Phil Spector Appeals Murder Conviction

On March 10th, 2010, Dennis Riordan filled an appeal on behalf of his client, Phil Spector for his second degree murder conviction in the death of Lana Clarkson. It has taken almost a year for Spector’s appeal to be filed with the second district court of appeals. MsNBC reports that the appeal is 148 pages long. In fact, the appellate court’s web site indicates that six days prior, Spector’s counsel first had to file a request to get approval of an over sized opening brief. When that filing was approved on March 10th, the appeal was filed the same day. Although the initial notice for the appeal was logged on June 1st, 2009, the defense filed at least ten extensions for more time to prepare their brief.

The appellate brief is B216425. The LA County District Attorney’s office is not involved in the appeal. That’s handled by the Attorney General’s office. The appellate court’s web site indicates the response from the Attorney General’s office is due Friday, April 9th, 2010. With such a lengthy brief, I would not be surprised if there are filings for extensions to respond by the Attorney General’s office.

For those of you living in the dark ages, Lana Clarkson was killed in the foyer of Spector’s mansion during the early morning hours of February 3rd, 2003. Spector’s first trial ended in a hung jury and declared a mistrial. He was convicted in his second trial on April 13th, 2009 and sentenced on May 29th, 2009. He received a sentence of 19 years to life. I covered a good portion of the first trial and every day of the second trial here on Trials & Tribulations.

A big thank you to the T&T readers who wrote me to let me know that the appeal had been filed.

Continue reading here.......

The Associated Press

BBC News