Spector judge decides against directing hung jury

The judge presiding in the murder trial of music producer Phil Spector decided today he would not allow the hung jury to consider a lesser charge of manslaughter.

“I do accept that it would be inappropriate at this time to instruct the jury with a new offence, that being the lesser offence of manslaughter, because I believe it’s basically directing them, if at all possible, that’s what they should find. And that is inappropriate,” Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler told lawyers.

Judge Fidler had ruled earlier in the trial that the jury would consider only the charge of second-degree murder.

Spector, 67, is charged with murdering actress Lana Clarkson in his mansion on February 3, 2003, a few hours after she met him at her job as a nightclub hostess and went home with him.

The defence maintains Clarkson, 40, was depressed and shot herself in the mouth, either on purpose or by accident.

The judge, clearly troubled by the prospect of a hung jury after five months of trial, told jurors he might give them some new instructions, or even have lawyers re-argue part of the case.

When the impasse was reported, Judge Fidler told the lawyers he had found a precedent in a California Supreme Court ruling that might require him to give the jury the option to consider a lesser charge.

But he said today he was not sure the precedent case applied to the Spector case.

He asked lawyers for arguments over how existing jury instructions might be re-stated to help the panel in deliberations, which were suspended after the impasse was reported yesterday.

The jury foreman, a 32-year-old civil engineer, told the judge he saw little hope of resolving the impasse and indicated jurors were in disagreement about facts in the case, not about the law.

“At this time I don’t believe that anything else will change the positions of the jurors, based on the facts that are in evidence,” the foreman said.

He said the panel had taken four votes before reporting the deadlock.