Spector retrial moves toward jury selection

A WITNESS at Phil Spector’s murder retrial will be allowed to testify that the record producer used incendiary language about women and once stated they should be shot, a judge has ruled.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler has rejected a defence motion to exclude the testimony, but said he would consider censoring a specific obscene word the witness says Spector used in describing women in the early 1990s.

Spector is charged with second-degree murder in the 2003 death of actress Lana Clarkson, 40, at his Alhambra mansion. She died of a gunshot through the mouth while seated in a foyer. Spector’s first trial ended a year ago when jurors deadlocked 10-2, with the majority in favour of conviction.