Regardless of what one thought of Michael Jackson, yesterday’s verdict convicting his personal physician, cardiologist Conrad Murray, of involuntary manslaughter, was the right decision. The conviction calls for a sentence of up to four years, though it’s unlikely Murray will serve the full term because of a new state prison alignment law that allows early release for people convicted of nonviolent felonies. However, Murray will lose his medical license and will never practice medicine again.

The original Hippocratic Oath states that a physician should “do know harm,” and by any definition, Murray certainly did just that. The jury found that he acted with criminal negligence in administering a deadly dose of propofol to Jackson who was desperate to get some sleep so he could rehearse for his comeback tour in London.

According to testimony, Murray was accused of waiting more than twenty minutes before calling 911 for help after discovering Jackson lifeless on his bed, essentially ending any hope of reviving him. Murray then lied about using propofol – a powerful drug that is only supposed to be used in a hospital setting for general anesthesia and sedation.

Whether the jury determined that Murray actually administered the fatal dose of propofol was unclear, but one medical expert identified seventeen separate failures in the accepted standards of care in Murray’s treatment of Jackson. The LA District Attorney told the jury they needed to agree on just one life-threatening mistake to find him guilty and called Murray’s use of propofol to treat Jackson’s chronic insomnia an ‘obscene experiment’.

While Murray certainly was directly responsible for Jackson’s death, the rock-star and concert promoters were not without culpability, as Murray was under immense pressure to administer the drug. Jackson himself even threatened to cancel the tour if he couldn’t get enough sleep to rehearse.

It was a sad end for Michael Jackson and a career marked by brilliance and controversy. It was also a sad end for a physician whose greed overrode his medical ethics and training. One can only hope that Jackson’s death and Murray’s conviction serve as warnings to both celebrities and the physicians who are often paid exorbitant fees to cater to their dangerous wishes.