Music News
Lawyers File Appeal in Spector Case
Convicted record producer Phil Spector is attempting to escape a wall of bars, as his legal team has filed an appeal for the murder charge he received last year in the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson.
Citing the lack of a fair trial on the grounds of judicial error and prosecutorial misconduct, Spector's lawyers are now requesting a new trial, according to the Associated Press.
At 70 years old, Spector faces 19 years to life in prison under his current sentence for murdering Clarkson in 2003 at his California mansion.
Last week his attorneys filed paperwork alleging prosecutors improperly used the testimony of five women with claims that Spector threatened them at gunpoint. These claims "became the heart of the state’s case," and were given in attempts to persuade jurors that Spector be convicted "based on his bad character and evil propensities.”
The documents further state that the womens' testimonies did not pertain to Clarkson's death, while none of their accounts "involved events in which Mr. Spector put a gun in someone’s mouth, much less fired it.”
Spector's lawyers also blasted Judge Larry Paul Fidler and his use of the word "pattern" over 40 times to describe their client's' relationship with women and firearms. Additionally, the document railed against the judge's decision to permit jurors from the second trial to view a taped hearing from the first, in which Spector wasn't present.
"Under California law, a judge may not offer evidence in a trial over which he presides,” the appeal reads. The tape in question shows the judge interpreting a forensic witness's testimony on the blood spattered on Clarkson's body.
The appeal then posits that the judge couldn't be cross-examined by the defense over what prosecutors called the case's most important fact: whether the direction of blood spatter showed who pulled the gun's trigger.
The office of the state attorney general is expected to issue a reply next month.
Image used with permission by Getty Images.
