Break for lunch.
Jackson has been very "human" in his closing argument. He is "meeting" with the jury in a real and personal way, in my opinion.
Prior to lunch, he was going through and tackling a number of issues which could help the jury discern whether the defense had been trustworthy or manipulative. The whole idea is to be truthful, but the defense doesn't have to say a word, or they can throw money at witnesses and have them show up in a TuTu if they want. So...were they trustworthy or manipulative, and he is walking the jury through a number of things that shows the manipulation.
He attacked issues like the paramedic that said Lana was drunk a year before when she broke her wrists. He brought up how appalling that a "year prior" they were trying to fish up something like that, but guess what, it didn't work because they found the OTHER more experienced and long term paramedic who attended Lana, then they brought forth the records that indicated she was not noted to be drunk.
He pointed out that Tawni Tyndall (sp?), the defense investigator did not represent herself to people as being from the defense of Phil Spector, nor did she record and provide transcripts of people she approached/interviewed. If she had, there would have been transcripts to share with the prosecution, even as the prosecution shared transcripts with the defense. The question was, "What is there to hide if we are looking for the truth? Well, the intimation was "manipulation" -- they didn't want information from Liverpool the other paramedic, because he said "no drunkeness."
At anyrate, Jackson went through trustworthy or manipulation, bringing up things like Paxil, "Oh she was depressed." WRONG, that was prescribed for headaches, but that isn't what the defense wanted you to think. He brought up one of the so-called experts stating that "depression" was the leading reason for depression. WRONG, Jackson qualified that it was not depression, but rather a certan type of clinical issue with depression that was responsible (escapes me), and that wasn't Lana's case.
Jackson brought up what he called was a racist statement used by the defense, the term "siesta" in terms of discussing Adriano. i.e. he was taking a "siesta" when the whole thing hit. He brought up, "We have a term for that, it is called NAP, and he was not taking a siesta or a nap" -- he qualified that Adriano was Brazilian, spoke Portuguese, and that he was an officer for 8 or 9 years in the service, so damn well knew the sound of gunfire. He brought up that Adriano had no problem understanding the 911 people when they were asking him questions, though they may have had a hard time understanding him. He did mention that the 911 people repetitively ask the same question to keep people on the line, so the jurors wouldn't think that Adriano had a problem communicating his words -- just that 911 repeats questions. Adriano knew very well what they were asking. He also damn well knew what to do in such a case, CALL FOR HELP. He made a first call to some contact of Spector, and then an immediate 2nd call to 911. He was concerned, and did the right thing immediately, you could hear it in his voice (they played the tapes and showed the transcript of them).
In essence, Jackson is pointing out the ridiculous red herrings the defense has tried to sling across the jury's path, asking them "trustworthy or manipulative."
The jury was cut loose for lunch, then the defense tried to get a mistrial declared based on a number of items. Judge said no mistrial, denied a number of things they asked for, and told Jackson "you can clean this or that up, or I will." Jackson said that he would.
Closing arguments should begin again in the next 10 minutes or so. I am praying for the wisdom of Jackson and the hearing of the jury. I think we all know that Lana had better things to do than sit in a chair near Spector's door and blow herself away.
Interestingly, this AM prior to closing arguments, a few of the news commentators on Court TV did mock closing arguments. Lisa Bloom made an important point, if this was suicide, she didn't leave a message for her loved ones...
No way, that was NOT Lana's style. You can damn well bet this was NOT suicide. HAD she had that in her mind, she would have left a message, she was a writer and a journaler. Good point Lisa Bloom.
Oddly, both Bloom and Politan (I think) brought up the DNA on the "private parts of Lana and Spector, oh I did not like that. I cannot believe for a moment that Lana let Spector play with her (he might have accosted her) and I sure as hell don't think she fished in his britches. No way...
more to come, more closing arguments...
W