Phil Spector Convicted Of Murder

• 14th Apr 2009

Yesterday the second jury to consider the murder allegations against Phil Spector reached a verdict, and convicted the legendary producer of murder. He was remanded in custody, and now awaits sentencing on 29 May, when he will be given between eighteen years and life in prison.

Spector maintains that Clarkson shot herself after accompanying him back to his LA home after the pair met at the West Hollywood branch of the House of Blues, where the former actress worked. Two sets of defence lawyers argued that forensic evidence proved Spector's claims, while they presented various documents and witnesses that suggested Clarkson was very depressed and maybe suicidal before going home with Spector that night in 2003, and was therefore capable of ending it all in a moment of depression-fuelled madness.

But the prosecution's case – based in the main on a string of former Spector girlfriends who each had stories of times when the producer had pulled guns on them in a threatening manner – seemed to be more convincing as far as the jurors were concerned. Nevertheless, in Spector's first trial two jurors dissented and insisted they couldn't say, beyond reasonable doubt, that the producer was holding the gun that killed Clarkson, resulting in a mistrial overall. The second jury, however, and despite being offered the lesser crime of involuntary manslaughter, returned a verdict of second degree murder after thirty hours of deliberations.

CMU Daily