Jackson: Victim or Criminal?
An E! Online article’s crafting an interesting thought experiment: what legal defense will get Conrad Murray off the hook in the MJ case? Should Michael Jackson be blamed for the drug-fueled lifestyle that ultimately ended his life?
This may not be a popular line of thinking among Jackson fans, but a legal defense that pins the brunt of the blame on Jackson himself may be what it takes to release his doctors of liability.
Jackson, for all his Peter Pan ways, was a grown man. And by account after account, he was begging to be given things, to be prescribed drugs that aren’t good for grown elephants. According to his former nutrionist, he asked for Diprivan. According to some reports, he died from Diprivan.
The coldest devil’s advocate position says Jackson was a wrong-way driver on a one-way street—destined for disaster—and that not any one member of his entourage, not any one doctor on his tab, not any one drug, is to blame for his demise.
There, we said it. Said what a lawyer might one day say in court. (Mind you, no one—not Murray, not anyone—has been charged with wrongdoing in Jackson’s death.)
Do we feel better? No.
No one’s been charged yet, though we’re guessing it’s only a matter of time once the investigation’s finished and the autopsy results become unsealed. Maybe it’s time for the lawyers to start digging up MJ’s past and learn more about his vices?