Jury selected for trial of Jackson’s doctor

The seven men and five women were chosen in a process one prosecutor likened to “speed dating”.

One male juror briefly met the singer when he worked at a Disney theme park in the 1980s in a Captain EO attraction. Among the remainder, there is a wide range of professions, including a bookseller, school bus driver, and a professor, according to questionnaires released after the selection.

Half of the panellists selected were Caucasian and five were Hispanic. The panel also includes one African American. Jackson was black and so is the defendant, Dr Conrad Murray.

Los Angeles Superior Court judge Michael Pastor limited the amount of time lawyers for both sides could question potential jurors on Friday, when the first day of direct questioning began. The trial’s opening arguments will begin on Tuesday.

Friday’s proceeding is the culmination of weeks of close scrutiny of the jury pool. Earlier this month 370 potential jurors completed a 30-page questionnaire, beginning the process of narrowing the pool to 12 people.

Murray is charged with the involuntary manslaughter of the singer on 25 June, 2009. He is alleged to have given the 50-year-old star the powerful anaesthetic propofol, used to aid sleep, at his Los Angeles mansion and of failing to monitor him properly.

Defence attorneys are expected to say Jackson administered a fatal dose himself while Murray was out of the room.

At the start of Friday’s questioning, jurors were asked to speak about their views of Jackson in open court.

One defence lawyer asked potential jurors if they believed that, due to a childlike nature, Jackson was less able to make reasonable decisions, to which the jurors answered, “No”.

The answers to that question could be a key factor for Murray’s attorneys if they seek to show the singer bore some responsibility for his own death, which medical examiners have said resulted from an overdose of propofol and sedatives. Murray faces a maximum jail term of four years if found guilty.