Doctor 'did not inject' Jackson

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A lawyer for Michael Jackson's doctor has denied that his client administered painkilling drugs that could have contributed to the singer's death.

Edward Chernoff told the Associated Press that Dr Conrad Murray "had never prescribed Demerol or Oxycontin".

He said any drugs that the physician may have given Jackson were in response to a specific health complaint.

He said the star still had a faint pulse and was warm when Dr Murray found him in bed on Thursday afternoon.

Mr Chernoff said: "He just happened to find him in his bed, and he wasn't breathing."

"Trained doctor"

Paramedics were called to Jackson's Los Angeles mansion while Dr Murray was performing CPR, according to a recording of the 911 call.

Because Jackson was so frail, Murray "administered with his hand behind his back to provide the necessary support," Chernoff said.

He denied claims that the doctor may have botched the resuscitation attempt: "He's a trained doctor," Chernoff said, "He knows how to administer CPR."

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Police Department said they did not intend to speak to Dr Murray again.

Michael Jackson's family are said to be seeking a second autopsy because they still have questions about his death.

The Los Angeles County Coroner's office said there was no evidence of foul play after an autopsy on Friday, but gave no cause of death.

It said the results of toxicology tests could take weeks to come back.

A spokesman for the coroner's office said Jackson had taken "some prescription medication", without specifying which.

Unconfirmed reports suggest the 50-year-old singer had been taking a daily dose of Demerol, a painkiller also widely known as pethidine.

A woman who worked for Jackson for 17 years - 12 of those as nanny to his children - is quoted as saying he took combinations of drugs.

"I had to pump his stomach many times. He always mixed so much of it," Grace Rwaramba, 42, said in remarks reported by The Sunday Times.

"There was one period that it was so bad that I didn't let the children see him."

Jackson's body was released to the family on Friday night.

A spokeswoman for Dr Murray said he had been interviewed for three hours by police on Saturday.

Miranda Sevcik said the doctor had "helped identify the circumstances around the death of the pop icon and clarified some inconsistencies".

"Investigators said the doctor is in no way a suspect and remains a witness to this tragedy," she said.

'Darkest moment'

She told the BBC that Dr Murray "feels so deeply about his relationship with Michael Jackson that anything he can do to help this investigation come to a resolution, he is doing".

She said Dr Murray had travelled in the ambulance with Jackson after he collapsed last Thursday, had stayed for hours at the hospital comforting the family and would stay in Los Angeles to help with the police inquiry.

Dr Murray had been hired by Jackson in May to accompany him as he prepared to embark on a gruelling series of 50 concerts in London in July.

MICHAEL JACKSON 1958-2009 Full name: Michael Joseph JacksonBorn: August 29, 1958, Gary, Indiana, USAlso known as: The King of Pop, Wacko JackoBiggest hits: I Want You Back, Don't Stop Til You Get Enough, Billie Jean, Bad, Black or White, Earth SongSold:750 million albumsEarned:$700 million (estimated) <a class="" href="/2/hi/entertainment/4612963.stm">Obituary: Remarkable talent</a> <a class="" href="/2/hi/entertainment/8121749.stm">Twelve facts about Michael Jackson </a> <a class="" href="/2/hi/entertainment/8122096.stm">LA fans commemorate 'hero'</a>

The 51-year-old doctor is said to have tried to resuscitate Jackson until the paramedics arrived.

Earlier, veteran politician Rev Jesse Jackson, who has been counselling the family, said they had a flurry of questions of their own for Dr Murray.

"When did the doctor come? What did he do? Did they inject him, if so with what?" he said.

The civil rights leader claimed Dr Murray had gone missing in the hours following the singer's death, which raised "questions of substance that will not go away until they are answered".

"He owes it to the family and to the public to say: 'These were the last hours of Michael's life and here's what happened'."

He said the family were "clearly not satisfied" with the results of the autopsy so far, "that's why there's been the concern about an independent autopsy... which anybody would recommend in these circumstances".

Michael Jackson's father Joseph described his son's death as "one of the darkest moments of our lives".

"It leaves us, his family, speechless and devastated to a point where communication with the outside world seems almost impossible at times," he said in a statement.