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Legal
Phil Spector denied appeal again
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 19 August 2011
Legendary record producer Phil Spector has been denied the opportunity to appeal his 2009 murder conviction for the third time in four months.
As much previously reported, Spector is currently serving a nineteen year jail sentence for shooting dead one time actress Lana Clarkson at his home in 2003. His lawyers claim that the judge who oversaw both of the Spector murder trials (the first was declared a mistrial when the jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict) made various procedural errors preventing the producer from getting a fair trial.
An initial application for a new trial was knocked back by the Californian appeals court at the start of May, but Spector’s defence team had another go later the same month, re-filing their claim. But court officials refused to consider that new application, saying there was overwhelming evidence of his guilt.
Team Spector had yet another go with a higher court, but on Wednesday the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled to uphold the previous rulings by the Court Of Appeal.