Robert Blake's lawyers say jurors should learn all about the wife he is charged with killing, the two men who say he tried to hire them to do it, and a failed effort by police to prove that motor oil was used to obliterate fingerprints on the murder weapon.
Defense lawyers do not wants jurors, however, to hear anything about trouble in Blake's first marriage, recordings of phone conversations he had, and journals Blake made during three decades of therapy in which he described his father's abuse and his hatred of his mother.
These issues form the core of pretrial hearings that will be held in California next week in advance of jury selection Feb. 17.
Details here from CourtTV via Findlaw.com.
UPDATE (3/16/05): Blake acquited of 1st degree muder and one charge of soliciting murder. (Jury deadlocked on second soliciation charge, which the judge then dismissed.) Details here.