text: Judge rejects plea to throw out murder charge against Phil Spector
  Last updated at 13:23 19 September 2007
  Spector's lawyers immediately asked the judge to declare a mistrial, in which case he would walk free, but the motion was denied.
  The 67-year-old record producer is accused of shooting dead struggling actress and bar hostess Lana Clarkson at his Beverly Hills home four years ago.
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  Prosecutors say he shot her through the mouth when she spurned his advances after a drinking session.
  Five other women have testified that Spector pulled guns on them in similar situations over the years when they turned him down and tried to leave.
  But his defence have insisted throughout the four-month trial that she committed suicide. Her body was found slumped in a chair.
  Yesterday the jury of nine men and three women sent a note telling the judge at Los Angeles Superior Court it was deadlocked.
  Jurors said that after four ballots they were split seven to five, although the judge was not told in what way.
  Spector stared intensely at the jury as the judge asked them a string of questions. When the judge asked if there was anything he could do to help, the foreman said: "At this time I don't believe that anything else will change the positions of the jurors."
  Polled individually, some jurors agreed with the foreman and others disagreed. One suggested further instruction about the legal definition of the phrase "reasonable doubt".
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  Judge Larry Fidler summoned lawyers for both sides to discuss case law on possibly instructing the jury to attempt to reach a verdict on manslaughter.
  The jury had previously been instructed that manslaughter, or accidental death, was not an option as a verdict.
  The judge allowed the jurors to go home for the night and "take a break".
  They will be brought back today when the judge said he may give them further instructions.
  Spector was accompanied into court yesterday by his wife Rachelle, a 27-year-old former Playboy model who he married last year.
  The court has heard that Spector, famed for his "Wall of Sound" technique and a former producer for The Beatles, Tina Turner and Cher, met Ms Clarkson at the House of Blues nightclub on Hollywood's Sunset Strip.
  Ms Clarkson, 45, who had a starring role in the 1985 Roger Corman cult-hit Barbarian Queen and bit parts on dozens of TV shows, was working there as a £5-an-hour "VIP hostess".
  Spector, who had spent the night on the town dining and drinking with two other women, invited Ms Clarkson to come home with him. Hours later she was dead.
  The jury has heard from 77 witnesses in a case in which more than 500 exhibits were submitted as evidence. The case continues.
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