RebootedCorpse
09-26-2007, 05:50 PM
Ah, Los Angeles...
Mistrial Declared in Phil Spector Murder Case
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: September 27, 2007
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 26 — The murder trial of music producer Phil Spector ended today in a mistrial after the jury, leaning heavily to convict him, could not reach a unanimous verdict.
Mr. Spector, 67, charged with second-degree murder in the 2003 killing of a struggling actress in his home, stared blankly forward as Judge Larry Paul Fidler of Superior Court ended the proceedings after the jury foreman reported a 10-to-2 deadlock.
The impasse came after an earlier deadlock of 7-to-5, which jurors later said also tilted toward conviction, that lead the judge to take the unusual step of sending jurors back to deliberate with new instructions, infuriating the defense.
Three jurors, speaking to reporters afterward, said the two holdouts gave credence to defense claims that the death may have been a suicide rather than a murder. Jurors at various points, they said, also had been troubled by the lack of large amounts of blood on Mr. Spector and the poor English of a witness who said he heard Mr. Spector emerge from his house and say “I think I killed somebody.”
Judge Fidler kept gag orders in place preventing lawyers and parties in the case from speaking publicly. He set a hearing for Oct. 3.
Mr. Spector, the mastermind behind hits like “Da Doo Ron Ron” and “Be My Baby,” escorted by an entourage of his wife, lawyers and bodyguards, left after the verdict through an adjacent courtroom without saying a word.
He joins Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake among celebrities whom Southern California prosecutors have failed to convict in high-profile criminal cases.
Alan Jackson, a lead prosecutor in the case, sat glumly in a courthouse hallway as a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office reiterated the judge’s order barring him from speaking.
“We’re disappointed the jury was unable to reach a verdict in this case and we will immediately begin preparations for a retrial,” the spokeswoman, Sandi Gibbons, said later at a news conference. She declined to comment further.
Mr. Spector was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Lana Clarkson, 40, whom he had met at a nightclub hours before she was found dead from a gunshot wound to the mouth in the foyer of his mansion in a Los Angeles suburb.
Prosecutors said Mr. Spector shot her in an alcohol-fuel rage after she resisted his advances, and they presented testimony from five other women who described similar gunplay and threats by Mr. Spector. They did not, however, present forensic evidence placing the gun in his hand, instead relying on the spray of blood on his clothes to back their claims.
The defense, portraying Ms. Clarkson as despondent over her career and finances, offered a bevy of experts and scientific evidence to buttress their claim she shot herself, intentionally or not. They said the pattern of blood indicated Mr. Spector was too far away to pull the trigger himself.
One juror who spoke but declined to give his name said he voted to convict because of “the totality of the evidence, what was the most plausible reason she could have died.”
Another juror suggested a “psychological profile” of Ms. Clarkson by prosecutors would have helped clear up whether she was suicidal. The jury foreman said some jurors also had trouble with a statement from Mr. Spector’s driver, because he admitted problems with English.
The driver, Adriano De Souza, a Brazilian immigrant, said he saw Mr. Spector emerge from the house, gun in hand, and say, “I think I killed somebody.”
The Spector case was remarkable for the virtual second chance the judge gave prosecutors after jurors reported an earlier deadlock Sept. 10 after deliberating seven days.
He removed an instruction that they considered confusing, ruling it misstated the law on second-degree murder, and he read them new instructions that, to the fury of the defense, included a few scenarios under which Mr. Spector could have carried out the killing.
Still, Jean Rosenbluth, a former federal prosecutor and University of Southern California law professor who has monitored the case, said she found little more the prosecution could have done.
She said she doubted jurors were swayed by Mr. Spector’s celebrity, as he was always a behind-the-scenes person, his fame had faded from his heydays of the 1960s and early ’70s, and he could walk the streets unrecognized except by music industry followers.
Instead, she suggested the defense succeeded in obfuscating the prosecution’s case with an army of expert witnesses while prosecutors erred in not pushing hard for the jury to consider the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.
“A lot people may say this is just like the other cases but he was not acquitted,” Ms. Rosenbluth said. “He was almost convicted. It think this says much more about money than celebrity and the resources money can buy when you are on trial.”
It was the first televised Los Angeles celebrity trial since the Simpson case in 1995, but it did not attract the following or frenzied coverage of that or other cases.
Mr. Spector had not been behind a hit in decades but is best known in music circles for his “Wall of Sound” technique, marrying lush orchestral arrangements to guitars and other staples of pop music. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he collaborated with top rock stars, including the Beatles.
