Mistrial Declared in the Phil Spector Case

Judge Larry Paul Fidler declared a mistrial and scheduled the case to return next Wednesday for re-setting.

The case will be tried again. There is no way that the prosecution would dismiss a case that receive 10 votes for guilty.

When the case is retried the prosecution will most likely do two things differently … they will widen the latitude of their theory to include scenarios much like those the judge described in his modified instruction given after the initial 7-5 deadlock was announced… and, the prosecution will almost assuredly ask for lesser included instructions to increase the probability of a final conviction.

The defense on the other hand will continue to emphasis the crime scene evidence and perhaps modify their witness list to include some additional forensics experts and to exclude some of the witnesses that made a poor impression on the observing public.

The next trial can be expected to commence no sooner than a year from now.