[attach id=288181 size="medium"]Conrad Murray during trial. Photo: Reuters[/attach]

Michael Jackson’s personal physician, convicted of manslaughter for administering a lethal dose of anaesthetic to the pop singer, was released from a Los Angeles prison yesterday after serving half of his four-year sentence.

Conrad Murray was released to his representatives, Los Angeles County Sheriff spokesman Steve Whitmore said shortly after Murray left the county jail.

The release came under a California state plan to reduce prison overcrowding.

Murray’s six-week trial grabbed global attention after Billie Jean singer Jackson, preparing for a series of comeback concerts in London, died unexpectedly in 2009 at age 50.

Murray wants to practise medicine again

Reporters waited outside the jail for Murray, but he was whisked out through a back exit away from view. A few Jackson fans were also present, one playing music from his 1982 album Thriller, the top-selling album of all time with more than 50 million copies sold.

Prosecutors successfully argued that Grenada-born Murray, who was hired by concert promoter AEG Live as Jackson’s general practitioner, was grossly negligent in administering propofol, a drug that was used to help the singer sleep.

Murray, 60, was convicted in 2011 of involuntary manslaughter ­– or unintentional killing without malice – and received the maximum four-year penalty. A California appellate court has yet to hear oral arguments in Murray’s bid to overturn his conviction.

Murray’s attorney Valerie Wass said the physician wants to practise medicine again after his release from prison.

His licence to practice has been suspended in California, Nevada and Texas, each of the states where he had been able to work prior to Jackson’s death. His licence in Hawaii lapsed in 2010.