Phil Spector found guilty of actress' murder
Phil Spector convicted of murder of actress Lana Clarkson
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Tuesday, 14, Apr 2009 05:31
Music legend Phil Spector has been convicted of the murder of actress Lana Clarkson in 2003.
The producer, famed for his Wall of Sound recording technique, was facing trial for the second time, after a jury failed to reach a unanimous decision in 2007.
He had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Clarkson, who died of gunshot wounds, but faces between 15 years and life in prison after the jury found the 68-year-old guilty.
He has been remanded in custody until sentencing on May 29th, though his lawyer Doron Weinberg said an appeal is planned.
"I don't think justice was done today," he said after the jury's unanimous guilty verdict.
Mr Weinberg praised the jury for "trying to do the best honest job they could" with "complete integrity and complete honesty".
But he claimed jurors had been inundated with "improper and prejudicial evidence" which coloured their verdict.
He added he was "very, very certain" that Spector had not been proved guilty "under the proper legal standard" and claimed "the nature of the legal errors" within the second trial were "so significant and so clear that there is every likelihood that this case will be set aside on appeal".
Spector, renowned for his studio on work on hits such as You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin and Be My Baby, was painted during the trial as an egomaniac with a predilection for threatening women with firearms.
Five female acquaintainces came forward during the second trial to testify having been confronted at gunpoint by Spector in the 1970s.
Ms Clarkson, 40, had starred in films such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High but had been working as a hostess at the House of Blues venue in Los Angeles at the time of her death.