.

Michael Jackson Doctor Seeks Appeal for Manslaughter Conviction

Dr. Conrad Murray says King of Pop died as a result of financial stress

Comment
Dr. Conrad Murray sits in court after he was sentenced for the involuntary manslaughter of singer Michael Jackson.
Mario Anzuoni-Pool/Getty Images
By Rolling Stone
February 23, 2012 11:03 AM ET

Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson, has filed legal documents seeking an appeal for his case.

According to the documents filed in Los Angeles, Murray claims that Jackson was so stressed out over his financial difficulties that he self-administered the dose of the sedative Propofol that killed him in 2009.

"[Jackson] was on the verge of losing his entire estate to foreclosure. The pressure to fight through his insomnia, to rehearse and be the entertainer he was in his earlier years was overwhelming," Murray's lawyers wrote. "His motivation and resulting desperation were relevant to show a likelihood or reason to act in a manner inconsistent with good judgment."

Related

|

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

prev
All-American Rejects Chronicle L.A. Excess On New Album
Music Main Next
Depeche Mode Co-Founders Reunite As VCMG

blog comments powered by Disqus
Stay Connected

Sign up to get Rolling Stone's daily newsletter.

Most Popular

Photos & Videos

Go To Content

Random Notes: Hottest Rock Pictures

Go To Content Play Video

Video: Bobby Womack Teases Upcoming Album

Go To Content

Gallery: On the Scene at the 2012 'American Idol' Finale

Best Ever Lists
100 Greatest Singers

Other Lists

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.”

More Song Stories entries »