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Jackson Doc Wants Protection from Cable News Pundit

Dr. Conrad Murray, on trial for the death of MJ, is afraid of Nancy Grace.

Dr. Conrad Murray, the M.D. who was the last person to see Michael Jackson alive and who is now on trial for playing a part in his death, is seeking protection from cable news pundits like Nancy Grace, whom he believes will influence the jury on his case.
The doc's legal team filed court papers recently, claiming that sequestering the jury during the manslaughter trial is the only way to protect him and the system from the biased "character assassinations" that are typical of cable news shows like Grace's, and brought to a new level of visibility by the pundit during the Casey Anthony murder trial.
In legal papers obtained by TMZ, Dr. Murray's lawyers argue that the only reason the Anthony jurors were untainted was because they were sequestered.  According to the docs, the networks, and in particular Nancy Grace, were well aware of the ratings boost they would receive from Anthony's trial, and Grace and others engaged in "nonstop on-air abuse of not only the defendant, but the jurors and defense attorneys involved."
The legal docs claim "there is reasonable expectation that Dr. Murray's trial will be the most publicized in history," and that, of the several hundred jurors who were polled during jury selection, only one claimed not to have heard of the Murray case, and she didn't speak English.
Judge Michael Pastor said last month he would consider sequestering the jury, although he felt it was unnecessary and too expensive. It looks like Dr. Murray doesn't have much faith in his defense team, even though an acquittal in a highly-publicized trial like this one would likely mean multi-million dollar book deals, paid interview offers and other perks that come as standard with its infamy and notoriety.

(Photo: Irfan Khan-Pool/Getty Images)

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