So, the jury in the Phil Spector murder trial will not be able to consider whether the legendary producer should be considered guilty of manslaughter for his involvement, or not, in the death of actress Lana Clarkson, who was shot dead at his Beverly Hills home back in 2003.
As previously reported, the jury in the case are currently split seven to five and are unable to reach the required unanimous position as to Spector's guilt or innocence. The foreman of the jury told the court earlier this week that he felt his colleagues would ultimately never reach a unanimous position based on the current evidence, an announcement which led to speculation Judge Larry Paul Fidler would let the jury consider the lesser crime of manslaughter instead, even though he had previously said only the charge of murder would be considered, a position supported by both the defence and the proseuction in the case.
But yesterday Fidler said he would not be offering the jury the option of a manslaughter charge, mainly because he was concerned that by being offered the option the jury may feel they should take it, not because of the facts of the case, but simply because it is being offered. He said: "I do accept that it would be inappropriate at this time to instruct the jury with a new offense, that being the lesser offense of manslaughter, because I believe it's basically directing them, if at all possible, that's what they should find. And that is inappropriate".
Fidler then asked attorneys involved in the case for suggestions on how they feel the jury could be better instructed in a bid to get past the current deadlock after three jurors said that, while the deadlock is more over an interpretation of the facts of the case, rather than the law involved, they might revise their conclusions if the concept of "reasonable doubt" could be better clarified (when does "doubt" become "reasonable doubt" etc etc).
Clearly concerned about the deadlock, Fidler has said that if better instructions do not lead to a conclusion in the case he may ask the lawyers on both sides to reargue their cases in a bid to avoid having to declare a mistrial.