LOS ANGELES – Lawyers for legendary music producer Phil Spector have asked an appellate court to throw out his second-degree murder conviction on grounds of judicial error and prosecutorial misconduct.

In an extremely detailed 148-page brief filed Wednesday, the attorneys cited multiple reasons they believe Spector was denied his right to a fair trial. They asked the California Second District Court of Appeal to reverse the jury verdict and order a new trial.

Among the issues raised was the admission of testimony from five women who claimed they were threatened by Spector with guns in years past and the prosecution's use of a videotape of the trial judge commenting on evidence in the case. They said prosecutors improperly used the women's testimony to persuade jurors to convict Spector "based on his bad character and evil propensities." They said that was impermissible under the law.

Spector, the 70-year-old rock music producer, is in prison serving a sentence of 19 years to life for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson, who was shot through the mouth in Spector's castle-like mansion seven years ago. Spector's defense team argued that the one-time star of "Barbarian Queen," was depressed and shot herself.

It took prosecutors two trials to convict Spector. The first trial ended in a jury deadlock.

In the appeal, attorney Dennis Riordan outlined errors he said were committed by Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler in both trials, calling one of the judge's actions "startling."

The appeal said that occurred when Fidler allowed prosecutors in the second trial to show jurors a videotape from a hearing held outside the presence of Spector and his jury in the first trial. On the tape, they said, the judge was seen interpreting the action of a key forensic witness testifying about the position of blood spatter on Clarkson's body.

Riordan said that in final arguments prosecutors showed side-by-side photos of the forensic witness and the judge and pointed to them as "persons who supplied crucial evidence supporting a guilty verdict."

They quoted from a transcript in which the judge resolved a conflict over where a blood spot was located. The judge later refused to exclude his own comments saying he had the right to say what he observed in court.

"Under California law, a judge may not offer evidence in a trial over which he presides," said the appeal, adding that Fidler could not be cross-examined by the defense on what the prosecution told jurors was the most crucial issue of the case -- whether blood spatter evidence showed who pulled the trigger on the gun.

"The evidence was profoundly conflicted on the one issue at the center of the case: who was holding the firearm when it discharged" the appeal said.

Riordan, a highly regarded San Francisco appellate lawyer, was joined by his partner, Donald M. Horgan and well known San Diego attorney Charles Sevilla in filing the appeal.

Among their arguments were claims that the prosecutors' inflammatory language in closing arguments and their "vituperative attacks on the integrity of defense counsel and the expert witnesses...passed over the line separating aggressive advocacy from prosecutorial misconduct."

They cited Deputy District attorney Alan Jackson's final argument in which he accused defense attorneys of soliciting untruthful testimony from expert witnesses by paying them huge fees. They called that egregious misconduct.

The appeal quoted Jackson as telling jurors: "How does homicide become a suicide? Just write a big fat check...Just go out and buy yourself a scientist."

After those comments to the jury, defense attorney Doron Weinberg moved for a mistrial claiming the remarks were prejudicial, saying Jackson was accusing him of paying people to lie.

The judge turned down the motion and commented it was "a fair inference that if you pay them enough they will say anything," the appeal said.

The appeal focused heavily on Fidler's decision to allow testimony from five women who had dated Spector in the past, some in decades before, who told of his penchant for threatening women with guns. The lawyers said the incidents they described did not meet the test of similarity to the events surrounding Clarkson's death.

"None of the...evidence involved events in which Mr. Spector put a gun in someone's mouth, much less fired it."

The appeal said the judge also improperly allowed the prosecution to assert that Spector "had a history and propensity of violence against women and thus should be convicted based on his bad character and evil propensities."

The lawyers said there was "a cumulative prejudicial impact" on jurors which "cannot be deemed harmless given the inflammatory and lurid manner in which the prosecution made use of the material in closing arguments."

They noted that Jackson and Deputy District Attorney Truc Do used the term "pattern" 40 times in closing arguments to describe Spector's behavior.

The state attorney general's office, which is to file a reply brief next month, did not return a call seeking comment.

MADRID (AFP) – Miguel Delibes, one of Spain's top novelists whose works portrayed the country's upheavals following its 1936-39 civil war, died Friday after a lengthy battle with colon cancer. He was 89.

Delibes, a former journalist whose works have been translated into some 30 languages, died at his home in the central city of Valladolid where he was born in 1920, public radio RNE reported citing his family.

"We must remember him as a good person and a great writer," Education Minister Angel Gabilondo told the radio station, adding the author had a "passion" for writing.

Delibes was operated on for colon cancer in 1998 shortly after he published his last novel "El Hereje" ("The Heretic"), an international bestseller that follows the life of a boy born on the day the Protestant reformation began.

"I am forgetting what I wrote. The same day that I submitted 'The Heretic' to publishers I was diagnosed with colon cancer. Since then the only thing I have dealt with has been my health," the online edition of daily newspaper El Mundo quoted him as saying at the time.

A prolific writer who published about 70 books including novels, short stories and collections of articles, essays and travel chronicles, he received Spain's highest honour for literature, the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, in 1993.

His works often depicted the harsh realities of rural life and his early journalism work was censored because of this by the right-wing dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Delibes had been "the austere voice of a country plunged into silence" in a telegram sent to the author's family.

One of his most popular works is "Cinco Horas con Mario" (Five Hours with Mario), published in 1966, in which a widow watches over the body of her husband in a provincial town and recalls their life together.

Another popular novel, "Los Santos Inocentes" ("The Innocent Saints"), published in 1981, depicts the extreme poverty and feudal conditions experienced by peasants living under a wealthy landowner in Spain.

The novel was one of about a dozen which he wrote which have been adapted for cinema.

