AP Photo / Nick UtTo know him is to (a) acquit him or (b) convict him?
That's the task ahead of jurors in the retrial of Phil Spector on murder charges as they began deliberations today, a year-and-a-half after a previous panel couldn't reach a verdict, forcing a mistrial.
Spector's second spin within the criminal justice system began five months ago, when prosecutors started rehashing hundreds of hours of testimony contending that the Wall of Sound maestro went berserk in early morning hours of Feb. 3, 2003, and shot to death B-movie star Lana Clarkson.
Earlier, Spector picked up the 40-year-old Barbarian Queen actress at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip, where she worked as a VIP hostess. Hours later, she was dead in the foyer of his suburban L.A. mansion, with a single gunshot to her mouth.
Spector called it an "accidental suicide" and said she "kissed the gun." But the medical examiner disagreed and ruled her death a homicide.
The six-man, six-woman jury on this go-around will have a little more leeway than the previous jury as Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler gave them the OK to consider an involuntary manslaughter charge, in addition to second-degree murder. The original panel wasn't permitted to weigh the lesser count when they deadlocked 10-to-2 in favor of the murder conviction.