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Spector Gets a Short Rebuilding Season
Phil Spector has barely three weeks to restock his team with heavy hitters.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler gave the 67-year-old Wall of Sound creator 20 days to round out his defense team for his imminent second trial for the shooting death of Lana Clarkson on Feb. 3, 2003.
Spector must appear with his new lawyers in tow at a hearing set for Oct. 23.
The judge said he would like all parties to be ready for another go-round in about four months, but Spector's remaining attorneys, Dennis Riordan and Christopher Plourd, have said it would take at least six months to prepare for a new trial.
"Good lawyers are going to be busy," Plourd said Wednesday in court, adding that the best of the best are likely to already be weighted down with other clients.
Defense team members Linda Kenney Baden, who took the lead after famed New York lawyer Bruce Cutler was swept to the sidelines and delivered the defense's closing argument; Roger Rosen and Bradley Brunon have already signed off. Cutler quit before the trial concluded.
Fidler declared a mistrial last Wednesday after the jury informed him it was deadlocked 10-2, with the majority favoring a second-degree murder conviction for Spector. Jurors deliberated for 12 days and at one point were split 7-5 before Fidler re-advised them on the concept of reasonable doubt and what Spector needed to have done to merit a guilty verdict.
The judge also considered and then ruled against letting the jury consider a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.
Legal experts have said that, in order to beef up its chance for a murder conviction, the prosecution will have to better hammer home its scientific points and present more evidence that portrays Clarkson as an upbeat, stable person. Prosecutors haven't yet said whether they will go after Spector again on the same charge.
The defense, which maintained that the 40-year-old actress accidentally shot herself in Spector's Alhambra mansion, presented a string of witnesses who testified that Clarkson was depressed about her career, money situation and love life in the months leading up to her death.
Meanwhile, a hearing in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Clarkson's family against Spector has been postponed until Dec. 6, but the D.A.'s Office has said that the criminal trial takes precedent over any civil proceedings.
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