Conrad Murray Requests Publicly Funded Lawyer to Appeal Conviction

Dr. Conrad Murray listens as he sits in court during his sentencing for the involuntary manslaughter of singer Michael Jackson.

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Conrad Murray, the physician convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson, has asked for a publicly funded lawyer to handle his appeal on that conviction, claiming that he cannot afford to pay for one out of his own pocket.

"The defendant is indigent and respectfully requests the appointment of counsel on appeal," read court papers filed by Murray in Los Angeles Superior Court yesterday. Murray said he wished to appeal both his conviction and his sentence but has not yet filed formal papers with the California appeals court. He is currently serving a four-year jail term.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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