BeatNick

I first started following the Phil Spector trial towards the end of the summer. I was back home after my city internship, and since I live in a one-television household, I was forced to watch whatever my mom wanted to.

So we watched CourtTV. Religiously.

If you’ve ever followed a murder trial on CourtTV, you know that it’s the worst thing ever. It consists almost entirely of boring recap and shit commentary, with a little live coverage snuck in here and there. All the same, by the time September rolled around, I was pretty well-informed about the case.

Maybe that’s why I’m not surprised to hear that the jury is at an impasse, stuck at 7-5 on whether to convict Spector of second-degree murder charges. As with the Irina Malinovskaya case, a mistrial seems inevitable.

But apart from their hung juries (and their scary-looking defendants), the Spector and Malinovskaya trials are crucially different: he probably did it, and she probably didn’t.

Make no mistake: if Malinovskaya had Spector’s lawyers, she’d be acquitted - if Spector had Malinovskaya’s, he’d be convicted. But Spector is a multi-millionaire, and he can put together a defense team that rivals O.J.’s. Justice comes down to money, not truth.

Girls and money go in…neither comes out.

Look at the details. The best the prosecutors could do against Malinovskaya was establish a motive - her ex-boyfriend was banging the alleged victim. Malinovskaya’s DNA? Not so much as one fucking cytosine at the scene of the crime.

Now take Spector’s case. The best the defense can do is argue that the victim - Lana Clarkson - committed suicide. In Spector’s mansion. With her handbag on. What about Spector telling his chauffeur, “I think I killed somebody?” Well, um, you know, the guy is on a lot of medication.

I’m not saying Spector is definitely a killer. There are some important holes in the prosecution’s case, like the fact that Spector’s DNA was not on the gun that killed Clarkson. But what I am saying is that even a brief comparison between the Spector’s and Malinovskaya’s trials sheds light on the incredible disparity in this country’s justice system.

In the end, a verdict hinges not on the defendant’s actions but on his wallet.

BeatNick appears every Monday and Thursday.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 7:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.