The jury was chosen from a pool of 84 potential candidates for the panel who will spend the next five weeks hearing evidence about Conrad Murray's role in Jackson's shock death in 2009, at the age of 50.

Murray, who is accused of killing the pop icon by administering an overdose of the powerful sedative Propofol to help Jackson sleep on June 25, 2009, is due to go on trial in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear how many alternative jurors would be selected, to be ready to serve in case one of the 12-member jury has to withdraw for some reason.

Judge Michael Pastor noted that the trial will be televised, but promised the jury that "at no time will jurors be photographed or filmed or otherwise recorded," adding: "We take your privacy seriously."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011