Los Angeles, November 30: Murray was convicted on November 7 of injecting the overdose of the anesthetic propofol that killed the 50-year-old pop icon in his rented Los Angeles mansion on June 25, 2009. A 12-person jury unanimously found him guilty following a six-week trial.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor handed down the maximum penalty for the felony conviction.
In a statement issued before the sentence was handed down, Jackson’s family said that they were seeking justice, not revenge, by asking Judge Pastor to impose the maximum punishment.
They asked for a sentence that sent a message that physicians “cannot sell their service to the highest bidder and cast aside their Hippocratic oath to do no harm”.Murray will likely serve only half of the sentence under new California guidelines targeting prison overcrowding.
Judges must also send nonviolent felons to county jails instead of state prisons, according to the guidelines enacted in April.
The Los Angeles District Attorneys asked that Conrad Murray pay more than $US100 million to Michael Jackson’s three children and serve the maximum four years jail as part of his sentence.
They argued that Jackson’s kids – Prince Michael, Paris and Blanket – were entitled to the estimated $US100 million in revenue that Jackson would have earned from his sold-out This Is It comeback tour, for which he was preparing at the time of his death.
Attorneys for Murray, however, contended in court papers that the doctor’s “background and character” warranted a sentence of probation, not prison time.
He was ordered to pay “appropriate restitution” – to be determined at a later date – to Jackson’s estate and children.
–Agencies