Appellate Court Hears Appeal in Phil Spector Murder Case

Lawyers for Phil Spector urged a three-judge panel of California's 2nd District Court of Appeal Tuesday to grant the imprisoned music producer a new trial and reverse his 2009 murder conviction, reports City News Service (CNS).

Spector, 71, faces 19 years to life for the 2003 murder of 40-year-old actress Lana Clarkson. She met Spector hours before her death at the  as a VIP hostess.

First tried in 2007, Spector was tried again in 2009 and convicted by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury of second-degree murder. In both trials, the judges allowed prosecutors to call on victims from Spector's past. Five women testified to being victims of gun-related incidents with Spector years ago, CNS reported.

Defense Attorney Dennis P. Riordan argued Tuesday that Spector's trial was prejudiced and irrelevant by those testimonies, and should not have been allowed since, as he put it, there was no evidence Spector "was ever angry" at Clarkson, CNS reported.

Lawrence Daniels of the California Attorney General's Office countered that such evidence "very strongly explained" why Spector shot Clarkson in the foyer of his Alhambra mansion eight years ago, CNS reported. "They were so similar to the events in this case," Daniels said.

Riordan also argued in his appeal that certain video footage of the first trial shown to the second jury was "improper," according to CNS. The videotape depicted Judge Larry Fidler describing where on Clarkson's wrist evidence technician Jaime Lintemoot testified to seeing blood spatter.

Riordan said this was the equivalent of the judge "testifying" for the prosecution. "It makes him a witness," Riordan argued. Presiding Justice Joan Klein disagreed, saying Fidler's "clarification" in the videotape "doesn't convert the judge into a witness."

The appellate panel took the matter under submission and is expected to issue its ruling within three months, according to CNS.