Ed Chernoff, lead lawyer for defendant Conrad Murray, was cross-examining Columbia Universityanesthesiologist Steven Shafer, the state's 33rd and last witness. Shafer had testified Thursday that the only "workable" scenario for how Jackson died in June 2009 was that Murray had infused him with 1,000 micrograms of the anesthetic propofol over three hours -- an amount 40 times higher than the dose Murray told police he had administered.
Jackson died of "acute propofol intoxication," combined with the effects of the sedative lorazepam, a coroner's autopsy determined. Murray, who pleaded not guilty, contends through his attorneys that Jackson gave himself the fatal doses while the doctor was away from the singer's bedroom.
Shafer, an authority on propofol, rejected the defense's scenario and several alternatives. He showed the jury on Thursday graphs based on his mathematical models to demonstrate that only Murray's use of a steady propofol drip on a sleeping Jackson could produce the high level of propofol found in the entertainer's blood in the autopsy.
Chernoff sought to cast doubt on the validity of Shafer's graphs and on his demonstration to the jury of how he believed Murray had set up an IV pole feeding propofol and a saline solution into Jackson's veins.
The cross-examination was nearly overshadowed by the outbreak of a feud between Shafer and the defense's propofol expert, Dr. Paul White of Dallas, resulting from Shafer's ridicule of White during earlier testimony for the prosecution.
Chernoff raised potential doubts about one simulation by Shafer that showed that Jackson probably received 10 doses of lorazepam of 4 micrograms each, every 10 minutes beginning at midnight June 24, 2009. Evidence introduced earlier in the trial showed that Jackson didn't arrive home from a concert rehearsal until around 1 a.m. Shafer acknowledged that fact.
Chernoff next questioned a Shafer chart that assumed Murray had given Jackson only a single 25-microgram dose of propofol -- as the doctor told police detectives two days after Jackson died. Shafer's chart, which said 25 milligrams would be insufficient to kill Jackson, assumed that Murray had pushed in all the propofol at once.
But Murray told the police he had infused it slowly over 3 to 5 minutes -- exactly the way Shafer recommended to other doctors in propofol instructions he wrote for the drug's manufacturer.
Chernoff told Shafer he had made questionable "grand statements" in setting up for the jury an IV stand and hanging on one side of the stand a slit saline bag into which he placed a bottle of propofol. Investigators had testified that they found a slit saline bag with a bottle of propofol
in it at the scene. Chernoff suggested Shafer was unreasonable in assuming that Murray actually had performed this unconventional form of IV setup.
Questioned by prosecutor David Walgren on Thursday, Shafer said he was "disappointed" that White, a longtime friend and colleague, had written a report for the defense calling it feasible that Jackson could have died from swallowing propofol. Shafer said the impossibility of swallowed propofol having any effect was "first principles" of medicine taught to "first-year medical students."
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