An appeals court in California has upheld the original jury’s decision in the case of the Michael Jackson comeback concerts, which held that the promoter of the concerts was not responsible for the superstar’s death.

A 39-page ruling was delivered on Friday, a week after lawyers acting for Jackson’s mother Katherine had put in a request for a new trial. The 2nd District Court of Appeal found that the verdict absolving concert promoters AEG Live LLC was viable.

Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson's death was not the fault of promoters AEG Live, a court has upheld

The court also upheld rulings by the trial court judge that had boiled the case down to whether AEG had acted negligently in hiring and supervising the doctor later convicted of causing Jackson’s death. His mother had originally sued the company on that basis, and after five months of evidence during the 2013 trial, the jury sided with AEG.

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The judge noted that the original jurors had understood the nature of trial, the evidence and material put forward and were not confused by the trial judge’s directions, as attorneys for Jackson’s mother had argued.

In a statement on Friday, AEG’s attorney Marvin Putnam responded to the verdict by saying: “Today in a strongly worded opinion, the court of appeal found what took a jury two days to see through and that is that AEG was in no way responsible for the tragic death of Michael Jackson.” Attorneys for Katherine Jackson did not have a statement as of Friday evening.

Michael Jackson died in June 2009 while preparing for the ‘This Is It’ series of comeback concerts. His personal physician Conrad Murray, who was ruled to be an independent contractor of AEG and not its agent in the original legal ruling, was jailed in 2011 for involuntary manslaughter.

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