Jury foreman speech outside court.
video link :
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=9271553&pid=9271439
Foreman: As for the case this was a difficult decision for us to make, it wasn't easy for anyone. After all it took the tragic passing of tremendous father, son and brother for us to be even here. Of course nobody won at that.
We reached to a verdict that we understand that not everyone is going to agree with but the decision was reached after a very careful consideration of five months of testimony, thousands of documents and of course the guidance of the court. It's been an exhausting 5 months and it's been extremely stressful last 3 or 4 days so we would field a few questions.
Question: What made you think that Conrad Murray was competent?
Foreman: You have to read the question, the full question. The court gave us a series of questions to answer and in each question it did not just stop with "is Conrad Murray competent" , it went, it asked "was Conrad Murray competent for the job he was hired to do?". Okay? Conrad Murray was hired to be a general practitioner. Conrad Murray had a license, he graduated from an accredited college and we felt he was competent to do the job of being a general practitioner. Now that does not mean we felt he was ethical. And maybe the word ethical been in the question, it could have been a different outcome but because it was "for the job he was hired to do" that's what we had to focus on.
Question: How many votes have you taken on question 1 and 2?Tell us a little about the process, how it worked?
Foreman: when we first entered the jury room after 5 months of being around each other and not being able to talk about it at all, we just felt like we had to let out some steam so we spent the first several hours letting out steam just talking about things and I think that was important for us to do. We took a vote on question 1 then we started discussing it and question 1 took us a long time and we did not reach that easily, there were several votes taken, mine was changed more than once, in the end we did agree 12 to 0 , that one was unanimous that we felt like Conrad Murray was hired by AEG, some people thought by both but the instructions were if he was hired by both then we had to say yes. So I would say overall on question 1 maybe we took 3 or 4 votes (jurors reply yes).
Question number 2 , you have to look to the wording of question number 2. we took a vote on that and right away we came out 12 to 0 with a no but we started looking at wording of it and realized everyone was not comfortable with that and it was end of yesterday we felt like we needed to come back this morning and discuss it more and that's what we did. We spent the morning clarifying the question in our minds and to each other and again votes changed, I would say at least 3 or 4 times before we were able to come to the final tally and the tally on that vote was 10 to 2 and it takes 9 to 3 to carry.
Question: Did the amount of attention this case has gotten put any pressure ... on your decision at all?
foreman : I will say no but some of my fellow jurors might want to answer that too.
(jurors agreeing that pressure did not influence them, no , absolutely not etc heard).
Question: (asking about question 2) you said it was 12 - 0 to start, which way?
Foreman: for a no answer
Question: Did the full jury understand not only the full question in number 2 and but also it's full effect on the bearing of this case?
Foreman: One of the jurors here, juror 11, after the vote she was very , she said do we understand the ramifications of this answer and we were very through in that respect. Everyone I believe understood the ramifications, and again that's why we went back and revisited it this morning.
Question: Your opinion not about this case but in general about the job Conrad Murray eventually come to do?
Foreman: In the end he was very unethical. He did something he should not have done but again if you read the question it did not refer to... it refer to the job he had to do- what he was hired for.
Juror 9 : If AEG had known what was going on behind closed doors , it would probably made a world of difference but they didn't. Michael Jackson was pretty used to getting his own way, he was a big star, he had all these doctors who wanted to be his doctor and he could pretty much get what he wanted and if anybody said "no", well they were out of the mix, he'd find somebody else. And all along we saw the same pattern going on, nobody could go up the stairs and see what was going on up there. and this was after Murray became his doctor and was hired by AEG concurrently. And how AEG could have done anything about it when they were kept in the dark?
Question: Was there any fights during deliberations?
Foreman: There were differing opinions but the conversation never got heated or loud but in case of arguments and getting personal nothing like that ever happened, no
Question: Murray's lawyer was in the courtroom and she let out a gasp when she heard no he wasn't unfit and incompetent. She then told me this was vindication of Conrad Murray. Do you see your verdict as a vindication of Conrad Murray and would you ever hire him as your doctor?
Foreman: Absolutely not. I don't see it as a vindication of Murray and no I would not hire him as my doctor. It's not a vindication again it was the way the question was worded , if the wording of that question was different the outcome could have been different but we had to focus on the wording of the question and go with the jury instructions.
Question: So do you say this was not a vindication of AEG Live either?
Foreman: We went by the jury instructions and the questions we were asked to answer and that's the verdict we came up with.
Question: What were the issues that you struggled with?
Foreman: Well the issue in the first question was obvious, who hired him. there were so many things said that Michael hired him, there were so many things said AEG hired him and that was a battle back and forth.
Question: Do you think the jury instructions put the jury in an awkward position?
Foreman: Not at all
Question: What kind of materials you have reviewed during deliberations? We know you asked for a ruler
Foreman: Those were things for individual jurors to use. But the things we reviewed were, we watched videos, sky news video we watched a couple times, we did see the "This is it", we reviewed a lot of emails, and the other exhibits. The contract. The contract was a biggie.
Question: What was the most difficult thing about this whole process?
Foreman: Each and every person had to answer that. For me it was stressful at the end trying to come up with a decision. I said this inside and I'll say it here, there are really no winners in this. As I said in the opening statement somebody had to die for us to be here. So there's really no winners. So we don't walk away thinking it was a victory for one side or another. It was really a tragic situation so that's probably the most difficult thing. I feel we made the correct decision.