Is pop music pioneer Phil Spector a murderer trying to use his wealth to buy an acquittal? Or did prosecutors, eager to put a celebrity behind bars, ignore proof that a troubled Hollywood hanger-on took her own life in Spector's Alhambra mansion?
As a Los Angeles jury begins deliberating Spector's fate, it will face these questions that evoke both film noir motifs and the recent history of celebrity justice in Los Angeles. The eccentric 67-year-old producer, once known as a boy genius who created early rock's "Wall of Sound," is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Lana Clarkson on Feb. 3, 2003.
The case is slated to go to the jury today after more than four months of testimony and more than four years after Clarkson, 40, an actress who appeared in the Roger Corman cult film "Barbarian Queen," was found slumped in a chair in the foyer of Spector's faux castle, shot through the mouth.
Prosecutors say Spector had a long history of gun threats against women and put a loaded snub-nosed revolver in Clarkson's face when she tried to leave. Whether he meant to kill her is irrelevant, they argue; his knowing disregard for life would constitute murder under California law.
The defense, backed by celebrity forensic experts, argues that Clarkson, facing fading acting prospects and mounting financial problems, shot herself. She was working a $9-an-hour job as hostess at the House of Blues when she met Spector and agreed to accompany him home the night she died.
Before the Spector case, which has been carried on television and the Internet, O.J. Simpson's was the last televised murder trial of a celebrity. Simpson's acquittal was followed by that of actor Robert Blake, who had been accused of killing his wife. Commentators said Los Angeles prosecutors weren't able, or star-struck Los Angeles juries weren't willing, to put wealthy celebrities in prison.
The diminutive Spector, who produced music for John Lennon, Ike and Tina Turner and the Ramones, is better known to music makers than to music fans. But for Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, a win in the televised trial would dispel perceptions that famous defendants here can beat the system. The Spector trial judge, Larry Paul Fidler, said one reason he decided to allow cameras in his courtroom was to show the public that justice in Los Angeles is dispensed fairly.
