[Archive 2009-04-13] Music producer Phil Spector convicted of murder

Historical archive — originally published 2009-04-13. This report records what was known on that date. It is not current news; subsequent events may have changed the situation. Wikinews closed in May 2026.

Pop music producer Phil Spector, who produced a large number of hit records in the 1960s and 1970s, has been convicted of second-degree murder in the 2003 shooting of actress Lana Clarkson at the L.A. Superior Court in Los Angeles, California. Spector, currently 68, faces a minimum of 18 years in prison.

Clarkson died February 3, 2003 at Spector's mansion, the "Pyrenees Castle", in Alhambra, California, after returning home with Spector for a drink after they met during her shift at a nightclub where she worked as a hostess. Spector was arrested after police were called to the mansion, finding Clarkson dead of a gunshot wound; Spector insisted that her death was an "accidental suicide".

The jury in the trial deliberated for 32 hours over a period of nine days. The trial was the second on the charge, after the judge in the original trial declared a hung jury in the first.

The defense had argued that the 40-year-old actress was in a state of suicidal depression over her career and was capable of an impulsive act of self-destruction. Spector was however alleged to have said "I think I killed someone" after Clarkson was found dead, and jurors heard that he also considered himself "relatively insane" and a sufferer of bipolar disorder.

Phil Spector is widely credited with inventing the "wall of sound" production technique which was prominent in the sounds of many rock & roll groups, such as The Ronettes, to whose lead singer Spector was married, and the Righteous Brothers. Spector also produced the Beatles album Let It Be.

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