LOS ANGELES (AP) — An appeals court refused Wednesday to order the jury sequestered in the trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray, clearing the way for jury selection to begin Thursday.
The California 2nd District Court of Appeals also declined to delay the trial while the issue is argued. The court found that Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor did not abuse his discretion when he decided not to sequester.
Defense lawyers had argued that jurors would be “poisoned” by publicity unless they were kept in isolation during the trial.
The defense predicted that jurors will be inundated with reports in supermarkets, bars, gyms and coffee shops, and on the Internet.
Pastor has said he trusts jurors to obey his orders to ignore publicity in the high-profile involuntary manslaughter case and declined to have them sequestered.
“The court has read and considered the petition,” the brief court decision said. “The petition is denied in the absence of a showing of abuse of