As one of Spector’s lawyers, Chuck Sevilla, says, “In my 40-plus years of working in the criminal-justice system, I’ve never seen a judge used as a prosecution witness as he’s presiding over a trial. I’ve never heard a prosecutor argue that the judge himself corroborates our most important forensic witness ... If we allow a judge to take a role as a witness for the prosecution in this case, is it going to be a green light for judges doing it in other cases? I think the federal court has to step in.”
As Spector’s other appeal lawyer, Dennis Riordan, says, “It’s not a finger on the balance, it’s a fist.” And David Evans, a highly regarded Los Angeles criminal-defense attorney who is not involved in the Spector case, reflected that “[t]his is a profoundly important issue ... “This case is in front of a very able magistrate judge. If these concerns are not addressed in his decision, one fears for the future of the writ [of habeas corpus].”
Federal habeas corpus has been under assault, largely by Republican lawmakers, for 30 years, as part of their campaign to restrict the appeals process in general. And that’s why the outcome of Spector’s appeal may be so crucial. I would never have thought that Phil Spector would end up being a test case for a crucial protection of citizen’s rights. But as Evans told me, all sorts of key legal victories involve unlikely and sometimes unsavory characters.
Sevilla and Riordan’s appeal arguments have been made and the federalhabeas corpus magistrate judge is currently deliberating. I’ll let Phil Spector have the last word, which he sent me recently: “Hello Vikram. I’m sorry I can’t talk to you directly, but this will have to do. My comment on what happened to me at the second trial is simple: I am the only prisoner in America put here by a trial judge who was a witness for the prosecution. That’s wrong.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/03/18/phil-spector-s-last-chance.html