Murray has been a guilty man walking ever since Michael died on June 25, 2009. The only real issue now is whether he’ll be sentenced to the max, which in this case is only four years. I say yes.
(Murray is guilty, but MJ is not without blame, The iPINIONS Journal, September 30, 2011)
Far from showing mercy by granting Dr. Conrad Murray the probation he openly prayed for, Judge Michael Pastor showed him nothing but contempt yesterday by sentencing him to the maximum four years in prison.
The judge condemned Murray’s criminally negligent treatment of MJ as “a disgrace to the medical profession”:
It should be made very clear that experimental medicine is not going to be tolerated, and Mr. Jackson was an experiment. Dr. Murray was intrigued by the prospect and he engaged in this money for medicine madness that is simply not going to be tolerated by me.
(Associated Press, November 29, 2011)
He even insinuated that the doctor was nothing more than a common blackmailer:
That tape recording [of MJ speaking in a drug-induced haze] was Dr. Murray’s insurance policy. It was designed to record his patient surreptitiously at that patient’s most vulnerable point…
I can’t even imagine that happening to any of us because of the horrific violation of trust, and I can’t help but wonder that if there had been conflict [between the doctor and MJ] what value would have been placed on that tape recording.
(USA Today, November 29, 2011)
Then, with his voice projecting unbridled disdain, the judge literally exclaimed “yikes” as he conveyed his indignation at Murray’s lack of remorse:
Talk about blaming the victim. Not only isn’t there any remorse, there is umbrage and outrage on the part of Dr. Murray against the decedent… I think Dr. Murray is so reckless he is a danger to the community… [He] has absolutely no sense of remorse, absolutely no sense of fault.
(The Los Angeles Time, November 29, 2011)
In fact, what was most noteworthy about this sentencing was the judge’s obvious regret over not having the legal authority to send Murray off to the state penitentiary for life.
Which brings me to the unfortunate part of this commentary. Because, thanks to travails of celebutarts like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, it is now an open and notorious secret that jail overcrowding in California is such that Murray may end up spending no more than 18 months behind bars.
After all, in her most recent flirtation with the Los Angeles criminal justice system, Lindsay served only 3 hours of a 30-day sentence for violating (for the umpteenth time) the terms of her probation for convictions on jewelry-theft and drunk-driving cases. And the sheriff who determines how much time each convict actually serves will undoubtedly be keen to demonstrate that this high-profile black male will be required to serve no greater portion of his sentence than the high-profile white females who have exposed what a joke prison sentencing in LA County has become.
If the sheriff is consistent, Dr. Murray’s sentence in terms of time incarcerated will be very short.
(District Attorney Steve Cooley, Associated Press, November 29, 2011)
But, like his own defense attorney conceded, this wretched SOB will spend the rest of his life being known as the money-grubbing quack who killed the king of pop. And that might just be punishment enough….
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