Spector Jury Won't Consider Lesser Charge

To convict Phil Spector on murder charges seems, for the jury, impossible. To convict him of anything less seems, for the judge, inappropriate.

So said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler Wednesday, when he announced that he would not to allow the deadlocked jury to resume deliberations by considering a lesser manslaughter charge, saying instructing them to do so may make them feel compelled to return a guilty verdict.

"We'd all like this case to get resolved and have the jury arrive at a result," Fidler said, noting the five months that everyone involved has sacrificed for this case.

"I do accept that it would be inappropriate at this time to instruct the jury with a new offense, that being the lesser offense of manslaughter, because I believe it's basically directing them, if at all possible, that's what they should find. And that is inappropriate."

It's "essentially saying to them, 'If you can't find him guilty with what you have, try this."

Fidler met with the prosecution, which strongly pushed for the manslaughter consideration, as well as the legendary music producer's defense team, whose second request for a mistrial was duly denied, outside the presence of the jurors, asking for suggestions on how to possibly restate their instructions in order to aid them in continuing their deliberations.

"It's not so much the words, it's basically the timing when they've reached an impasse," he said in court of the stalled second-degree murder discussions.

In an attempt to restart the deliberations, Fidler said Wednesday that he would withdraw a legal instruction concerning the firearm's discharge in Lana Clarkson's mouth which said jurors must find that Spector intentionally committed the act in order to convict him on second-degree murder. Fidler said that after rereading the instruction, he decided it should not have been given out as it misstated the law.

After the jury foreman told Fidler Tuesday that the panel was split 7-5 in their deliberations, without indicating which way the majority was leaning, the judge questioned several jurors individually about the deadlock.

Three of the jurors said that rereading jury instructions regarding reasonable doubt—specifically how it differs from doubt plain and simple—may help jump-start their decision making, which remained at an impasse after four deadlocked votes.

Despite the foreman's claim in court Tuesday that he believed the impasse was due to disagreement about separate elements of the case and not about the law, Fidler adjourned the panel for the day to determine the next course of action.

"Is it appropriate...for one juror to feel that it's reasonable and for another juror to feel that it's not reasonable, from the same facts that were presented in the case?" the foreman, aka Juror 10, asked Wednesday, prompting Fidler to conclude outside the jury's presence that he would have to instruct the panel that reasonable doubt is "an individual determination."

While the judge said that a precedent in a California Supreme Court ruling would allow him to give the jurors the option of considering a lesser charge for Spector, he did not want to open it up to the no doubt endless appeals by attorneys and confusion to jurors that it may bring up.

The defense rejected Fidler's offer of a chance to present new final arguments, saying that it would give the prosecution the opportunity to present a new theory on the case, one that more closely resembles involuntary manslaughter.

Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson said that his existing theory of the case already supports a manslaughter charge.

Deliberations by the nine-man, three-woman panel continues to be suspended while Fidler determines whether the jury will be reinstructed or be made to hear the attorneys reargue portions of their case.

The 67-year-old is currently on trial for the Feb. 3, 2004, shooting death of Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra mansion. If convicted of the second-degree murder charge, he faces 15 years to life in prison.