So just what can we learn from the conviction of Phil Spector for murdering actress Lana Clarkson?
The verdict was a victory for Los Angeles prosecutors who have endured high-profile defeats in celebrity murder trials, including the acquittals of O. J. Simpson and the actor Robert Blake. Alan Jackson, a deputy district attorney who rose to national prominence as the Phil Spector case played out on Court TV, now called truTV, was the prosecutor in both trials.
Just as in the Simpson case, the Clarkson family is pursuing a wrongful-death civil suit against Phil Spector. This has been pending while the criminal case proceeded. Lana Clarkson had some small success in the movie industry as she starred in a 1985 cult hit, "Barbarian Queen," and also had a bit part in the film "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" in 1982.
She was working as a hostess at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip when Phil Spector visited, struck up a conversation and took her out drinking.
They finished the night at his mansion, known as the Castle, but, when she spurned his advances and tried to leave, he shoved a gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger, prosecutors said.
The prosecutors argued that this fitted a behaviour pattern of Mr. Spector's drinking and threatening women with guns over decades. His conviction is heralded as a victory for justice and common sense in a world gone crazy.
Source: New York Times
Edwyn Prose
Phil Spector Guilty
Tuesday 14 April 2009
Phil Spector Killed Lana Clarkson
Here is some more on the court case story of how Phil Spector killed actress Lana Clarkson.
The family of Lana Clarkson, who was 40 when she died, reacted with relief and embraces after the court's verdict. They declined to speak to reporters gathered at the Los Angeles Superior Court downtown.
Phil Spector, who was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, was famous for his Wall of Sound, lush orchestrations heard on an array of hits in the 1960s and 1970s with groups like the Ronettes. He worked with the Beatles, Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones and others but had receded from the public stage and in recent years was known as much for his eccentric behavior — he has been often photographed wearing a large fright wig — as for his talent as a producer.
And according to at least five women who testified in court, Phil Spector also had a frightening penchant for firearms and drunken discourses and often mixing them.
On February 3rd, 2003, Ms. Clarkson's body was found in the foyer of Spector's highly eccentric castle-style mansion in the Los Angeles suburb of Alhambra. Clarkson had been shot in the mouth. Prosecutors said Phil Spector had tried to clean up the murder scene. Defense lawyers argued that Lana Clarkson's Hollywood ambitions had been frustrated, that she had been suicidal and that she had turned the gun on herself.
The previous trial ended in September 2007, when a jury deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of conviction.
Source: New York Times
Edwyn Prose
Phil Spector Guilty
The family of Lana Clarkson, who was 40 when she died, reacted with relief and embraces after the court's verdict. They declined to speak to reporters gathered at the Los Angeles Superior Court downtown.
Phil Spector, who was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, was famous for his Wall of Sound, lush orchestrations heard on an array of hits in the 1960s and 1970s with groups like the Ronettes. He worked with the Beatles, Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones and others but had receded from the public stage and in recent years was known as much for his eccentric behavior — he has been often photographed wearing a large fright wig — as for his talent as a producer.
And according to at least five women who testified in court, Phil Spector also had a frightening penchant for firearms and drunken discourses and often mixing them.
On February 3rd, 2003, Ms. Clarkson's body was found in the foyer of Spector's highly eccentric castle-style mansion in the Los Angeles suburb of Alhambra. Clarkson had been shot in the mouth. Prosecutors said Phil Spector had tried to clean up the murder scene. Defense lawyers argued that Lana Clarkson's Hollywood ambitions had been frustrated, that she had been suicidal and that she had turned the gun on herself.
The previous trial ended in September 2007, when a jury deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of conviction.
Source: New York Times
Edwyn Prose
Phil Spector Guilty
How Phil Spector was Convicted
Phil Spector, the music impresario who was behind hits "You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling," and "Da Doo Ron Ron," was convicted of murdering a struggling actress at his mansion home in 2003 following a night of drinking.
Phil Spector, listened to his lawyer Doran Weinberg before the verdict was read in Los Angeles on Monday. Music producer Spector, was surrounded by his defense team during closing arguments at the retrial murder case in Los Angeles back in March.
Mr. Spector, who is 68, faces a minimum 18 years in prison. The jury, ending a five-month trial, reached its decision after 27 hours of deliberating whether he shot the actress in a fit of anger or merely witnessed her suicide. In addition to 2nd degree murder, the jury found Spector guilty of illegally discharging a firearm.
This was the second murder trial in the case. The first ended in a hung jury back in 2007. Phil Spector has been free on bail for the majority of the last six years, but was immediately taken back into custody after the verdict on Monday.
Phil Spector came into court looking frail and sullen. He wore a long blue overcoat, a bright red tie with his a shaggy shoulder-length hairstyle. No psychedelic glasses or the swagger that carried him through decades at the top of the pop music scene.
Mr. Spector was heard to whisper a few words to his lawyers. As a court clerk read the verdict, he leaned forward intently. His face betrayed little emotion throughout the proceeding.
There you have it folks - out of the mouths of the news hounds themselves.
Source: New York Times
Edwyn Prose
Phil Spector Guilty
Phil Spector, listened to his lawyer Doran Weinberg before the verdict was read in Los Angeles on Monday. Music producer Spector, was surrounded by his defense team during closing arguments at the retrial murder case in Los Angeles back in March.
Mr. Spector, who is 68, faces a minimum 18 years in prison. The jury, ending a five-month trial, reached its decision after 27 hours of deliberating whether he shot the actress in a fit of anger or merely witnessed her suicide. In addition to 2nd degree murder, the jury found Spector guilty of illegally discharging a firearm.
This was the second murder trial in the case. The first ended in a hung jury back in 2007. Phil Spector has been free on bail for the majority of the last six years, but was immediately taken back into custody after the verdict on Monday.
Phil Spector came into court looking frail and sullen. He wore a long blue overcoat, a bright red tie with his a shaggy shoulder-length hairstyle. No psychedelic glasses or the swagger that carried him through decades at the top of the pop music scene.
Mr. Spector was heard to whisper a few words to his lawyers. As a court clerk read the verdict, he leaned forward intently. His face betrayed little emotion throughout the proceeding.
There you have it folks - out of the mouths of the news hounds themselves.
Source: New York Times
Edwyn Prose
Phil Spector Guilty
Phil Spector Guilty
Phil Spector Guilty! Yes you heard right. Phil Spector has been convicted of murder
That's the headlines that affronted us this morning and shocked the nation out of its sleepiness. Can you believe it? Well, yes I can believe it. Seems that a celebrity of the status this guy holds would be squeaky clean, but oh no. Not content with a life that most us can only dream about this dickhead goes and blows it all by killing actress Lana Clarkson, and then tries to get away with it, OJ Simpson style.
Well, I for one am very happy that a court of law has found it in themselves to find this murdering swine guilty of the crime he committed. He was on trial in Los Angeles for the 2003 shooting death of Lana Clarkson and a jury have found him guilty as charged.
Read more on the story here: Phil Spector Guilty
Edwyn Prose
That's the headlines that affronted us this morning and shocked the nation out of its sleepiness. Can you believe it? Well, yes I can believe it. Seems that a celebrity of the status this guy holds would be squeaky clean, but oh no. Not content with a life that most us can only dream about this dickhead goes and blows it all by killing actress Lana Clarkson, and then tries to get away with it, OJ Simpson style.
Well, I for one am very happy that a court of law has found it in themselves to find this murdering swine guilty of the crime he committed. He was on trial in Los Angeles for the 2003 shooting death of Lana Clarkson and a jury have found him guilty as charged.
Read more on the story here: Phil Spector Guilty
Edwyn Prose
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