The Shadow Of Justice

Right next to where the death of Michael Jackson is being weighed in the scales of justice there stands another shrine to celebrity crime and death.

The courthouse where Conrad Murray is standing trial is shown in the background of the photo above - the derelict building in the foreground is Los Angeles' Hall of Justice.

It has been closed since an earthquake in 1994 rendered it unsafe but its boarded up corridors and courtrooms echo with the most extraordinary history.

In its cells, the likes of Charles Manson and Bugsy Siegel were held, so too Sirhan Sirhan after he shot and killed presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy in 1968, and the actor Robert Mitchum once served time for marijuana possession there.

The body of screen legend Marilyn Monroe was taken to the Hall of Justice after she was found dead.

A planned $200 million renovation has been a stop-start affair and the building has been gutted of its original fittings in readiness.

It is hoped it will eventually house offices, a car park, a museum and cafeteria - the roof, once an exercise yard for inmates, will become a jogging circuit.

It is a future at least for one of downtown LA's most striking buildings - at the moment it is just the rather sorry backdrop for the lines of satellite vehicles relaying news of the very modern celebrity story that is the Murray trial.

Interestingly, only one of the cell blocks has been preserved, the one said to have housed Manson, and will feature in the new museum.