So, that little tiny teeny bit of finger nail dominated the Phil Spector murder trail again yesterday. You may well remember that the prosecution in the case have been accusing the defence of finding and hiding crucial forensic evidence at the crime scene after the police had finished their investigation of Spector's Beverley Hills home following the shooting of actress Lana Clarkson there back in 2003. A week into the trial the prosecution requested a private session with Judge Larry Paul Fidler (ie without the jury) to present their accusations of evidence concealment. There seem to be two such claims - firstly that a forensic pathologist called Dr Michael Baden found and removed a fragment of tooth, and that high profile forensics specialist Dr Henry Lee found and removed a fragment of finger nail. The defence deny both accusations.
Fidler made a ruling on the finger nail claims yesterday. He said that in his opinion Lee did find a nail fragment at the scene of the crime and that he and the defence have concealed the evidence because it might show that Clarkson struggled with Spector before the shooting, ie she was trying to push a gun Spector was holding out of her mouth. However, he did not hold Lee to be in 'contempt' of court and said he would be able to be called as a defence witness, but on the understanding that the prosecution could formally present the concealment claims to the jury when questioning him.
Fidler reached his conclusion after hearing evidence from two former members of Spector's defence team, who were involved in the legendary producer's defence immediately after the shooting, but who are no longer working on the case. The key witness was attorney Sara Caplan, who said she had found a tiny white fragment at the scene of the crime, and that she saw Lee pick it up and place it in a vial. The other witness, one Greg Diamond, gave similar testimony, though there was some confusion as to who found what, and who gave what to whom. However, Fidler says he found Caplan's testimony to be completely credible - in fact she was the only witness he found "completely credible" - and he seems to have reached his conclusion based primarily on her version of events.
Fidler added that if Lee was holding on to any evidence from the crime scene then he was obligated to hand it over, but said that, while he believed some evidence was being concealed, he didn't expect the defence to hand anything over. And despite his belief that something has been concealed, he confirmed he wouldn't hold Lee in contempt of court, or instruct the jury to judge him as a non-credible witness. But he added that Lee has "a large reputation" and that therefore he had "a lot to lose" by acting dishonestly in this case.
What all of this means for each side's chances in the case is unclear. It will be interesting to see if Spector's defence will now call Lee to testify. Doing so would give the prosecution a good opportunity to formally present their concealment claims to the jury - it is unclear if prosecution lawyers can or will try to bring the whole thing up without a Lee testimony. Then again, while the jury have not been witness to the finger nail arguments so far, they will be aware of the claims and counter-claims from the media and, with all the best will in the world, the allegations will affect their opinions on both sides in the case, even if they technically speaking shouldn't. With that in mind the defence might be better off bringing it all up in the court room via a Lee testimony, so there is a chance for both sides to formally communicate their standpoints on the finger nail controversy to the jurors.
The case continues.
Elsewhere, US TV have shown a home recording made by Spector in 2005 in which he talks about the murder case. Among the claims he makes in the video is that he simply wasn't tall enough to have shot Clarkson. He says that Clarkson was 6'2" when wearing heels, and he is only 5'5". He adds that the gunshot trajectory originated from a downward angle meaning he couldn't have been holding the gun that killed her. Unless he stood on a box, presumably. Or she was sitting down. I'm not convinced it's a rock solid defence. He also used the video to offer $100,000 to unnamed women who have made claims against him (presumably the various women who have since claimed in court that Spector had once pulled a gun on them) to make their claims while taking a lie detector test. Concluding on how and why Clarkson, as he claims, shot herself, he says: "She may have accidentally taken own life. She may have purposefully taken her own life. She may have been eating the gun with her dancing ... I don't know why, when, how or where in what circumstance she may have taken her own life - whether she planned to or not".