Spector Case Drawing to a Close; Prosecutor Presents Closing Arguments

As the Phil Spector case nears the end, the defense and prosecution have been going hammer and tongs at each other to put the case beyond all reasonable doubt. The prosecutor used videos of the victim, Lana Clarkson, to good effect during his closing arguments.

As silence descended on the courtroom, prosecutor Alan Jackson screened a video of the late actress. The video contained images of the late actress happy and dancing, interspersed with the testimony of other female witnesses who were part of the murder trial.

As the video rolled, the testimony of the five female witnesses spoke volumes. The remarks of the women who testified had been edited to focus on Spector’s drinking, guns, and threats when they wanted to leave.

The 67-year old Spector is the prime accused in the apparent ‘murder’ of 40-year old Lana Clarkson. Clarkson was fount dead, apparently from a gunshot through her mouth, in the house of Spector on February 3 this year.

While the defense claims Clarkson’s death to be a suicide, putting forth their arguments and witnesses to support that claim, prosecutor Jackson has been positioning the case as murder. Spector has, in fact, been charged with murder in the second degree in Clarkson’s death.

The defense and prosecution have clashed repeatedly throughout the trial. Earlier during the trial, the defense accused the prosecution of trying to malign them by portraying them as lawyers who coached witnesses about their testimony.

At that point in time, the judge had agreed the prosecutor’s suggestions had been uncalled for and asked the jurors to ignore those comments. Another time, the defense accused the prosecutor of trying to remove the veneer of impartiality that jurors are cloaked in by asking them to see the case through the victim’s eyes.

That point had been shot down by the judge, in a setback to the defense. The shooting death of actress Clarkson has been one of the more sensational celebrity cases in recent times.

While the prosecutor finished his closing arguments, the defense is scheduled to present their closing arguments Thursday. The jury would be handing down a verdict Friday.