Legal News

Breaking News: Phil Spector Found Guilty of Murder

By Ashby Jones

This just in: Famed record producer Phil Spector was found guilty on Monday afternoon of murdering 40-year-old actress Lana Clarkson in 2003. He faces up to 18 years in prison. Click here for the early story from the LA Times.

Over the course of the trial, which began in October, the prosecution portrayed Spector, 69, as a sadistic misogynist who had a three-decade "history of playing Russian roulette with the lives of women" when he was drunk. A prosecutor told jurors in her summation that "by the grace of God, five other women got the empty chamber and lived to tell. Lana just happened to be the sixth woman who got the bullet."

But Spector's defense team contended that Clarkson committed suicide. A 2007 trial ended when the jury deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of conviction.

Spector produced records for a who’s who list of pop-music stars in the 1960s and 70s, including the Beatles, the Ramones, Leonard Cohen, the Righteous Brothers and Ike and Tina Turner. [End of Post]

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 13, 2009 (boomark / email).