Phil Spector's Battle For Freedom Is Over! Judge Rules On Appeal
Jun. 17 2016, Published 10:02 a.m. ET
Convicted murderer and legendary music producer Phil Spector has been shut down in his last attempt to overturn his 19-year prison sentence, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned.
In court documents obtained by Radar, the appeals court explained that the motion was "denied because appellant has not made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right."
Spector was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend Lana Clarkson in 2009, and he was sentenced to 19 years to life in state prison.
During the trial, the judge in the case decided to allow statements from women that Spector had allegedly threatened with a gun in the past. The decision was controversial, due to California law usually not allowing previous transgressions to be brought up in a criminal case.
With that in mind, in 2012, Spector filed a petition in Federal Court saying his constitutional rights were violated by the judge who sentenced him. He claimed that the decision to allow the testimony from the women — along with the prosecution being allowed to use the trial judge's comments on an expert's testimony — were all against the law. Spector was attempting to have the court overturn the 2nd degree murder conviction.
The music producer's legal team filed documents pleading with the court to speed up the case, explaining that Spector was 74 and had been in custody since 2009.
The court documents stated, "Mr. Spector is frail, and in ill health with an assortment of serious maladies. Any consideration the Court can provide in expediting its decision in this matter will be deeply appreciated.'"
The judge was unmoved by the emotional plea regarding Spector's heath, however. He came back days later and announced the case would not be expedited.
In a twist, the Federal Court judge came back several months later with his decision on Spector's petition. The order stated they are agreeing with the magistrate judge's recommendation to dismiss the petition and explained that Spector's trial judge did not do anything wrong in the courtroom.
The decision explained that in regards to the prosecution being allowed to use the judge's comments on an expert's testimony, there was nothing wrong with it, due to the judge only explaining to the jury exactly what the expert said on the stand.
The order also stated that Spector failed to provide a single reason why his murder conviction should be overturned.
Therefore, the judge threw out his petition to overturn his conviction and said Spector's sentence would remain intact.
In August 2015, however, Spector filed an appeal of that decision, pleading with the court to overturn the dismissal of his petition to get him out of prison.
He said that the judge in the murder trial did numerous inappropriate things, which caused him a denial of his due process. He also explained that his first trial ended in a mistrial due to the jury not being able to come to a decision.
Spector added that all the experts that examined the evidence in the case believed that his girlfriend Lana Clarkson's injuries were self-inflicted not wounds of being shot.
However, on June 10, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit came back with their decision and shut down Spector's plea to release him from prison.
Story developing.