Judge For Yourself

Judge Michael Pastor has been very clear with the jury in the Conrad Murray trial.

“This case is not a trial by television. It’s not a revelation from radio or insight from the internet.”

That warning on Friday was much stronger than the one he has delivered at the close of each day so far.

And there is a reason.

Judge Pastor has been forced to issue a gagging order preventing lawyers in the case from commenting to the media about the trial’s progress.

It was prompted after one of Dr Murray’s legal team appeared on a morning chat show and criticised one of the prosecution witnesses, calling his credibility into question.

The judge has already told the lawyers not to speak to the media – his new order expanded that to anyone on any of the legal teams.

No-one should ever be surprised at the goings-on in US court cases, of course, but this one has some especially modern touches.

The tweets from La Toya Jackson, who has been in court for most of the trial so far, have gone down well with the placard-waving conspiracy theorists outside.

“Please every1 listen carefully 2 every word N the courtroom & read between the lines,” she told followers.

So, listen to the evidence and then make up what you want about what is means?

In the skies above the LA Superior Court we have also had duelling (although not literally) aeroplanes (“airplanes”) pulling banners with a variety of messages.

In summary: Michael Jackson deserves justice, Dr Murray deserves justice, Latin America wants justice (for Michael Jacskon) as does Australia.

Well worth the cost of hiring a plane, those.

Then there is gavel-to-gavel coverage and analysis on some of the US cable opinion networks, packed with more experts than you’d think possible.

Tell the jury to ignore all of that, by all means, Mr Pastor – lawyers say jurors are usually pretty good at focusing on the evidence- but in this case it cannot be easy for them.