In this police booking photo..showing Rock music producer Phil Spector after he was convicted Monday

[underpants]

In this police booking photo released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept. showing Rock music producer Phil Spector after he was convicted Monday April 13, 2009, of second-degree murder in the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson at his mansion in 2003.
(AP Photo/Los Angeles County Sherriff's Department)

[HughMoran]

1. What is up with his scary look

Yikes!

[hlthe2b]

2. Have they done a psych exam on him?

His hair in some of these pics, alone, might suggest he needs one...:shrug:

[H2O Man]

5. His violent behaviors

and unstable mood swings have been known about for decades. That he would eventually kill someone was no surprise.

[hlthe2b]

8. I wonder why they didn't go with an insanity defense...

If there is documentation of psychological instability, treated or not, through the years, I'd have thought this might have been the logical defense. Of course, they may be holding this out for an attempt at lenient sentencing....:shrug:

I've always wondered why there seems to be such a correlation between mental illness and creative genius.....

[H2O Man]

11. An insanity defense

only works if a defense team can show a person was so ill, that they did not know the difference between right and wrong, and had no actual criminal intent. It is actually quite rare that such a defense works. Mental health issues are far more likely to be taken into consideration as a mitigating factor, in the sentencing phase of a trial, if a person is found guilty.

One of the things that is looked at is if the person attempted to "hide" their crime: if a person attempts to hide it, they likely know it's wrong.

There are many people, both in the legal and mental health fields, who believe there could be benefits to a "guilty, but seriously mentally ill" category in the court system, which might, among other things, recognize degrees of guilt. I think there is merit to that.

In all of my years working in mental health, I only provided services to one person -- the only one I ever even had knowledge of -- who was so ill, both at the time of the crime and trial -- that he was deemed not responsible for his actions.

[hlthe2b]

13. Yes... and I guess this was California, who tightened down

considerably on these types of defense (and related) after the infamous "twinkie defense" in the Dan white trial for the murder of Milk and Moscone.

[merh]

14. I love to read your posts.

and in all my years working with criminal defense lawyers we only had one (1) defendant that was so disturbed that he was found not-guilty by reasons of insanity and sits in a mental hospital to this day.

:hi:

[peace13]

9. That middle one looks a bit like Nancy Pelosi!

Are they related?

[a kennedy]

3. he looks like a creepy Martin Short in this picture..........

[liberalla]

4. sans makeup... would be my guess

He's weirder looking than usual.

[KittyWampus]

6. He is Sanpaku

[boobooday]

7. Unpleasant man n/t

[ForrestGump]

10. Practising his intimidating-the-cellmate look, I guess

He looks like Danny Bonaduce's nightmare.

"Blue Steel" doesn't work for everyone.

[HughBeaumont]

12. "OUTLANDAHHH! WE HAVE YOUR WOMAAAAAAN!"

Two. Twinkies. Short.