Phil Spector's Attorneys Want Re-Hearing On Appeal

Los Angeles - Los Angeles -- Attorneys for Phil Spector asked a state appellate court panel today for another hearing on the defense's appeal of the record producer's murder conviction.

In a petition filed with California's 2nd District Court of Appeal, attorneys Dennis P. Riordan, Donald M. Horgan and Charles M. Sevilla asked for a re-hearing of a three-justice panel's May 2 decision upholding Spector's conviction for the Feb. 3, 2003, shooting death of Lana Clarkson.

The petition alleges that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler was obligated to instruct jurors that his statements and gestures on a videotape -- in which he described a criminalist's testimony, in the first trial, that she had seen blood spatter on Clarkson's hands -- were not evidence.

"No aspect of the trial below was more startling than the prosecution's exhibition of three still photos of Judge Fidler along with photos of the prosecution's other witnesses against Mr. Spector," the attorneys wrote.

"In the countless discussions of this case appellant's counsel have had with members of the legal community, including prosecutors and judges, the assertion that prosecutors included multiple images of the presiding judge among the photos of their witnesses is met without exception by shocked incredulity." The defense attorneys contend "the unprecedented violation of the rule of judicial neutrality which marred Mr. Spector's trial cannot be avoided on procedural grounds, but rather must be confronted before this court's decision becomes final."

In their ruling two weeks ago, the justices declined to address the prosecution's presentation of the three still photos of Fidler, writing that Spector's legal team did not properly raise it as an independent issue in their opening brief.

"Moreover, we cannot see how the issue could have prejudiced him," Presiding Justice Joan D. Klein wrote on behalf of the panel. The appellate court panel labeled as "meritless" Spector's claim that he was unfairly prejudiced by the judge's actions.

"Spector's argument is undone by the videotape itself, which plainly shows the trial court did no more than seek clarification of (the criminalist's) testimony," Klein wrote.

The appellate court justices also rejected Spector's claim that jurors should not have heard the accounts of five women who contended they were involved in gun-related incidents with the music industry figure between 1975 and 1995 -- years before Clarkson's death.

Spector was convicted in April 2009 of second-degree murder. He was sentenced the following month to 19 years to life in prison.

The first jury to hear the case against him deadlocked 10-2 in favor of guilt in September 2007.