Money Mattered in Spector Trial
Money can buy a lot of things, including a top-notch defense that helped produce a deadlocked jury in the murder trial of music producer Phil Spector.
“Whether you are buying a car, a boat or a defense, the bigger the budget, the better the ride,” Houston jury consultant Robert Hirschhorn told the Los Angeles Times.
A judge declared a mistrial yesterday, ABAJournal.com reported.
Spector used his wealth “to hire seven lawyers, a bevy of forensic experts and several private investigators to mount a defense,” the Times said. The defense spent $100,000 on just one of its experts, forensic pathologist Michael Baden.
Some had ridiculed the defense theory that Spector was not guilty because actress Lana Clarkson shot herself in the mouth. But the jury foreman told the Times that it helped persuade some jurors to vote not guilty.
The foreman noted that the defense called witnesses who testified about Clarkson’s depression, but the prosecution did not present a psychological profile to rebut those claims.
Nor was the prosecution able to prove that Spector held the gun that killed Clarkson, the foreman said. A defense expert had testified that Clarkson was shot in the mouth and such gunshot wounds are almost always self-inflicted.
The juror also said a witness who said he heard Spector say, “I think I killed somebody,” undercut his testimony in videotaped remarks to police. On the tape he said he did not understand English well and was not positive about what he heard.
