The district attorney’s office announced it will seek to retry Spector.

“I know the inability to reach a decision is controversial to most,” the jury foreman said later. “Even on the jury there’s deep regret that we were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.”

The foreman would not say which way he voted. He was among three jurors who agreed to speak to reporters at the courthouse but did not give their names. The other two said they voted for guilt.

The mistrial came after months of trial that left jurors having to decide who pulled the trigger of a revolver – with no fingerprints – that went off in Clarkson’s mouth about 5 a.m. on Feb. 3, 2003.

The jury had met for about 44 hours over 12 days since getting the case on Sept. 10.

After the initial deadlock, the judge withdrew one instruction that he decided misstated the law and he gave a controversial new one that gave examples of inferences the jury could draw from the evidence, including the possibility that Spector forced Clarkson to place the gun in her own mouth and it went off.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler polled the jury and each member agreed that a unanimous decision was not possible.

“At this time, I will find that the jury is unable to arrive at a verdict and declare a mistrial in this matter,” the judge said.

District Attorney Steve Cooley said prosecutors were disappointed.

“We will seek the court’s permission to retry the case and begin immediately to prepare for a retrial,” Cooley said in a statement.

A hearing was set for Oct. 3.

“We will not rest until justice is done,” said John C. Taylor, a lawyer for Clarkson’s family.

Spector and his wife, Rachelle, left the courthouse shortly after the mistrial.

Proscutors charged Spector under an implied-malice, second-degree murder theory that did not require premeditation or intent.

They called women from his past who claimed he threatened them with guns when they tried to leave his presence, and a chauffeur who testified that on the fateful morning Spector came out of his home with a gun in hand and said, “I think I killed somebody,” while Clarkson’s body sat slumped in a foyer chair behind him.

The defense countered with a scientific case, suggesting Spector did not fire the gun and offering forensic evidence that she killed herself either intentionally or by accident. Gunshot residue on her hands, blood spatter on his coat and the trajectory of the bullet were the subjects of weeks of testimony from experts.

Spector, 67, rose to fame in the 1960s with the “Wall of Sound” recording technique that changed pop music.

Clarkson was best known for her role in Roger Corman’s 1985 cult film Barbarian Queen.

Their life stories reflected opposite sides of the pop culture landscape.

The breadth of Spector’s contributions to popular music in the 1960s and early 1970s was astounding. Early in his career, he produced hits like “He’s a Rebel” and “Be My Baby” that made pop stars of such groups as the Crystals and the Ronettes.

Later, after the Beatles shelved the tapes from some of their last recording sessions, he turned them into their final album, 1970’s Let it Be. From there, he went on to produce critically acclaimed solo albums by the former

Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison. He also co-wrote and produced the Ben E. King standard “Spanish Harlem” and the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” cited by BMI as the most played song in the history of American radio.

But by the time he met Clarkson, the music industry wunderkind who struck it rich in his teens and changed the face of pop music had aged into an eccentric millionaire recluse with a castle home in the suburbs.

Clarkson, 40, was an ambitious dreamer, a statuesque beauty who idolized Marilyn Monroe, chased fame but was beaten down by rejection. Friends testified that she was at the end of her rope financially and humiliated by having to take the House of Blues hostess job where she met Spector.

Jurors heard of her decision to go home with Spector for a drink after the club closed at 2 a.m. Little more than three hours later, she was dead.

What happened in those three hours was never clear. Spector did not testify and prosecutors stated no motive for him to kill her other than her apparent decision to leave the house.

No prosecution forensic expert was able to place the gun in Spector’s hands. But blood spatter on his coat and in his pants pockets were analyzed by prosecution experts to suggest that showed he was the shooter.

Defense experts said he stood too far away to have shot her. Blood spatter, they said, can travel up to six feet.

The defendant’s changing appearance during the case was a reminder that this was a show business figure on trial. During pretrial, Spector arrived in a stretch Hummer, his hair frizzed out as if he had put his finger in a light socket. For trial, he adopted a blond pageboy reminiscent of the early Beatles. But his wife, who said she styled his hair, later changed it to a short, tousled and darker look.

Rachelle Spector, 27, whose Web site says she is a singer, songwriter and trombone player, married Spector nearly a year ago and was with him every day of trial.

The couple usually dressed in color-coordinated outfits. Spector wore long, foppish frock coats with vests, colorful shirts and ties. A diminutive figure, he always wore boots with high cuban-style heels. Mrs. Spector wore stiletto heels and the couple seemed to totter as they walked down the hall flanked by two bodyguards.

Jurors saw a different side of the couple when they visited Spector’s home for a court-supervised jury tour. The Spectors stood silently arm in arm, dressed in casual clothes, as jurors surveyed the scene of Clarkson’s death.

In the last days of the trial, Mrs. Spector gave a TV interview defending her husband and was scolded by the judge and told to stop talking or face contempt charges.

On Tuesday, authorities revealed they were investigating a MySpace.com posting on a “Team Spector” Web site that said “The EVIL Judge should DIE!!!!” and was signed “xoxo Chelle.” A Spector defense attorney said Mrs. Spector denied having anything to do with the posting.