Phil Spector Found Guilty of Second Degree Murder

The verdict is in and music icon, Phil Spector, was found guilty of second degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson. It only took six years for this verdict–but it is finally here. Today at 1:30 p.m. the verdict was handed down.

According to CNN, “The six men and six women began their deliberations on March 26. They deliberated for about 30 hours.”

This jury came to their decision unanimously and declared Spector as guilty of murdering Clarkson in his Alhambra, Calif. home; not that she committed suicide as Spector said. His crime is punishable with up to 15 or 18 years in prison. It puts an end–perhaps–to a court case that has become a spectator sport.

After the verdict came in from the first trial, Spector sued his attorney for the one million dollar fee he paid to Robert Shapiro. Another day, he came to court with a ferocious do. And, his wife, Rachelle Spector, had to be gagged by the judge for her outbursts and arguments with the judge during the 2007 mistrial. Plus, she was also leaking emails to the press during the first trial and doing press interviews all designed to sway the jury–the judge said before gagging her.

Now, we have a verdict, at last. The music icon who won two Grammy Awards, was known as the Wall of Sound, and his flattery of Howard Hughes in becoming a recluse, will now enter another phase in his life. One of being a prisoner and making new friends in small spaces.

He was inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 for his work with the Ronettes’ Be My Baby, the Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling and Ike and Tina Turner’s River Deep, Mountain High, the Beatles’ Let It Be album, John Lennon’s Imagine and the Ramones’ End of the Century.

It is sad, that after all his talent, the above feats are almost forgotten and he is now known as the man who liked to play Russian Roulette with women, and the killer of Clarkson, the sixth woman he played with and the one who lost the game.

Dawn Bonner
Editor in Chief