Go Time for Spector Jury

Not counting what goes on in the jury room, the fighting is over.

Closing arguments in the Phil Spector murder trial wrapped Friday, paving the way for deliberations to begin on Monday, once Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler has instructed the jury on legal procedure.

Concluding her statement that began yesterday, defense attorney Linda Kenney-Baden reminded the nine men and three women who hold Spector's fate in their hands that they don't have to like the legendary music producer in order to find him not guilty of second-degree murder.

"We don't convict people in this country because we don't like them, because we don't like their hair or their clothes," she said, also pointing out that Spector's high profile shouldn't be held against him, either.

"You know he's been called a celebrity and you said you would ignore that," Kenney-Baden continued. "Your job is not to make good copy or good ratings. Your job is to find the truth."

"It's real easy to convict someone if you don't like them very much. You're not the media. You are the search for the truth. Ask yourself: Have they really proved their case or just attacked what we brought to you?"

Reminding jurors that it was the prosecution's burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Spector had killed Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra home on Feb. 3, 2003, Kenney-Baden said that the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office had not proven its case.

"There is no scientific evidence to support Phillip Spector's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," she said. "The absence of evidence in this matter is a fact...This case exemplifies reasonable doubt."

Both sides seized on the physical evidence to prove their contrary versions of what happened that night, with prosecutors arguing that Spector, who had a history of drunkenly threatening women with guns, wedged a Colt Cobra .38-caliber revolver into Clarkson's mouth and pulled the trigger. The L.A. County coroner who performed Clarkson's autopsy, Dr. Louis Pena, ruled her death a homicide.

Noting that several defense witnesses testified that the Barbarian Queen star's death was a suicide, Kenney-Baden pointed out the prosecution's inability to say for certain who had pulled the trigger. Blood spatter and smears found on Spector's jacket and on a cloth diaper discovered in his bathroom indicate that he tried to help her, not that he tried to cover up his alleged crime, she said.

Meanwhile, the defense maintains that Clarkson's death was a tragic accident, that the 40-year-old actress, despondent over the state of her career and finances, shot herself just hours after meeting Spector at the West Hollywood House of Blues, where she worked as a VIP hostess.

"The government wants you to believe that these alleged incidents prove that Phillip Spector had a motive to kill somebody he only met…a couple hours before," Kenney-Baden said, citing the five women who testified that Spector had at some time freaked them out by brandishing a firearm.

"All of the women here have long-term relationships with Phillip Spector. They knew him for a long time. Some of them even continued their relationships after the supposed allegations that were testified to."

After Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson pointed it out outside the jury's presence, however, Fidler agreed that Kenney-Baden would have to tell the jury that one of the ladies who testified actually had just met Spector when he pointed a gun at her.

But "like all tall tales, they grow and grow," Kenney-Baden said, questioning the legitimacy of the women's recollections. "These incidents occurred 20, 30 years ago, and somehow they supply a motive for Phillip to kill Lana Clarkson on Feb. 3? Something that occurs in allegedly 1975 and in the early 80s?

"These women were called to the stand "because they want you to hate Phil Spector, and they want you to make a huge leap from saying he is a bad person so he must have killed Lana Clarkson because the science doesn't support the facts."

Then, perhaps figuring it might not be that easy for the jury to forget the various character witnesses who spoke of Spector's alleged oddities, Kenney-Baden left them with this:

"Phil Spector, regardless of all the money he has, regardless of the people trotted out to say he is a bad person, he has the same rights of due process as anyone. You are not vigilantes. Your job is to ensure he gets a fair trial.

"It's now time for you to make things right."

A sentiment echoed by Deputy D.A. Patrick Dixon, who offered a relatively brief rebuttal Friday after Kenney-Baden had finished.

"Hold Phil Spector responsible," Dixon implored the jury after walking them through four computer-animated visuals depicting the prosecution's theory of the case, ending with Clarkson's body slumped in a chair.

Kenney-Baden's scenario is "not reasonable," he said.

Spector is facing 15 years to life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder, which doesn't necessarily mean that he intended to kill anybody, but that he at least acted with reckless disregard for Clarkson's life.