Images of Michael Jackson in life and death will be shown to jurors at his doctor's trial, a judge ruled Thursday, after a prosecutor promised restraint while using autopsy photos that might upset the singer's family.
Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor also said he will allow prosecutors to screen segments of the concert movie "This Is It" for jurors in highly redacted form to show the pop star's mental and physical state in the days before his death.
"I don't think this should be entertainment," the judge said.
Pastor said only two autopsy photos will be allowed of Jackson's body laid out on a coroner's examining table.
In one image, the singer is swathed in a hospital gown. In the other, he is nude, with portions of his anatomy obscured, prosecutors said.
"Although they are tragic, they are not gruesome or gory," Deputy District Attorney David Walgren said.
The defense had asked to bar autopsy photos, saying the images would inflame the passions of the jury.
Walgren, however, was adamant about the need to show Jackson's physical condition to bolster the prosecution claim that Jackson was healthy when he died of an overdose of the anesthetic propofol and other sedatives allegedly administered by defendant Dr. Conrad Murray.
"This is a homicide and we can't pretend it's not a homicide," Walgren said.
The judge agreed the photos were needed. He recalled testimony from the preliminary hearing in which witnesses said Jackson was exceedingly thin and one witness described him as looking like a hospice patient.
Walgren said he was aware that Jackson's family would be in court and said the pictures will be carefully displayed. When he showed them to Pastor, the judge found they were not graphic or gruesome, as the defense contended.
Regarding the video footage, Pastor said only relevant portions of Jackson's performance on "Earth Song" and "The Way You Make Me Feel" can be shown to jurors.
"Earth Song" is a colorful tribute to the environment that prosecutors say was the last piece Jackson recorded the day before he died.
"What's admitted will be Michael Jackson singing. What will not be received will be a picture of a cute little girl and orcas and flower and fauna," the judge said.
Defense attorney Edward Chernoff objeced to showing the film footage, claiming it was edited to present Jackson in the best light.
Pastor said prosecutors can only show footage from Jackson's rehearsals on the two days before his death on June 25, 2009.
Murray, a Houston-based cardiologist, has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaugter. Authorities have accused him of giving Jackson a lethal dose of propofol in the bedroom of his rented mansion.
Murray's attorneys have suggested in recent months that the singer may have given himself the fatal dose.
