Well, turns out Judge Larry Fidler doesn't want those written ramblings of the late Lana Clarkson to be shared with jury in the Phil Spector murder trial.
As previously reported, Spector's defence lawyers had hoped to use a diary and emails taken off Clarkson's home PC as evidence that the former actress, shot dead at the legendary producer's Beverly Hills home in 2003, had suicidal tendencies. That would help their claim that Clarkson committed suicide and was not, as the prosecution claim, shot by Spector.
The diary and emails came up last week as defence types questioned coroner Louis Pena as to why he hadn't undertaken a 'psychological autopsy' of Clarkson to ascertain the actress' state of mind in the days leading up to her death at Spector's home. The defence argued the diary style document was indeed autobiographical and showed Clarkson had a slightly screwy state of mind, but the prosecution argued the document in question was actually quite likely to be a piece of fiction, written as part of a creative writing course Clarkson had been taking. Although seemingly semi-autobiographical all the screwy bits, the prosecution said, were fiction.
Fidler dismissed the jury on Thursday as the defence and prosecution bickered as to whether the writings should be allowed as evidence in the case. Insiders had thought ultimately the judge would let the defence present them, but yesterday he said: "I don't consider anything in this particular document significant", and ruled the diary should not be shown in court because it had "no probative value whatsoever".
The defence were, however, allowed to present the emails which seemingly showed Clarkson was increasingly exasperated with life in the months leading up to her death - mainly at the slow progress of her acting career and because of various financial problems. The defence argue that when, in those emails, Clarkson wrote things like "I'm at the end of my rope here" and "I was at the end of my tether", that was a sign that Clarkson was indeed having suicidal thoughts before she accompanied Spector back to his mansion that night in early 2003.
But Pena, while admitting that he had not previously seen the correspondence shared with the court yesterday, said that even if he had he wouldn't have changed the original viewpoint he stated a the start of his four day testimony, that Clarkson's death was homicide.
The case continues.