Late Spanish actor Francisco Rabal won the award for best actor at the Cannes film festival in 1984 for his portrayal of the main character in the movie version of "The Innocent Saints" by Spanish director Mario Camus.

Throughout his life Delibes defended nature and the simple values of rural life as well as individual liberties during Franco's 1939-75 dictatorship.

Born into a bourgeois family, his father was a university professor and his grandfather was a nephew of the French composer Leo Delibes.

He studied law and commerce and worked in banking before becoming a journalist at a regional daily newspaper, El Norte de Castilla.

Delibes became the paper's director in 1958 but resigned from the post five years later after he became a victim of censorship for exposing the harsh conditions of life and work of rural peasants.

He loved hunting and fishing, passions reflected in his work, especially in "The Diary of a Hunter".

Delibes is survived by his wife and seven children.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – Winnie Madikizela-Mandela on Friday said she never granted an interview to a journalist who quoted her in a British newspaper as saying her ex-husband Nelson Mandela had "let down" the blacks.

"I did not give Naipaul an interview. It is therefore not necessary for me to respond in any detail to the contents of a fabricated interview," Madikizela-Mandela said in a statement, referring to Nadira Naipaul, the wife of acclaimed novelist V.S. Naipaul.

"I will in the coming days deal with what I see as an inexplicable attempt to undermine the unity of my family, the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the high regard with which the name Mandela is held here and across the globe," she said.

However local media said Madikizela-Mandela spoke to Naipaul but was unaware the conversation was an interview.

Her scathing comments about the internationally respected statesman were reported in the London Evening Standard this week where she was quoted as saying: "Mandela let us down. He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks."

"Economically, we are still on the outside. The economy is very much 'white'. It has a few token blacks, but so many who gave their life in the struggle have died unrewarded," the 73-year-old said in the paper.

"This name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family," she said.

Madikizela-Mandela who was currently in United States said it was not necessary for her to respond "in any detail to the contents of a fabricated interview."

Madikizela-Mandela said she had spoken to Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was also in the US, after the interview in which she was quoted as calling him a "cretin" and dismissing South Africa's much-lauded Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which he headed, as a "charade".

Madikizela-Mandela campaigned tirelessly for her husband's release during his 27-year imprisonment under white-minority apartheid rule. He was released 20 years ago.

However her image was tarnished by a series of scandals including a kidnapping and her assault conviction over the killing of a young activist, and a 2003 conviction for fraud.

She separated from Nelson Mandela in 1992, two years after his release, but she remains a popular South African figure in own her own right.

NEW YORK – Madonna doesn't think a wife should withhold sex from a sloppy husband.

But she believes a wife should dispose of her late husband's prosthetic leg to spare the feelings of the wife's current mate.

This was some of Madonna's relationship advice on NBC's "The Marriage Ref," where she joined actor-comedians Larry David and Ricky Gervais as a guest panelist on Thursday's edition.

The show invites its panel of "experts" to help analyze real-life disputes between married couples, mostly for laughs. Host Tom Papa, aka The Marriage Ref, makes the final call.

In one case, Mindy Goldman was offering sexual favors to Alan, her husband of 28 years, if he would clean up their messy basement.

A good idea? "I think it's weird that she wants him to be clean so that they can be dirty," cracked Madonna.

Gervais wondered, "Could they combine the sex with the housework?"

Then Susan and David Harper, married for three years, were seen in their house squabbling over possessions left over from their past relationships. Susan wanted her husband to get rid of the sofa where David and his ex-wife might have had hanky-panky, while David complained about Susan hanging on to the ashes and prosthetic leg of Don, her late husband.

Madonna's swift solution: "He gets rid of the couch, she gets rid of the leg."

"This is easily the most uncomfortable hour I've ever spent in my life," sighed Larry David in the midst of the debate.

"Why?" Madonna retorted. "Because you're sitting next to a woman who's standing up to you?"

"The Marriage Ref," which premiered last week, has Jerry Seinfeld as a creator and producer.

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NBC is owned by The General Electric co.

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On the Net:

http://www.nbc.com

LOS ANGELES – The 22 pieces of custom-made furniture Michael Jackson commissioned for his London home are going on the auction block.

Darren Julien of Julien's Auctions says a gilded red velvet sofa that seats nine, a leopard-print chair trimmed with ostrich feathers and a pair of velvet armchairs embroidered with gold eagles are among the offerings.

Jackson intended to use the furnishings during his "This Is It" comeback concert run in London.

Fans can visit a re-creation of the home at Las Vegas' Planet Hollywood casino from June 14 to June 25 before the items are sold at auction.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit two charities: MusiCares, which provides health care and other services for struggling musicians, and Joshua's Heart, which aims to end world hunger.

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On the Net:

http://www.juliensauctions.com/

LONDON (AFP) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy described rumours about his private life as "ravings" Friday, saying he had no time to waste on them.

Sarkozy was asked about the rumours, which started on the Internet and have appeared in the mainstream British media, after talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London.

"You must be unaware what a president of the Republic's diary is like, but I don't have a second, or even half a second, to waste on these ravings," he said.

"I wonder why you use your speaking time to ask such a question," he added, rebuking the French reporter for asking "such a question."

In a press conference dominated by economic and trade policy questions, Brown added: "I've been able to tell Nicolas that I don't believe everything I read in the British press."

"I love England, don't let me bite back those words," added Sarkozy, who did not elaborate when asked again, by a British reporter, about "speculation about your marriage."

The twice-divorced French president married former top model Carla Bruni in 2008 after a whirlwind romance. The new French first lady wowed Britons when she accompanied Sarkozy on a state visit to Britain that year.