Spector's lawyers argued that the judge undercut his admonition by allowing prosecutors to use the word "pattern" more than 40 times in their summations to describe the producer's conduct with women and guns.

"Asserting that a defendant has a 'pattern' of violent conduct is indistinguishable from arguing that he or she has a propensity or character trait for violence," wrote lawyers Dennis Riordan, Donald Horgan and Charles Sevilla.

Other grounds in the 148 page brief focused on the judge, Larry Paul Fidler. One allegation:

Fidler allowed prosecutors to show jurors a videotape of a hearing on which the judge interpreted the action of a forensic witness testifying about the position of blood spatter by resolving a conflict over where a blood spot was located, Spector's lawyers wrote.

"Under California law, a judge may not offer evidence in a trial over which he presides," said the appeal. Spector's lawyers say they could not cross-examine Fidler on what prosecutors say was the case's most crucial issue: Who pulled the gun's trigger.

The brief also argues prosecutorial misconduct:

The appeal also says prosecutors made "vituperative attacks on the integrity of defense counsel and the expert witnesses...passed over the line separating aggressive advocacy from prosecutorial misconduct." Prosecutors accused defense counsel of paying its expert witnesses to lie.

Deputy District attorney Alan Jackson made this statement in his final argument, the appeal says: "How does homicide become a suicide? Just write a big fa