Phil Spector's team outlines murder defence (Roundup)

Apr 26, 2007, 23:44 GMT

Music producer Phil Spector is seen sitting in court during his murder trial on the close circuit screen used by the Court TV camera technician, 26 April 2007 at Los Angeles Superior Court, in Los Angeles, California. Spector is accused of killing actress Lana Clarkson. EPA/GABRIEL BOUYS/POOL POOL

Los Angeles - Phil Spector's lawyers claimed Thursday that authorities jumped to conclusions in charging the legendary music producer with murder and said scientific evidence would prove him innocent.

Spector's lawyer Bruce Cutler said authorities 'had murder in their mind' and ignored 'anything that was not consistent with that.'

Spector, 67, famous for his so-called 'Wall of Sound' recording techniques in the 1960s, is accused of fatally shooting actress and nightclub hostess Lana Clarkson, 40, on February 3, 2003 at his hilltop mansion in the Los Angeles suburb of Alhambra.

Opening statements began Wednesday with prosecutors alleging that Spector was a 'sinister' man who had on numerous occasions threatened women with guns when they spurned his advances or tried to leave.

'Lana Clarkson ... was simply the last in a long line of women who fell victim to Philip Spector over the years,' Jackson said. 'This pattern repeats itself over and over and over again.'

Spector's lawyer argued that Clarkson killed herself.

'A self-inflicted gunshot wound can be accidental suicide, and that's what it was,' he told jurors.

Spector was a victim of his own celebrity, targeted by police and the women who will testify against him because of his fame, Cutler said.

'These were women who were drawn to him and came back to him after the incidents,' he said. 'The evidence will show they kept taking his money and spending his money.'

Spector's other lawyer Linda Kenney-Baden said forensic evidence would exonerate her client.

'The evidence will show that the science proves Philip Spector is innocent,' she said. 'The science will tell you that Philip Spector did not shoot Lana Clarkson, that he did not hold the gun, and that he did not pull the trigger.'

The case is attracting widespread attention because of Spector's celebrity and Judge Larry Fidler's decision to allow cameras to broadcast live from the courtroom.

Though unknown to most youth today, in his time Spector was a world famous music producer who had a hug influence on the development of popular music, recording songs like Da Doo Ron Ron, The Long and Winding Road and You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin.