The judge in the Phil Spector trial was expected today to order the deadlocked jury to resume deliberations on a verdict on murder charges against the rock producer.
But the five-month-long trial in Los Angeles remained at an impasse while lawyers for both sides and the judge debated for a second day on how to proceed.
Jury deliberations were suspended on Tuesday after the panel said it was split seven to five over a verdict, without saying which way it was leaning. The panel had been deliberating for seven days.
Spector (67), faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted of murdering actress Lana Clarkson with a gunshot through her mouth at his Los Angeles area home in February 2003.
Los Angles Superior Court judge Larry Fidler had been expected to issue new instructions to the jury today aimed at breaking the deadlock. Judge Fidler has rejected several defence requests to declare a mistrial.
The judge intends to withdrew a jury instruction - seen as central to the defence case - that said the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Spector pointed a gun at Clarkson and the gun ended up inside her mouth while in Spector's hand for them to find him guilty.
Jurors have reported confusion over the instruction and Judge Fidler said it "misstates the law." He said jurors are not required to accept the prosecution's theory about how a crime might have been committed in order to convict or acquit a defendant.
But in a hearing outside the jury's presence, the judge and lawyers were unable today to agree on the wording of the new instruction.
The defence has argued that the 40-year-old actress, who was working as a nightclub hostess when she met Spector, was depressed over her career and finances and shot herself in the mouth, either deliberately or by accident.
Prosecutors said during the trial that even if the gun went off mistakenly while in his hands, Spector could be convicted of murder because his actions showed a conscious disregard for human life.
Spector, who did not testify in his defence, is famous for pioneering the "Wall of Sound" recording technique in the 1960s and for his work with The Beatles, The Ronettes, Tina Turner and Cher.