Conrad Murray, the doctor convicted in the Michael Jackson death, kept pushing to work in medicine years after the pop star died on June 25, 2009, and after his licenses were suspended in California, Texas and Nevada. In 2023, he opened a medical institute in Trinidad and Tobago.
Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in November 2011 for Jackson’s death and sentenced to four years in prison. He served nearly two years before being released for time served from the Los Angeles Men's Central Jail.
The case turned on what prosecutors said was repeated gross negligence: Murray gave Jackson propofol without the proper monitoring equipment and waited more than an hour to call 911. Murray said he administered the drug at Jackson’s request so the singer could sleep.
Jackson’s death was ruled a homicide, and Murray was charged after the singer died of acute Propofol intoxication that sent him into cardiac arrest. He pleaded not guilty. Murray later said he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” while his lawyer, Valerie Wass, said in 2013 that he was hopeful and intended to practice medicine somewhere, and that he was prepared to go to federal court to fight.
The wider picture was always more complicated than the courtroom verdict. NBC News reported that Jackson paid Murray $150,000 a month and that Murray was facing foreclosure on his Las Vegas home when he took the job as Jackson’s personal physician for the This Is It world tour. Murray first met Jackson in 2006, when a member of the entertainer’s entourage introduced them after Murray treated Paris Jackson during a Las Vegas trip.
What remains clear is that the conviction did not end Murray’s effort to keep working as a doctor. Even after prison and suspended licenses, he continued to seek a medical path, and the opening of his institute in 2023 showed that he was still trying to build one outside the United States.