Court reinstates Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel's murder conviction

BY STEPHEN REX BROWN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Friday, December 30, 2016, 7:11 PM

Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel saw his murder conviction reinstated Friday — the latest twist in a sensational case spanning four decades that could return him to prison — by a divided Connecticut Supreme Court.

The 4-3 decision by the state’s highest court rejected a lower court’s ruling that Skakel’s conviction had been tainted by an ineffective lawyer.

Skakel — a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow Ethel — was convicted in 2002 of beating his teenage neighbor Martha Moxley to death with a golf club in 1975.

Skakel’s lawyer “was not deficient and thus could not have deprived (him) of a constitutionally adequate defense,” Judge Peter Zarella wrote for the majority.

Kennedy cousin tries to suppress evidence

It wasn’t immediately clear if Skakel, 56, will be sent back to prison or allowed to remain free if he appeals or asks the high court to reconsider.

His lawyer, Hubert Santos, said he was reviewing the ruling. He had no immediate comment.

Michael Skakel enters the state Supreme Court in Feb. 2016.

(JESSICA HILL/AP)
The case was an international sensation that offered a window into the troubled life of a Kennedy relative living in wealthy Greenwich.

The ruling by the state Supreme Court is only the latest twist.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. insists cousin Michael Skakel was framed

In 2003, Gitano Bryant, a former classmate of Skakel and a cousin of NBA star Kobe Bryant, came forward to say the Kennedy cousin had been wrongly convicted.

Earlier this year, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a former prosecutor, published a book, “Framed: Why Michael Skakel Spent Over a Decade in Prison for a Murder He Didn’t Commit.”

Mark Fuhrman, the former LAPD detective who investigated the O.J. Simpson murder case, took the opposite position — theorizing in “Murder in Greenwich” that Skakel had killed Moxley.

Martha Moxley, shown at age 14 in this 1974 photo, was beaten to death with a golf club in 1975.
(AP)

Dominick Dunne based his novel, “A Season in Purgatory,” on the murder.

Stasi: Ezra Zask case shows justice sides with powerful men

The majority opinion recounted much of the circumstantial evidence against Skakel. Both he and the victim were 15 years old at the time.

Prosecutors had charged Skakel was in a jealous rage after he saw Moxley — who lived across the street — flirting with his older brother, Thomas Skakel.

Moxley’s body was found on Oct. 31, 1975 face-down under a large pine tree on her family’s estate. Broken pieces of a golf club nearby revealed the murder weapon. The club had broken apart during the beating and part of its shaft was used to stab Moxley.

Prosecutors lacked forensic evidence 27 years after the crime so they called witnesses who had attended a Maine substance abuse treatment center with Skakel a few years after the murder.

One resident of the center, Dorothy Rogers, testified that Skakel told her “his family had sent him to the school because they were afraid he had committed the murder and wanted him away from the investigation,” the decision read.

Another resident, Gregory Coleman, said Skakel “confided in him while they were at the school that he had killed a girl with a golf club in a wooded area, that the golf club broke apart during the attack, and that he had returned to the scene later and masturbated over the girl’s body.”

A third resident, Elizabeth Arnold, recalled Skakel saying in a group therapy session he “was very drunk and had some sort of black-out” the night of murder.

Prosecutors also introduced evidence Skakel told people after leaving the treatment center that he’d sneaked out of his house, climbed a tree on Moxley’s property and pleasured himself “while watching the victim through her bedroom window,” the ruling read.

That account contradicted statements Skakel had made to police that he’d stayed inside his home that night.

A jury found Skakel guilty and he was sentenced to 20 years-to-life in prison.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is Michael Skakel’s cousin.
(JESSICA HILL/AP)

After the verdict, Bryant came forward to say he was with two friends from the Bronx the night of the murder and that one of them had picked up Skakel’s golf clubs from his yard and declared they wanted to attack a girl “caveman style.”

Bryant said he left his friends and later learned of the slaying. That revelation did not result in a new trial.

The U.S. Supreme Court also refused to hear an appeal of Skakel’s case.

Skakel prevailed in state court in 2013 on the basis that his trial lawyer, Michael Sherman, failed to pursue an alibi or focus on his older brother as a possible suspect.

A judge freed him on $1.2 million bail and granted him a new trial.

A 1975 photo of Michael Skakel's family home.
(AP)

In a withering dissent, Justice Richard Palmer wrote that the lower court’s ruling had been sound. He said Skakel’s attorney had been “manifestly incompetent and prejudicial” handling an alibi defense.

“This court shirks its responsibility ... by upholding a guilty verdict reached only after a trial literally riddled with highly prejudicial attorney incompetence,” Palmer wrote, adding that he hoped Skakel would have better luck in federal court.

Skakel’s attorney told The Hartford Courant he had 10 days to file a petition asking the state Supreme Court to reconsider its decision. He can also seek to reopen a federal suit related to the trial.

Moxley’s brother, John Moxley, said he was “a little shocked” by the ruling.

“I think it’s the right decision,” he said. “It’s going to take a while to sink in, but I hope this is the end of it.”

The Daily News covered Skakel’s guilty verdict in 2008.


Moxley’s mother, Dorothy Moxley, agreed.

“This is the way it should be. I am very, very happy. It is sinking in, and I could not be more excited, more pleased,” she said.

Palmer lamented that ample publicity had not shed more light on the murder.

“This tragic case has given rise to numerous investigations, suspects, petitions, hearings, appeals — as well as many articles, books, documentaries, and movies — and, of course, the trial that is the subject of this appeal. Unfortunately, none has brought any real closure or clarity to the case,” Palmer wrote.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.2929066