Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said jurors who acquitted actor Robert Blake of his wife’s murder are “incredibly stupid” and insisted his office put on a good case, the Los Angeles Times reports. “Quite frankly, based on my review of the evidence, he is as guilty as sin. He is a miserable human being,” he said. Cooley believes the case showed that prosecuting celebrities in L.A. is very difficult. “To hear him say we aren’t a smart jury is sour grapes,” Blake juror Chuck Safko said. “They didn’t have a good case. Their case was built around witnesses who weren’t truthful.” Laurie Levenson, a professor of criminal law at Loyola Law School, said that, “To criticize the jurors is unprofessional. It is unbelievable.
Regarding his next celebrity trial–music producer Phil Spector on a murder charge–Cooley said prosecutors must make sure jurors know the real Spector. “They think they know these celebrities. They think they know Robert Blake. They think they know Phil Spector,” Cooley said. The jury will hear about Spector’s lifestyle of “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.”
Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cooley24mar24,1,7098600.story?coll=la-headlines-california