Michael Skakel

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Michael Skakel, born September 19, 1960, was convicted in 2002 for the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley. Skakel's father is the brother of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel.

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[edit] Prosecution for murder

Martha Moxley was found dead on October 31, 1975 on her family's property in Greenwich, Connecticut, after having been bludgeoned with a golf club, a 6-iron soon determined to belong to the Skakels. Initially, the murder remained unsolved, though a cloud of suspicion hung over the Skakel home. Ken Littleton also became a prime suspect. When William Kennedy Smith was tried for rape in 1991, information surfaced that he knew more about the Moxley case, resulting in renewed investigation to the then, "cold case". In 1993 author Dominick Dunne, father of murdered actress Dominique Dunne, published A Season in Purgatory, a fictional story loosely based on the murder of Martha Moxley. Mark Fuhrman's 1998 book Murder in Greenwich named Skakel as the murderer and pointed out numerous mistakes the police had made in investigating the crime. During the years before the Dunne and Fuhrman books, work had been done by Greenwich Police detective Frank Garr and police reporter Leonard Levitt, that named Michael as the killer.

[edit] Trial

In June of 1998 a rarely invoked one-man Grand Jury was convened, and after 18 months (in June of 2000) Michael Skakel was indicted for the murder of Martha Moxley. In a highly publicized trial, Skakel was convicted for the murder of Martha Moxley on June 7, 2002, and received a sentence of 20 years to life in prison. Skakel's alibi was that at the time of the murder he was at his cousin's house. The jury also heard part of a taped book proposal, in which Skakel admitted to masturbating in a tree that night, but not to killing Moxley. Prosecutors took words from this proposal and overlayed them on graphic images of Martha Moxley's dead body in a computerized presentation shown to jurors during closing arguments. Skakel's defense insists that his words were taken out of context.

In January of 2003, attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Skakel's cousin, wrote a controversial article in The Atlantic Monthly entitled "A Miscarriage of Justice," insisting that Skakel's indictment "was triggered by an inflamed media, and that an innocent man is now in prison". He presents an argument alleging that there is more evidence suggesting that then-twenty-three year old Skakel family live-in tutor, Ken Littleton, killed Moxley. He also credits the pursuit of Skakel to Dominick Dunne.

[edit] Appeal and post-conviction proceedings

Skakel continues to fight his conviction. In November of 2003, Skakel appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court, arguing that the trial court erred because the case should have been heard in Juvenile Court rather than Superior Court, that the statute of limitations had expired on the charges against him, and that there was prosecutorial misconduct. On January 12, 2006, however, the Connecticut Supreme Court rejected Skakel's claims and affirmed his conviction. Subsequently, Skakel retained attorney and former United States Solicitor General Theodore Olson, who on July 12, 2006 filed a petition for a writ of certiorari on behalf of Skakel before the Supreme Court of the United States. On November 13, 2006, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.[1]

Since then, Skakel has begun his first round of post-conviction proceedings, beginning with a petition for writ of habeas corpus and motion for new trial in the Connecticut trial court which originally heard his case. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has brought forth Gitano "Tony" Bryant, cousin of Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant and a former classmate of Skakel at the private Brunswick School in Greenwich, Connecticut. In a videotaped interview with Skakel private investigator Vito Colucci in August of 2003, Bryant said one of his companions the night of Moxley's murder wanted to "go caveman" on her, meaning violently have his way with her. Bryant says he never came forward before because his mother warned him, and he believed her, that as a black man he would be tagged for the unsolved murder. A two week hearing in April of 2007 allowed the presentation of this hearsay evidence, among other matters.[2] And in September of 2007, