The scuttlebutt in legal circles is that the lawyers for Conrad Murray are laying the groundwork for a mistrial in the event there is a guilty verdict against their client.
Murray has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in respect to the administration of controlled substances which were the result of Michael Jackson's death last year.
Allegedly, prosecutors have been withholding pertinent documents and information relevant to the upcoming trial proceedings.
During the "discovery" process, legal counsel on both sides are required to share their paperwork so that each party can ably prepare their stragedy, court arguments, line of defense, and what-have-you.
In a court of law, there are not supposed to be any last-minute "surprises", or conduct which prevents a fair hearing on the issues.
Dramatic cliff-hangers are rare in a court of law and tend to be of the strictly fictional kind found on low-brow serials on the old boob tube.
The kind of bill-of-fare offered up by the likes of Judge Judy around the soap hour are geared towards ratings and and bon-bon-chewing armchair jurists sitting in judgment at home throughout the heartland.
When the stakes are high, though, lawyers can be quite fierce about protecting their work product.
And, they'll fight tooth-and-nail to protect the fruits of their labour and the rights of their client.
Of course, there are many ways to surmount the discloure problem in the event an attorney is not acting above board or ethically.
At the request of either party, the Judge may impose sanctions (penalties) to deter such reprehensible conduct in the future.
And, either party (including the bench-warmer) may request disciplinary action by the State Bar.
An attorney is also within his rights to file a "motion" to compel opposition counsel (even an IN PRO PER litigant)) to comply with requests for copies of evidence, complete witness lists, factual information, and so forth and so on.
Meanwhile, on another front, it was reported by one high-profile blogger this morning, that a syringe used by the doctor to adminster drugs on Jackson was never destroyed according to normal procedure and may be offered up for auction in the future.
Creepy!
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