Famous for his “wall of sound” and his work with the likes of Tina Turner and The Beatles, Spector spent his final years in prison after being found guilty of shooting dead actress Lana Clarkson. Now, an attempt to exonerate Spector is understood to be under way following his death.
Two years after the death of music producer and convicted killer Phil Spector, a controversial bid to clear his name is understood to be under way.
Widely lauded as a musical genius for his work with the likes of The Righteous Brothers, Tina Turner and The Beatles, Spector spent his final years in prison after he was found guilty of murdering actress Lana Clarkson.
The 40-year-old was shot dead at Spector’s sprawling California mansion, known as the Pyrenees Castle, in February 2003, in an incident that sent shockwaves through Hollywood and beyond.
Spector – who died in prison aged 81 after contracting COVID – always maintained his innocence, claiming Clarkson had “kissed the gun” and shot herself at his property.
It is a version of events that the producer’s daughter still believes to be true, according to the directors of a new Sky documentary.
The four-part series delves into the lives of Spector and Clarkson and examines the notorious murder at his home.
Nicole Spector agreed to be interviewed for the programme, in which she claims her father was “easy prey” for prosecutors, and that evidence heard at his trial made it “immediately clear that he couldn’t have pulled the trigger”.
“She feels very strongly that Lana took her own life and she believes the forensic evidence supports that,” director Sheena Joyce tells Sky News.
“I don’t know that she will ever change her mind on that.”
Nicole remains “angry” and “devastated” that her father spent more than a decade behind bars for a crime she believes he didn’t commit, says Joyce.
And Spector’s daughter is “trying to get the Innocence Project (which works to clear people wrongly convicted of crimes) to get behind the case and exonerate her father”, according to the documentary maker.
During Spector’s first trial – which ended with a hung jury – and his subsequent retrial, when he was convicted of murder, defence lawyers had argued that there was “no physical evidence” that Spector pulled the trigger of the gun that killed Clarkson.
“There were no fingerprints found (on the gun). There was no DNA on the gun. He had no gunshot residue on him,” Spector’s trial lawyer Linda Kenney Baden tells the documentary. She also highlights the apparent lack of blood on the white jacket that Spector was wearing on the night of Clarkson’s death.
