Jacko's death under spotlight again

Almost four years after his shocking death, the bizarre life and demise of Michael Jackson will play out again in a $40-billion civil trial that pits the singer's family against the organisers of a musical comeback that never happened.

Opening statements are scheduled to be made today in what is expected to be an emotional, three-month-long jury trial in which the family will try to have AEG Live, the promoters of the never-realised series of 2009 London concerts, declared liable for the wrongful death of the Thriller singer.

The lawsuit, brought by Jackson's elderly mother, Katherine, on behalf of the singer's three children, alleges that privately held AEG Live was negligent in hiring Dr Conrad Murray, convicted in 2011 of involuntary manslaughter, to care for the singer while he rehearsed for the series of 50 shows.

Jackson, 50, drowning in debt and trying to rebuild a reputation damaged by his 2005 trial and acquittal on child molestation charges, died in Los Angeles of an overdose of the powerful surgical anesthetic propofol, and a cocktail of other sedatives, in June 2009.

Murray is serving a four-year prison sentence after being found criminally negligent in giving propofol to Jackson as a sleeping aid.

Murray's six-week trial in 2011 portrayed the former child star, known for his dance moves and spectacular public performances, as a slurring drug addict off-stage who slept with a doll and whose planned comeback tour was plagued with problems.

The civil trial in Los Angeles is expected to be just as sensational as Jackson's career but a request by TV networks for live coverage was turned down.

AEG Live contends that it did not hire or supervise Murray and claims that Jackson had prescription drug problems for years before entering into an agreement for the "This Is It" London concerts.

The promoters also argue that they could not have foreseen that Murray posed a danger to Jackson.

Los Angeles Superior Court judge Yvette Palazuelos ruled last month that AEG Live can raise Jackson's 2005 child-abuse case because it might be relevant to the singer's history of prescription drug abuse and despondency.

Jackson's two oldest children, Prince, 16, and Paris, 15, are on the witness list this time, though neither testified in Murray's trial.

Singers Prince and Diana Ross might also be called as witnesses, as might the singer's former wives, Lisa-Marie Presley and Debbie Rowe.

"Any time you start injecting family members and rather sensitive issues [into the mix] there are going to be strong feelings," former federal prosecutor Marcellus McRae said.