Tuesday is the day for Doctor Conrad Murray as sentencing is due to be handed down. In a 
recent interview, Jackson’s mother said she hoped for the maximum sentence for the doctor.
“I don’t believe that he intended for Michael to die,” Katherine Jackson told CNN Monday. “He was just taking a chance.”
A Los Angeles jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter three weeks ago. Prosecutors successfully argued that Doctor Murray used the medication propofol recklessly which directly contributed to the death of the singer.
The case saw that Doctor Murray prescribed propofol every night for almost two months without proper monitoring. This was described as being at Jackson’s request as he prepared for his comeback tour.
Judge Michael Pastor set November 29 for sentencing.
Prosecutors are naturally asking for the maximum sentence, as is Jackson’s mother. However, the burden being felt by the California penal system is significant, and direction has allegedly been given to minimize jail time wherever possible. Whether this has a bearing on the sentence is yet to be seen.
The lawyers will have their chance to again voice their positions today as each side will have an opportunity to make an argument before the sentence is handed out. Prosecutors want the maximum sentence, plus $120 million for the children. Defense wants probation instead of prison time.
It was estimated that Jackson’s comeback tour would have earned him around $100 million for the 50 shows he was planning to hold. For once, this figure isn’t an arbitrary amount plucked out of the sky, it is a realistic expectation of what that tour would have brought the Jackson estate.
The prosecutors asked that Murray should be ordered to pay Jackson’s three children restitution for the subsequent “wage and profits lost,” as provided under California’s “victim’s bill of rights” law. That includes funeral expenses of almost $2 million, plus interest.
It’s doubtful Murray could afford that much, but if awarded, would negate any money he would earn from future publicity.
According to the District Attorney’s office, Murray has “displayed a complete lack of remorse” about Jackson’s death, and is, “even worse, failing to accept even the slightest level of responsibility.” That’s what deputy district attorneys David Walgren and Deborah Brazil wrote.
The decision of Murray not to testify in his own defense, while giving interviews for a documentary that aired days after the verdict also hurt his case.
“In each of these interviews, the defendant has very clearly stated that he bears no responsibility for Michael Jackson’s death,” the prosecutors said. “Moreover, the defendant has continued to express concern only for his individual plight and portrays himself, not the decedent, as the victim.
“The defendant consistently blames the victim for his own death, even going so far as to characterize himself as being ‘entrapped’ by the victim and as someone who suffered a ‘betrayal’ at the hands of the victim,” the prosecutors finished.