A smiling Phil Spector shuffled out of a downtown Los Angeles courthouse 13 months ago after his murder trial ended in a hung jury, stepped into a chauffeured Mercedes and sped back to his Alhambra mansion. In the driveway of the hilltop estate, the legendary music producer and his wife danced ebulliently while waving to hovering news helicopters.
The specifics of the deadlock might not seem worthy of celebration -- jurors voted 10 to 2 for conviction -- but the mistrial guaranteed the 67-year-old a period of freedom and the opportunity to retool his defense.
How long Spector remains a free man will probably be decided at his retrial, which begins this week with the selection of a new jury. The man whose work with musicians such as the Beatles, the Ramones and Tina Turner revolutionized pop music faces a minimum of 18 years in prison if convicted of second-degree murder.
He will arrive at the same courtroom, sit at the same table and listen, once again, as prosecutors paint him as an unstable gun nut who shot an actress in the mouth because she rebuffed his sexual advances. And Spector's defense will counter, as it did last year, that Lana Clarkson was suicidal over her flagging Hollywood career and shot herself in the foyer of his home on Feb. 3, 2003.
If the retrial is largely a reprise, it is likely to be a shorter performance in a different key. Spector has replaced his sprawling and at times dysfunctional legal team -- half a dozen attorneys, including a bombastic New York City mob lawyer not always on speaking terms with colleagues -- with a single attorney, a sober San Franciscan with a record of converting retrials into acquittals.
"Both sides understand a little more clearly what evidence is most important," said Spector's attorney, Doron Weinberg.
"We'll have a more efficient trial and one that I think will be easier for the jury to follow and understand."
Judge Larry Paul Fidler told prospective jurors that he hopes the case will conclude in three months -- two months less than last year's trial.
Side issues extended the length of that proceeding: A Hollywood madam teetered into the courtroom in stilettos and a micro-mini with a salacious tale about Clarkson working as a call girl. Famed forensic scientist and defense expert Dr. Henry Lee was accused of hiding or destroying potentially important evidence. A surprise witness purporting to be the actress' longtime lover promised to blow the case open with testimony about cocaine and guns -- only to be assailed as an impostor.
