Tuesday 14 April 2009

The Murder Trial of Phil Spector Has Reached Its Conclusion

The murder trial of Phil Spector has reached its conclusion at last and has resulted in a verdict of guilty for the second degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson in February 2003.

He is due to be sentenced on 29th May 2009 and is expected to get anywhere between 18 years and life imprisonment for the crime. Even if he gets the minimum sentence, he'll probably die of old age whilst in jail, which may be a burden on the taxpayer, but at least it will serve to mean justice is done.

So what do we know about the actual crime itself?

Well, we know from what the court has been told that on that fateful day, Phil Spector had been out drinking when he met Lana Clarkson in a bar and they got talking. They carried on drinking together and after the night out ended up back at Spector's Mansion, which is in the Alhambra district of Los Angeles. There they allegedly continued drinking until Spector made sexual advances on Clarkson. She spurned those advances whereupon he produced a gun and in a fit of temper, shot her in the mouth.

He later told police that she had been depressed at the lack of progress in her acting career and had actually committed suicide. The jury in the case were having none of it and convicted Spector of murder in the second degree as well as guilty the lesser charge of discharging a firearm.

So now he awaits his inevitable fate of spending the rest of his life behind bars.

Phil Spector Guilty of Murder