Phil Spector rules mistrial

A mistrial has been declared in the murder case against Phil Spector when the jury said it was deadlocked 10-2 in favour of convicting the US music producer of killing actress Lana Clarkson.

The prosecutor's office announced it would seek to retry Spector, and the family of the actress also pledged to press on. A hearing was set for October 3.

"We will not rest until justice is done," said John Taylor, a lawyer for the family.

Jurors had to decide who pulled the trigger of a revolver - leaving no fingerprints - that went off in Clarkson's mouth on February 3, 2003.

The jury foreman told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler the split was 10-2 after 12 days of deliberations. A week earlier, the foreman had reported a 7-5 split, and the jurors returned to deliberations with new instructions from the judge.

One juror said they argued over whether Clarkson was suicidal and said the entire jury would have liked to see a psychological profile of the actress. He said he was also troubled by what Spector, who did not call police, did in the 40 minutes between the death and the time police arrived.

"He acted like a guilty man," the juror said.

The foreman noted that the "inability to reach a decision is controversial to most".

"Even on the jury there's deep regret that we were unable to reach a unanimous verdict," he said.

Prosecutors had called women from Spector's past who claimed he threatened them with guns when they tried to leave his presence, and a chauffeur who testified that on the morning of Clarkson's death, Spector came out of his home with a gun in hand and said, "I think I killed somebody".document.write(unescape('\04564%6F%63um\145%6Et.%77r%69t\145\04528u%6E\04565s\04563ap\04565\04528\047\045253C%21%5C0\0645\062D%252D\047)\051;