Conrad Murray, the physician convicted in the death of Michael Jackson, said from jail Thursday morning that he broke into tears after Wednesday's verdict in a lawsuit in the case.

"My immediate reaction was one of tears; certainly, I cried," Murray said in an interview from jail on NBC's "Today." 

In Wednesday's conclusion of the lawsuit, filed by Jackson's family against concert promoter AEG Live, a jury decided that AEG was not responsible for the pop star's death. 

The jury also found that Murray had been competent to serve as the pop star's physician, but members of the panel said after the verdict that they don't believe that vindicates him in the death.

"We felt he was competent," jury foreman Gregg Barden said. "That doesn't mean we felt he was ethical. If ethical was the question, it might have been a different outcome. In the end, he was very unethical. He did something he shouldn't have done."

Murray, serving a sentence for manslaughter in Jackson's overdose death, took exception with Barden's comments in his "Today" interview with Matt Lauer.

"What the juror said was that if ethics were the issue, the conclusion might be different," Murray said.

"This is not about ethics. This was about the Jacksons bringing a lawsuit which I felt from the beginning was frivolous. ... When you say I am 'unethical,' that was speculation on [the foreman's] part, because he has not heard the other side," Murray told Lauer.

Murray, who is at the Men's Central Jail, is due to be released in 26 days, his appellate attorney said.

When he leaves jail, Murray said, he wants to "embrace my children" and "reunite with my family and close friends."

"I would restart my life and, God willing, I would be a model to show the world that despite adversity and when bad things happen to good people, they can restart their life and succeed," he told Lauer.


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