Spector Hopes Appeal Court Will Give Him Get Out of Jail Card
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Phil Spector
Lawyers for music producer Phil Spector have submitted a detailed brief they hope will lead to his freedom.
The legendary music producer is serving a 19-year-to-life sentence for the second-degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson.
She died at Spector's Alhambra castle seven years ago.
In the brief submitted on Wednesday, the lawyers asked the appellate court to throw out Spector's conviction on the grounds of judicial error and prosecutorial misconduct, and grant him a new trial.
Among the issues raised was the admission of testimony of five women who claimed Spector had threatened them with guns in years past.
The brief also questions the prosecution's use of a videotape of the trial judge commenting on the evidence in the case.
It took prosecutors two trials to convict Sector. The jury deadlocked on a verdict in the first trial. The appeal pointed to the judge's actions in both trials, outlined alleged errors and called one of Judge Larry Fidler's actions "startling."
This occurred when the judge allowed prosecutors in the second trial to show videotape from a hearing outside the presence of the jury from the first trial.
The appellate brief accused the judge of offering an interpretation of a witness' action. Spector's lawyer cited this as a violation of California law, which does not allow judges to offer evidence at trials over which they preside.
Spector's appellate attorneys, Dennis Riordan, Daniel Horgan and Charles Sevilla, also argued that prosecutors used inflammatory language in closing arguments, which they claim, crossed the line from aggressive advocacy to prosecutorial misconduct.
They cited Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson's final argument in which he accused defense attorneys of soliciting untruthful testimony from expert witnesses by paying them huge fees.
The appeal also said the judge improperly allowed the prosecution to assert Spector had a history of violence against women and thus should be convicted based on his bad character and evil propensities.
The state attorney general's office is expected to file a reply brief next month.
