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LOS ANGELES - It seems prosecutors can't catch a break in convicting Hollywood stars who are tried for serious crimes, but legal experts say that money plays a bigger role than fame in securing their freedom.
The latest example came today when a Los Angeles
judge declared a mistrial in the murder case of famous music producer Phil Spector after a jury deadlocked 10-2 on whether he gunned down little-known actress Lana Clarkson.
Spector, 67, may have won the day in court, but prosecutors are vowing to retry the case, and legal experts said they have a good chance of winning a conviction in a second trial given that 10 jurors leaned toward guilt and only two for innocence.
"Of course you are going to retry, and they should under those circumstances," said Robert Philibosian, an attorney at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, a big law firm in Los Angeles.
Regardless of the eventual outcome, Spector's victory follows those of actor Robert Blake, pop singer Michael Jackson and football star OJ Simpson as celebrities who, in a little over a decade, have escaped convictions in notorious criminal trials.
Like others, Philibosian said the money Spector made as a record producer for star clients like The Beatles and Cher was a key factor because he could hire top expert witnesses to challenge the prosecutors' claims.
"If this had been the owner of a very large development firm, he could do the same thing and nobody could know who he was," Philibosian said. "The defence, in this case, bought a lot of experts."
The winning defence argument seemed to hinge on whether Spector ever held the gun that shot Clarkson outside his home in February 2003, the experts said.
"The defence had a certain amount of scientific evidence and there was some considerable doubt," said Stan Goldman, a professor at Loyola Law School who closely followed the trial.
Likewise, Goldman noted that in the 2005 acquittal of Blake, who was accused of killing his wife Bonny Lee Bakley, prosecutors were unable to convince jurors Blake held the gun that shot Bakley.
Experts also noted Jackson, who was accused of sexual abuse of a boy, had a considerable fortune allowing him to hire legal eagle Thomas Meseareau to defend him in 2005 and OJ Simpson had flamboyant Johnny Cochrane holding sway over the jury in his 1994 trial for murdering his ex-wife and a friend.
Simpson and Blake were later found liable for the deaths in civil trials where the burden of proof was lower than in their criminal trials.
- REUTERS