The Defense: Ed Chernoff

Murray's legal team is headed up by Texas-based attorney Edward Chernoff.

Chernoff, who has been with Murray since the doctor's arrest, took the California bar exam in order to represent Murray in court. His co-counselors are Los-Angeles based Nareg Gourjian and J. Michael Flanagan, who defended Britney Spears in her 2007 hit-and-run case.

In his opening statement, Chernoff told the court that Murray isn't to blame for Jackson's death, and that Jackson gave himself a lethal dose of of drugs.

"While Michael Jackson was frustrated because he could not sleep, frustrated because his doctor refused to give him a drug that he preferred, that he wanted, he did an act without his doctor's knowledge, without his doctor's permission," Chernoff said.

The defense claimed that Jackson took a sedative and then a final dose of propofol without his doctor's knowledge. The sedative lorazepam coupled with the propofol created a "perfect storm in his body that killed him instantly," Chernoff said.

"When Dr. Murray came into the room and found Michael Jackson, there was no CPR, there was no doctor, no paramedic, no machine that was going to revive Michael Jackson. He died so rapidly, so instantly, he didn't even have time to close his eyes," Chernoff said.

The defense contends that Murray had begun trying to wean Jackson off of the propofol in the days before his death. They said that Jackson compartmentalized his life in such a way that Murray was unaware that his client was addicted to demerol. Chernoff said that Jackson had become addicted to demerol from visiting dermatologist Arnold Klein.

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