The trial of Michael Jackson's personal physician will include two haunting but starkly different depictions of the pop star's last day — a video of him dancing and singing on stage and photos taken hours later of his lifeless body on a coroner's gurney, a judge ruled Thursday.
L.A. County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor cleared prosecutors to present the rehearsal footage and autopsy photos during a lengthy hearing that established evidentiary boundaries for next month's involuntary manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray.
The judge barred both sides from delving far into the personal lives of the physician and his famous patient, saying he wanted to focus the proceeding tightly on Murray's medical care of Jackson in the months leading up to his 2009 death.
Jurors, Pastor said, will hear nothing about Murray's extramarital affairs, out-of-wedlock children, and his visits to strip clubs, evidence prosecutors had hoped to present. Nor, he said, will they hear evidence the defense had sought concerning Jackson's crushing debt and mountain of pending lawsuits.
