen statements from 76 of the 103 people on the defense witness list. They need these documents to know what they might testify about.

“We can resolve this,” lead defense lawyer Ed Chernoff told the judge.

The defense states it has handed over everything it has collected, but that many of the potential witnesses have not cooperated.

Pastor ordered lawyers back to court Wednesday morning, 29 days before jury selection is set to begin.

Discussions also began about jury selection but those were moved from open court into his chambers. The lawyers are drafting the questions they’ll ask potential jurors next month. The issue to the judge is the apparent risk that these questionnaire might be leaked to the media. His concern seems logical considering the 129 questions posed to nearly 500 potential jurors in March and April were made public after the jury pool was whittled down to 171 people. This exercise has to occur again because the trial was postponed for several months to allow lawyers more time to prepare.

Defense lawyers have stated they are concerned the jurors may be tainted by news media coverage especially during the trial. They referred to HLN’s Nancy Grace for delivering what they said amounted to nightly prosecution arguments during the Casey Anthony trial.

In addition to defense issues, the prosecution told Pastor they want him to review medical records for Murray’s patients to decide if they could use them in the trial to demonstrate the doctor’s prescription practices. None of the patients are related to the Jackson case, Walgren said.

This request may stem from the boxes collected at the doctor’s medical offices. Maybe reports regarding storage lockers and staff visiting them during the hours MJ was dying may also be included?

Pastor questioned the legality of prosecutors having private medical records protected by federal law without the patients’ permission. He stated he would need to have a specific reason to review such records.

Now one could argue that if this information is to be kept confidential, the practices of this doctor could bear fruit during the trial.

Let us know what you think.