Spector Defense Fires Back in Closing

All Phil Spector's camp had to do, theoretically, was plant a seed of reasonable doubt in the minds of the nine men and three women who will decide whether the famed music producer is guilty or innocent of second-degree murder.

And according to attorney Linda Kenney-Baden, who delivered the defense's closing argument Thursday, there is more than enough reasonable doubt to prevent the Wall of Sound creator from becoming a "celebrity notch in the government's gun belt."

The prosecution presented "speculation instead of certainty," she said, when it came to who fired the gunshot that killed Lana Clarkson in the wee hours on Feb. 3, 2003 in the hallway of Spector's Alhambra mansion, just hours after the two had met.

"The government wanted this tragic death to be a murder," Kenney-Baden said.

Several forensics experts, including a lead Los Angeles County Sheriff's criminalist, testified for the prosecution that they could not determine who pulled the trigger, while the defense's experts declared that Clarkson had.

"Finally, after four years of investigation, five months of trial and approximately 70 witnesses, we now have a variety of the government's speculations as to how this could have happened," she said.

"Some of them, you heard yesterday, include: The gun fell into her mouth. She was talking and he put the gun in her mouth. She screamed and he put the gun in her mouth. It even got to the point [where] a big gust of wind or an earthquake could have made the gun go off. It must have been San Andreas' fault," Kenney-Baden said dryly.

So isn't it interesting, she said, that prosecutors "never told you exactly how this could have happened."

"We want you to walk through the evidence to see for yourselves what happened that night," she continued, reiterating some of the conclusions arrived at by the defense's scientific experts, the assertion by multiple witnesses that the force of the gunshot could have propelled blood and other physical matter at least six feet away, "like a bazooka," accounting for the spatter on Spector's jacket.

"Science is the only impartial witness," Kenney-Baden told the jury. "Every inch back from that two and a half feet is an inch of doubt. Here, ladies and gentlemen, there are feet of doubt."

Spector's DNA was not found on the gun or on the bullet cartridges, she said, nor was there any blood on the sleeves of his jacket, save a small spot near the cuff.

"Those sleeves by themselves prove Phillip is innocent," Kenney-Baden insisted.

The prosecution used "accusations and demonizations," rather than facts, to buoy their case, she continued.

"The conviction of this celebrity was more important than the morality of honesty," Kenney-Baden said. She also alleged that investigators made mistakes along the way that could have tainted the physical evidence.

"It's not Phillip's fault. He should not suffer because of their ineptitude."

And while Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson screened parts of Clarkson's self-produced video montage Lana Unleashed, which showed the actress looking lovely and vibrant, during his closing argument Wednesday, Kenney-Baden flashed the words "career failure," "financial ruin," "depressed," and other negative concepts on an overhead projector.

The "government" ignored evidence that Clarkson may have killed herself, as the defense is alleging, Kenney-Baden said.

Before arguments began Thursday, L.A. Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler routinely denied the defense's request for a mistrial based on so-called inflammatory statements made by Jackson yesterday.

But, Fidler did remind the jury that the defense did not commit "character assassination," as the prosecution argued.

"Defense counsel did nothing wrong" by presenting relevant, admissible evidence about Clarkson's state of mind in the months leading up to her death, the judge said.

Focusing on the key testimony of driver Adriano De Souza, who stated that, moments after the gun went off, Spector came outside and told De Souza, "I think I killed somebody," Kenney-Baden said that the Brazilian immigrant was "simply mistaken."

"Stories don't trump science," she said, "and they can't prove Phil Spector killed Lana Clarkson."

Kenney-Baden is expected to finish her closing argument Friday, after which Deputy D.A. Patrick Dixon will offer a rebuttal. Then, Fidler will give instructions to the jury and the deliberation process will commence, only four months after the first witness took the stand, and four and a half years after Clarkson's death.