Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Murder Trial of Phil Spector
In the 1960s, Phil Spector achieved legendary status as the visionary behind countless pop music classics. The famed 'Wall of Sound' produces helped to create immortal hits with girl groups like the Crystals and the Ronettes. But he achieved a different kind of notoriety when his oft-acknowledged erratic behavior and affection for firearms culminated in the 2003 death of Lana Clarkson. The actress, whose body was found in the foyer of Spector's California home, was found to have been shot by the increasingly psychologically unsound pop music producer.
When the smoke had cleared from his arrest, according to CNN, suicide had been ruled out. This would leave Spector to stand on trial for the murder of the 40-year-old actress. The charge of murder is defined as the act of purposefully taking the life of another human being by non-accidental action. In the case of...
Second-degree murder is defined as the act of murder without premeditation, aforethought or otherwise aggravated circumstances. The charge would be brought about by Spector based on circumstances which suggested the incident may have occurred in the heat of confrontation between the suspect and victim.
Due to the circumstantial nature of some evidence and the fact of Spector's declining psychological state during the course of the trial, a mistrial would be declared in 2007. The article by Glaister (2009) offers some assessment for why this occurred, suggesting that the focus of the prosecution was slightly off-the-mark. According to Glaister, "while the first trial was dominated by forensics and the finer points on how blood spatters, the rerun came down to an elaborate game of did he, didn't he, involving…
Works Cited:
CNN. (2009). Phil Spector Found Guilty of Actress' 2003 Murder. CNN.com.
Glaister, D. (2009). How Phil Spector Was Convicted of the Murder of Lana Clarkson. The Guardian.
Finally, the testing and use of a polygraph examination of Fritz was inexcusable. It was based on the results of this test that the police ultimately decided to arrest Fritz and then they set about building their case. In reality, the results of the polygraph were not definitive and merely indicated that Fritz was being possibly evasive. Under normal circumstances, such results would have not motivated an arrest. The failure
He admits that he killed her but he states that it was an accident. In an event in which the result is death the defense of involuntary manslaughter is available if the defense can show that it was not an intentional killing. He also used a partial wrestling defense. He was not allowed to use a complete wrestling defense because the professional wrestlers who were asked to testify to the
Matthew Baker Murder Case In Waco, Texas former pastor Matthew Baker was convicted of the murder of his wife in early 2010. In 2006, Baker's wife Kari was found dead in what looked like a suicide. However, it soon became apparent that Baker's accounts of his and Kari's movements during the day of her death were inconsistent with the forensic evidence discovered at the scene. It took some time before prosecutors
Menendez Brothers Case The Menendez murder case happened more than a quarter century ago but it is still one of the more notorious murder cases in the United States. It was the case of two men that were barely adults and how they shot and killed their parents. There are so many themes that could be looked at when assessing this case including affluence, child abuse, murder motives and the proper
" (Lebsock 80). This ordering of events makes more sense, but the evident fluctuations from one moment to the next make the validity of his testimony highly suspect. If these events had actually transpired, Marable should have no trouble remembering when and where Mary Barnes communicated with him. Apparently, this account takes into consideration Edward Pollard's testimony that Mary Barnes soon followed him into the fields. Later Solomon Marable contends, "Mary Barnes
E., after Kohn's death). In a way, Stanislawski is asking the reader to completely forget about contemporaneous elements of the case. There was one man who was accused, went to trial and was convicted of Kohn's murder, but this was appealed and overturned. After the reversal of the conviction, the supreme court examined it again and the judgment was upheld. One of Stanislawski's arguments is that the accused was Orthodox and