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Blogging SpectorOur revels now are ended.

By Timothy Noah
Updated Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007, at 6:17 PM ET

(Continued from page 2)

The case has now gone to the jury.

The Defense Gets Desperate
Sept. 7, 2007, 2:05 p.m. ET

Defense lawyer Linda Kenney Baden is finally taking on the most damning testimony in this trial—the eyewitness testimony of chauffeur Adriano DeSouza. "He was simply mistaken" when he thought he heard Spector say "I think I killed somebody." The gun he thought he saw in Spector's hand was actually the bloodied diaper, which Spector used to try to help Clarkson—"to wipe her face, not wipe down her face." If Spector wanted to help Clarkson, why didn't he call 911? The Spector defense team is glad you asked! Because Spector thought DeSouza (who fled the scene because he was afraid Spector might kill him, too), had gone to get help.

Such a terrible sequence of misunderstandings!

This is pretty lame, but you can't say it's boring.

Then Kenney Baden takes on the second-most damning testimony in Spector's trial—the five women who told stories remarkably similar to Clarkson's—stories of Spector pulling guns on women when they tried to leave his home or hotel room. Dorothy Melvin, who said Spector struck her twice? "That was simply untrue." A Pasadena police officer said "she had no bumps on her head." Melissa Grosvenor? "A convicted felon for bank embezzlement." Stephanie Jennings? She sold her story to the tabloids, and besides, "the police never found the gun." Diane Ogden-Halder? Hers is the most damning story of all, because she said Spector pressed the gun to her cheek, face, and neck, indicating that it wouldn't have been out of character for Spector to press a gun into Clarkson's mouth. Kenney Baden says Ogden-Halder's stories date back to the 1980s. Ancient history! Also, Ogden-Halder said Spector's behavior reminded her of a relative who abused her as a child. Kenney Baden presents this as a meaningful detail that undermines Ogden-Halder's credibility, but she doesn't explain how. Devra Robitaille? She came back for a job. Indeed, most of these women maintained some degree of social contact with Spector. That's puzzling, but hardly a unique circumstance when a relatively powerless woman experiences abuse from a powerful male. Anita Hill did the same with Clarence Thomas.

"All of the women here had long-term relationships with Phil Spector." That makes them different from Lana Clarkson, whom Spector had only just met. So what? Clarkson was sexy! Spector wanted to fuck her! This is what Spector did when women wouldn't fuck him! (And anyway, the prosecution had another witness prepared to testify who, like Clarkson, had never met Spector before. She was one of many women whose testimony Judge Fidler ruled inadmissable.)

Spector also pulled guns on men—even famous rock 'n' roll stars. John Lennon! The Ramones! Leonard Cohen! ("Leonard, I love you," Spector said as he pressed a .45 to Cohen's neck. "I hope you do, Phil," Cohen replied.) This is well-documented! Spector used loaded guns for control, in this context professional rather than sexual. Eventually one of them went off. The only surprise is that it didn't happen years earlier.

She Droned at Me With Science
Sept. 6, 2007, 5:35 p.m. ET

I miss Bruce Cutler.

Linda Kenney Baden is trying to explain away a "weak Y allele" on the gun that killed Lana Clarkson. Her strategy for the defense's closing argument is to drone away about the forensic evidence. In this instance, she's saying that the test result showing a Y allele (i.e., male DNA) on the handle of the gun was "highly questionable."

Though less erratic than Cutler, Kenney Baden isn't as compelling a presence as Cutler ("They had murder on their mind!"), or even Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson. She knows this, and is trying to make her lack of charisma a virtue. "Science is the most important witness in this case," she said earlier. "Science is not meant to entertain the mass media." If you ask me, science is meant (at least in this instance) to put the jury to sleep.

Why would the defense wish to put the jury to sleep? Because if Kenney Baden drones on and on until jurors' minds wander they may be left with the impression not of particular scientific points but rather of an undifferentiated mass of scientific evidence voluminous enough to justify a finding of reasonable doubt. Given the quality of the evidence she's relying on, it may not be a bad game plan.

Now Kenney Baden is carrying on about the police's failure to subject Spector to a blood alcohol test after his arrest. It's news to me that anyone in this trial wants to dispute that Spector was drunk on the night Clarkson died. He was cruising bars, for Christ's sake! His Wall of Soundness ordered, over the course of the evening, four daiquiris, two Navy grogs, and a glass of rum! The prosecution has receipts! Spector went to the men's room three times!

I think Spector's going to be found guilty of second-degree murder. I don't even think the jury will confer very long before reaching that verdict.

Closing Argument: The Prosecution, Part 2
Sept. 5, 2007, 5:55 p.m. ET

Now Jackson is criticizing one of Spector's expert witnesses on blood spatter for calling it "splatter." Some expert! Surely, though, there are nuclear engineers who say "nucular" and yet are fully conversant with how fission works. Time to wrap this up.

Apparently Spector was observed suppressing laughter at one point during Jackson's summing-up. I missed it. A KTLA commentator calls it "somewhat disrespectful."

Closing Argument: The Prosecution
Sept. 5, 2007, 2:30 p.m. ET

Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson, delivering his final argument, urges the jury to remember the testimony of Adriano DeSouza, who was Spector's chauffeur that night. Spector and Clarkson are in the house. DeSouza is waiting outside in the limo. DeSouza hears a loud noise. Spector emerges from the house. Spector, Jackson says,

literally had the smoking gun in his hand. In his right hand, across his waist. He literally had Lana Clarkson's blood on his hand. He looks Adriana DeSouza right in the face … and says, "I think I killed somebody."

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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
Photograph of Phil Spector by Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images.
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