Appellate Court Panel Upholds Phil Spector's Murder Conviction

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A state appellate court panel Monday upheld record producer Phil Spector's murder conviction for the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson.

The three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense's claim that jurors should not have heard about five women who said that they were involved in gun-related incidents with Spector in the years before Clarkson's shooting.

"The evidence showed that, when fueled by alcohol and faced with a lack or loss of control over a woman who was alone with him and in whom he had a romantic or sexual interest, Spector underwent a sharp mood swing, exhibited
extreme anger and threatened the woman with a gun when she refused to do his bidding," Presiding Justice Joan D. Klein wrote on behalf of the panel in an 81-page ruling.

The appellate court justices also rejected Spector's claim that there was prosecutorial misconduct during the closing arguments of his trial, which resulted in his second-degree murder conviction in April 2009.

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

The 71-year-old producer is known for creating dense "wall of sound" arrangements for 1960s pop hits.

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