You wouldn't want to be Phil Spector at the moment; not only does his CV include the lines 'produced a Starsailor album' and 'enthusiastic collector of lesbian haircuts', but several of his prospective jury members already think he's guilty of murder.
Lawyers selecting the jury in the Phil Spector murder trial are expected to start whittling down the pool today, but it seems as if they'll have a hard time finding 12 members of the public who don't think that Phil Spector is either guilty of murder or responsible for Lana Clarkson's death in some way, based on news reports they've already seen. To make matters worse, those fake 'Phil Spector Is A Lovely Man, Hates Guns And Has Hair As Soft And Luxurious As The Pillowcase Of A Princess' news reports that have been cropping up on the internet lately don't seem to be convincing anyone either.
It's fair to say that things are stacking up against Phil Spector in a remarkably unfortunate way. For four years he's managed to avoid a trial for the murder of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson, found shot in the mouth at Phil Spector's pretend Los Angeles castle in 2003.
After the trial hit delay after delay, it has finally been set to begin at the end of this month. If that's not bad enough for Phil Spector, the murder trial will be televised, meaning that each and every glance and wince from Spector will be scrutinised by a truth-hungry media. If that's not bad enough for Phil Spector, the girlfriend who he once put a gun to the head of is going to testify in the case. And if that's not bad enough for Phil Spector, most of the people in the preliminary jury pool seem to think he's guilty anyway.
Prospective Phil Spector murder trial jurors were questioned last month, and the results of the questionnaires have been revealed – and, as the Los Angeles Times reports – it's not really looking good for Phil Spector:
"Honestly, I think he did it," said a juror who said she was an aspiring actress. The juror also made a point repeated by others in the jury pool: Celebrities, she said, often "just act inappropriately." Another woman had written in the questionnaire completed by the nearly 200 potential jurors: "In my opinion, Phillip Spector is at fault for her death." Asked by Spector attorney Roger Rosen what she meant, the woman said, "If she hadn't gone there she would be alive."
Now, as worrying as this seems at first, remember that being a member of the jury on a case that's expected to last for four months is just about the dullest thing on Earth. Sure, you might get the chance to write a book about it later, but the actual experience of sitting, waiting, listening and questioning everything you've heard each day for four months must be tedious – and the obvious way of dodging it would be to openly say that you think the defendant is guilty, possibly adding that you know this because he said it to you in a dream while he was raping you.
So maybe some of the Phil Spector jurors didn't mean it. But even the undecided jury members will probably take a dim view of a man who leaves guns lying around his house following the events in Virginia this week. Again, that's not a good sign for Phil Spector.
But let's look on the bright side. If all the jury can reach a guilty verdict before the murder trial has even started, it means that the actual Phil Spector murder trial itself might be nice and short. If nothing more, at least that'll mean that Phil Spector won't need to buy quite so many lesbian wigs.
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dean swetman says
Does this mean Phil has single handedly invented the inimitable “Wall of guilt”!