The judge in Phil Spector's murder trial has said he plans to withdraw an instruction given to the jury because he says it misreads US law.
Jurors will be told they now no longer have to conclude that Mr Spector held a gun to Lana Clarkson's mouth before the weapon fired to find him guilty.
The 12-member jury is split 7-5 at Los Angeles Superior Court.
Mr Spector, 67, denies killing the actress at his home in February 2003. The defence says she killed herself.
The jurors told Judge Larry Paul Fidler on Tuesday that they had reached an impasse. He sent them home early on Wednesday and told them to return on Thursday.
The judge had offered the defence an opportunity to reargue their case, but Mr Spector's lawyers said they did not want to give the prosecution the chance to argue a new theory.
Another option - to give the jury the option of finding Mr Spector guilty of the lesser crime of involuntary manslaughter - was rejected in case it was seen as telling the jurors what to do.
Judge Fidler came to his decision after interviewing the jurors.
'High risk'
Lawyer Harland Braun, who is not involved with the case, but has worked with high profile clients, said the move "sort of takes your breath away".
"I've never heard of withdrawing an instruction after deliberations started," he told Associated Press.
Law professor Laurie Levenson called the plan a "high risk move".
She told AP that jury instructions were "the tea leaves jurors read in reaching their verdicts".
"It would have been proper not to give the instruction in the first place," Ms Levenson said.
"It's more problematic to withdraw it. He may be doing it to get a verdict, but the irony is if there's a conviction, we may be trying this case again after it gets to the appellate [appeal] court."
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