Spector’s attorneys outline their case
In the months before her death, actress Lana Clarkson e-mailed friends to say that she was “truly at the end of this whole deal” and planned to “tidy my affairs and chuck it,” attorneys said in court motions Monday detailing how they planned to defend Phil Spector against murder charges.
Spector and his lawyers have long suggested that Clarkson, 40, shot herself at his Alhambra mansion in February 2003. But Monday’s motions laid out for the first time how they hope to convince a jury that she took her life.
Citing Clarkson’s faltering acting career, a 2001 accident that left her with two broken arms and financial problems, the lawyers argued that she was on a “slide downward” that put her at risk “for suicide or for a self-inflicted wound.”
Jury selection is scheduled to begin next week. Prosecutors have argued that the music producer killed Clarkson when she tried to leave after accompanying him home for a drink.
Spector’s driver testified that on the night of the slaying, the music producer said he thought he had shot someone.
Police officers said Spector told them the shooting was an accident. But defense lawyers said forensic evidence will show Spector was too far away from Clarkson to have pulled the trigger. Evidence of the events that led her to shoot herself is found in e-mails left on her computer, the motion said.
Two months before the shooting, defense attorneys said, Clarkson wrote one friend: “I feel really bad even taking you up on your offer of a $200.00 loan ... I am truly at the end of this whole deal. I am going to tidy my affairs and chuck it, ‘cuz it’s really all too much for just (unreadable) girl to bear anymore.... “
Weeks later she wrote: “Over here things are pretty bad. I won’t go into detail, but I am on the verge of losing it all. Just hanging on a thread.... “
Near the time of her death Clarkson’s hopes were briefly raised when she landed a “dream” role playing her “idol,” Marilyn Monroe, the defense said.
“After her many years on the fringes of the entertainment business, at 40 years of age, where her biggest accomplishment to date was a starring role in Roger Corman’s ‘The Barbarian Queen,’ she is obviously excited to get the one role she has always wanted,” the defense motion said.
But sometime in the last month of her life, she lost that part, the defense attorneys said. That loss, combined with the effects of alcohol and prescription medicine that she had in her system, are central to understanding the events on the night she died, they said.
“The effect of this chronology of events on Lana Clarkson’s state of mind as of ... Feb. 2, 2003, is of key importance to this jury and should not be taken out of their hands,” the defense motion said.
The defense arguments targeted a prosecution motion filed last week arguing that Clarkson’s mental state should be off-limits in trial because it is irrelevant to the murder case and could mislead the jury.
In their motion, defense attorneys made it clear they don’t believe they have to prove Clarkson’s death was a suicide but could alternately show it was “an act of despair fueled by the stupor that can be brought on by her combining prescription medication with too much alcohol, or possibly just a terribly unfortunate accident.”
The defense, in its motion, also accused the prosecution of dismissing a recommendation by the coroner that a “psychological autopsy” be performed on Clarkson.
Such a study, which would have attempted to determine the actress’ emotional condition by interviewing family and friends, could have been crucial to settling the question of whether Clarkson took her own life or was killed, the defense said.
Defense lawyers also argued that medication Clarkson had been taking could have caused her to bruise easily. The coroner stated that bruises on Clarkson’s arms may have been evidence of a struggle. The defense wants the coroner’s statement to be excluded as speculation.
The defense also filed papers to bar testimony that Spector’s blood-alcohol level could have been 0.19% at the time of the shooting. The legal limit for driving in California is 0.08%.
Spector’s blood was not drawn after his arrest, but a urine sample was taken. The defense argues the urine sample was not collected properly and that blood-alcohol estimates based on the sample are faulty.
The jacket Spector wore on the night of the shooting is another point of contention: The prosecution said testing had determined that stains on the jacket were Clarkson’s blood, but the defense said the stains were not blood and argued that photos of the jacket should not be allowed in court.
Also Monday, the defense and prosecution filed competing motions on whether Devra Robitaille, Spector’s former assistant and lover, should be allowed to testify that Spector had threatened her with a gun.
Judge Larry Paul Fidler is scheduled to hear arguments on the motions today.