A Los Angeles jury found Dr. Conrad Murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of his patient, pop icon Michael Jackson.
Jackson, who was feverishly preparing for a comeback world tour in June 2009, died from a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol, which Murray acknowledged giving him on a regular basis to help him sleep.
Prosecution attorneys portrayed Murray as a selfish doctor who was paid $150,000 a month to regularly inject Jackson with the drug that most medical experts agree should only be administered in a hospital setting.
Attorneys for the Houston-based doctor had argued that Jackson, who suffered from insomnia, gave himself a fatal injection when Murray left his bedside.
During the 23-day trial, jurors heard from 49 witnesses, including Murray's girlfriends and patients, Jackson's former employees, investigators, and medical experts for each side. Murray did not take the stand, but several witnesses from Houston who were patients at his Acres Home practice offered testimonials to his medical skills and ethical nature.
"If this man was greedy he never would have come to the community of Acres Home," said Ruby Mosley, adding that most residents in the Houston neighborhood are senior citizens on fixed incomes. Her testimony moved Murray to tears.
When the guilty verdict was announced Monday afternoon, however, Murray remained expressionless.
The seven-man, five-woman jury reached the verdict on their second day of deliberations Monday morning. Jackson's mother, Katherine, and sister, LaToya, were in the courtroom when the verdict was read.
Murray was immediately taken into custody and handcuffed in the courtroom. He will be sentenced on Nov. 29. Sentencing options range from probation up to four years in prison and having his medical license revoked.
Few people are strong enough to resist the lure of Girl Scout cookie season every year, with the cookies’ limited availability and unique flavors a strong incentive to indulge. But only the girls and their families who have sold the cookies know the joys and stresses of trying to get people to buy them, a process that is detailed in the new documentary, Cookie Queens.
The film by documentarian Alysa Nahmias uses the stories of four different girls to represent the nationwide ritual for the Girl Scouts. They include 12-year-old Olive in Charlotte, North Carolina, a longtime top seller; 8-year-old Shannon Elizabeth in El Paso, Texas, who wants to earn the reward of going to camp; 5-year-old Ara in San Diego, California, whose goal is modest compared to most other girls; and 9-year-old Nikki in Chino, California, who has to compete with her older sisters in the cookie-selling bonanza.
The girls represent a cross-section of both ages and backgrounds, with some girls coming from wealthy families and some girls dealing with more limited means. And how much money your family has makes a big difference, as not only does someone richer have more freedom with their time and supplies, but all scouts are required to reimburse the organization for every box they take in, regardless of whether they’re able to sell it or not.
That caveat makes the journeys of the four featured girls feel wildly different. It’s clear from the start that Olive and Nikki’s families don’t give a second thought to the personal economics of selling cookies, with each girl taking in thousands of boxes at the beginning of the six-week selling season. With both Olive and Nikki rightfully confident that they’ll have no problem offloading their supply, their stories turn to how selling is personally affecting them, with each trying to reconcile the fun of doing it with the pressure they feel from their family members.
Shannon Elizabeth’s story is more harrowing, as her parents feel a strong desire to help her accomplish her lofty goal, but worry that the cost might literally be too high for the family as a whole. More than once, the parents are shown fretting that they won’t have the money to pay back what they owe should they fall significantly short in their sales. Their selling approach, which includes walking through an empty swap meet and standing outside a chain restaurant at night, only adds to their stress.
The most fun story to watch is that of Ara, whose innocence is matched by her confidence. Her parents teach her how much money they’ll owe with her small goal of 55 boxes, but right away she takes on more responsibility than expected. She’s shown making sales pitches and tallying the total number of boxes she’s sold with little-to-no help from either her mom or dad. With her high voice, glasses, and a monitor on her arm to manage her diabetes, she becomes the cute and sympathetic part of the film.
There are times that the film starts to feel more than a little manipulative, however. While many of the moments documented come off as organic, some of them seem like Nahmias is actively guiding the participants in order to get a better story. This is especially evident with Shannon Elizabeth and her family, whose early struggles turn into a miraculous feel-good story by the end, a turnaround that seems implausible at best. Everything with them might have been aboveboard, but Nahmias and her team edit the family’s journey in a way that pushes a bit too hard for emotion.
Cookie Queens, which was produced by a company owned by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, helps to give insight into the business of selling Girl Scout cookies for those who’ve only been on the purchasing end of the transaction. The dedication of each girl toward selling their allotted supply proves fun and interesting, even if the filmmaker tries to gild the lily on occasion.
