Ten Spector jurors said he was guilty - only two had doubts

Published on Friday 28 September 2007 00:04

IN THE first tense hours of deliberations, jurors in Phil Spector's murder trial re-enacted the death of Lana Clarkson, trying to duplicate the angle at which she was shot and determine which way her blood spattered.

But the experiment failed to answer all the jury's questions. For two jurors, the possibility that the actress committed suicide was never quite erased.

On Wednesday, the jury reported that it was deadlocked 10-2 in favour of conviction, leading the judge to declare a mistrial. Jurors had met for about 44 hours over 12 days.

The foreman noted that the "inability to reach a decision is controversial". Another juror said: "We would have liked a psychological profile of Lana Clarkson. The people who voted not guilty were arguing whether she was suicidal."

Prosecutors said they would seek to retry Spector, 67, and a hearing has been set for 3 October. "We will not rest until justice is done," said John C Taylor, a lawyer for Clarkson's family, which is also pursuing a civil case against Spector.

Jurors said it had not made a difference to them that the criminal trial involved a celebrity.

Clarkson, 40, was a statuesque beauty whose career was on a slide when she met Spector at a nightclub and went home with him on 3 February, 2003.

A revolver went off in her mouth; there were no fingerprints. The defence portrayed Clarkson as suicidal, introducing e-mails she wrote and calling witnesses who said she had talked of ending it all.

The prosecution called women from Spector's past who claimed he threatened them with guns. A chauffeur also testified Spector came out of his home with a gun and said, "I think I killed somebody".

One juror was troubled by what Spector, who did not call 911, did in the 40 minutes between the death and the time police arrived. "He acted like a guilty man," the juror said.

The defence countered with a scientific case, offering forensic evidence that Clarkson killed herself - either intentionally or by accident.

Gunshot residue on her hands, blood spatter on his coat and the trajectory of the bullet were the subject of weeks of expert testimony. "There were problems with the blood on the shooter's hand," one juror said. "There was not enough blood - I think jurors expected to see more blood. As the defence put it, the bazooka of blood."

From the first day of deliberations, the panel found itself divided. In a first ballot, four jurors voted for conviction, five for not guilty and three were undecided. A week ago, the foreman reported a 7-5 split.

There were six ballots in all, with jurors shifting their opinions until Wednesday, with the final impasse of 10-2 in favour of a guilty verdict.