Mistrial Declared in Phil Spector Murder Case
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: September 27, 2007
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 26 — The murder trial of music producer Phil Spector ended today in a mistrial after the jury, leaning heavily to convict him, could not reach a unanimous verdict.
Mr. Spector, 67, charged with second-degree murder in the 2003 killing of a struggling actress in his home, stared blankly forward as Judge Larry Paul Fidler of Superior Court ended the proceedings after the jury foreman reported a 10-to-2 deadlock.
The impasse came after an earlier deadlock of 7-to-5, which jurors later said also tilted toward conviction, that lead the judge to take the unusual step of sending jurors back to deliberate with new instructions, infuriating the defense.
Three jurors, speaking to reporters afterward, said the two holdouts gave credence to defense claims that the death may have been a suicide rather than a murder. Jurors at various points, they said, also had been troubled by the lack of large amounts of blood on Mr. Spector and the poor English of a witness who said he heard Mr. Spector emerge from his house and say “I think I killed somebody.”
Judge Fidler kept gag orders in place preventing lawyers and parties in the case from speaking publicly. He set a hearing for Oct. 3.
Mr. Spector, the mastermind behind hits like “Da Doo Ron Ron” and “Be My Baby,” escorted by an entourage of his wife, lawyers and bodyguards, left after the verdict through an adjacent courtroom without saying a word.
He joins Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake among celebrities whom Southern California prosecutors have failed to convict in high-profile criminal cases.
Alan Jackson, a lead prosecutor in the case, sat glumly in a courthouse hallway as a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office reiterated the judge’s order barring him from speaking.
“We’re disappointed the jury was unable to reach a verdict in this case and we will immediately begin preparations for a retrial,” the spokeswoman, Sandi Gibbons, said later at a news conference. She declined to comment further.
Mr. Spector was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Lana Clarkson, 40, whom he had met at a nightclub hours before she was found dead from a gunshot wound to the mouth in the foyer of his mansion in a Los Angeles suburb.
Prosecutors said Mr. Spector shot her in an alcohol-fuel rage after she resisted his advances, and they presented testimony from five other women who described similar gunplay and threats by Mr. Spector. They did not, however, present forensic evidence placing the gun in his hand, instead relying on the spray of blood on his clothes to back their claims.
The defense, portraying Ms. Clarkson as despondent over her career and finances, offered a bevy of experts and scientific evidence to buttress their claim she shot herself, intentionally or not. They said the pattern of blood indicated Mr. Spector was too far away to pull the trigger himself.
One juror who spoke but declined to give his name said he voted to convict because of “the totality of the evidence, what was the most plausible reason she could have died.”
Another juror suggested a “psychological profile” of Ms. Clarkson by prosecutors would have helped clear up whether she was suicidal. The jury foreman said some jurors also had trouble with a statement from Mr. Spector’s driver, because he admitted problems with English.
The driver, Adriano De Souza, a Brazilian immigrant, said he saw Mr. Spector emerge from the house, gun in hand, and say, “I think I killed somebody.”
The Spector case was remarkable for the virtual second chance the judge gave prosecutors after jurors reported an earlier deadlock Sept. 10 after deliberating seven days.
He removed an instruction that they considered confusing, ruling it misstated the law on second-degree murder, and he read them new instructions that, to the fury of the defense, included a few scenarios under which Mr. Spector could have carried out the killing.
Still, Jean Rosenbluth, a former federal prosecutor and University of Southern California law professor who has monitored the case, said she found little more the prosecution could have done.
She said she doubted jurors were swayed by Mr. Spector’s celebrity, as he was always a behind-the-scenes person, his fame had faded from his heydays of the 1960s and early ’70s, and he could walk the streets unrecognized except by music industry followers.
Instead, she suggested the defense succeeded in obfuscating the prosecution’s case with an army of expert witnesses while prosecutors erred in not pushing hard for the jury to consider the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.
“A lot people may say this is just like the other cases but he was not acquitted,” Ms. Rosenbluth said. “He was almost convicted. It think this says much more about money than celebrity and the resources money can buy when you are on trial.”
It was the first televised Los Angeles celebrity trial since the Simpson case in 1995, but it did not attract the following or frenzied coverage of that or other cases.
Mr. Spector had not been behind a hit in decades but is best known in music circles for his “Wall of Sound” technique, marrying lush orchestral arrangements to guitars and other staples of pop music. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he collaborated with top rock stars, including the Beatles.