After seven days of deliberation, jurors in the murder trial of
legendary music producer Phil Spector on Tuesday said they were at
an impasse with no prospect of a breakthrough, media reports said.
In a dramatic development at a packed Los Angeles Superior
Court, the jury is said to be split 7 to 5 on the record producer's
fate, being unable to come to a decision on whether Spector
murdered actress Lana Clarkson back in 2003. There is no indication
regarding which way they were leaning.
"At this time we don't believe that anything else will change
the positions of the jurors based on the facts of the case," the
jury foreman told Judge Larry Paul Fidler on the seventh day of
deliberations.
Fidler said jurors may be asked to consider convicting Spector
on involuntary manslaughter charges. He had earlier ruled that
jurors would only be able to consider a second degree murder
charge.
Spector, if convicted, faces life behind bars for the shooting
death of Clarkson, who was 40 at the time of her murder; Spector is
charged with second-degree murder in killing the actress on Feb. 3,
2003, just hours after the two had met the first time at West
Hollywood, California's House of Blues, where Clarkson was employed
as a hostess.
Spector's lawyers argued that Clarkson was depressed over a
recent breakup, grabbed a .38-caliber pistol and took her own
life.
But prosecutors allege that Spector shot Clarkson in the head as
she attempted to leave his home.
District attorney Alan Jackson said during the trial Spector had
a "rich history of violence" against women, often flying into
drunken, gun-toting rages whenever they tried to leave his
company.
Spector's driver also testified he heard a loud noise and saw
the producer leave the castle holding a revolver, saying, "I think
I killed somebody."
Spector, 67, has won two Grammy Awards and was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, but he stayed out of the public
eye for two decades before his 2003 arrest.
Spector's trial is one of the highest profile celebrity cases to
be heard in California over the past two decades, following the
child molestation trial of Michael Jackson and the murder trials of
television actor Robert Blake and American football legend O.J.
Simpson, who were all acquitted.
(Agencies via Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2007)
