Phil Spector appeals murder conviction

Legendary music producer Phil Spector is appealing his conviction for murdering B-movie actress Lana Clarkson in 2003. The legal grounds given by the 70-year-old's lawyers are judicial error and prosecutorial misconduct.

Spector's team claim he was denied the right to a free trial because the court heard testimony from five female acquaintances who said he had threatened them with guns in a number of incidents dating back to the 1970s. According to Spector's lawyers, this should not have been allowed as none of the threats described involved "events in which Mr Spector put a gun in someone's mouth, much less fired it".

Spector is also claiming that it was improper for Judge Larry Paul Fidler to allow a taped hearing in which he appears to reach conclusions about the significance of spattered blood on Clarkson's body. Spector's lawyers point out that: "Under California law, a judge may not offer evidence in a trial over which he presides." They point out that the defence was not able to cross-examine the judge.

The producer - famed in the 60s and 70s for the 'wall of sound' he deployed for Tina Turner, the Ronettes and the Righteous Brothers - was sentenced last year to at least 19 years in jail. The jury at an earlier trial in 2007 could not reach a unanimous verdict, and the jury of 2009 took 30 hours to reach theirs.

Lana Clarkson was best-known for her roles in cult 1980s films like Barbarian Queen and Fast times at Ridgemont High, but had been reduced to working as a nightclub hostess when she went home with Spector on the night of her death in 2003. She was found dead in the foyer of his house in the early hours of the next morning. Spector's chauffeur called police and later said his boss had told him: "I think I killed somebody." ·