Jackson family's angst over Conrad Murray trial

Dr. Conrad Murray at his arraignment in January, at Superior Court in Los Angeles. / IFRAN KAHN/AFP/Getty Images

Two years ago Saturday, at age 50, Michael Jackson died suddenly from an overdose of the powerful sedative Propofol.

His personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, faces manslaughter charges. The trail gets under way in September.

What's taking so long?

"Justice grinds slowly in America, and especially in Hollywood when there's a celebrity attached," says Diane Dimond, author of "Be Careful Who You Love" and a Daily Beast contributor. "The state took a long time to try to find a number of medical experts who were willing to talk about Propofol, its use and misuse, that wanted to be involved in a high-celebrity case like this. They didn't want National Enquirer reporters in their lobby, so it took them quite a while to get up the medical experts they thought was necessary. The judge finally said, 'Let's postpone this until everybody really gets ready."'

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Dimond told "Early Show on Saturday Morning" co-anchor Russ Mitchell she thinks Murray has been "kind of struggling to figure out how to pay his bills. He not only has a wife and a home in Las Vegas, but he also has some other children and other families that he needs to take care of."

Jackson biographer and CBS News consultant J. Randy Taraborrelli told correspondent Priya David-Clemens, "The family is totally united in that they all agree Conrad Murray is responsible for Michael Jackson's death. ... It's tough. They really lost the heart and soul of the family."

But at trial, says CBS News legal analyst Trent Copeland, "Dr. Murray is going to go after Michael Jackson, his lifestyle, his history, every piece of evidence the prosecution presents."

Dimond says she's not so sure Murray will hammer away at Jackson, telling Mitchell. "They are going to of course going to talk about his past substance abuse. (It) came up during the criminal trial -- what he has done to his body, what he did to his body during life, not only cosmetically, but he was awfully thin, and he was dependent on drugs, and I think that will come up.

"But I think what they will try to do is say something like, 'Michael Jackson was gonna get this drug anyway. And Conrad Murray was there to help wean him off of it.' That was his very first early defense. I think they will paint Michael Jackson as someone who did this to himself, and Dr. Murray was there to try to help him. Of course, you don't help someone by using an illegal drug in an illegal way in an illegal location, in a private home."

Asked by Mitchell whether the family is concerned about the emotional toll the trial could take, if Jackson's name is dragged through the mud, Jackson family friend Brian Oxman replied, "You betcha. There's autopsy photographs which are going to be shown to the jury. Those are likely to come out in the public. It bothers Mrs. Jackson just terribly. It's very upsetting.

"Also, the attacks which are gonna happen to Michael -- they're gonna be very, very upsetting. One of the things we see in this trial is, 'Oh, well, Conrad Murray is on trial.' It is upsetting to this family that the rest of the people who are responsible for Michael's death -- and make no mistake, there are others -- the producers of this show (the tour Jackson was preparing for when he died) had Dr. Murray involved in it. They were pulling the strings, causing to happen what happened. And yet, nobody is interested in going after them. They're very upset about the entire process."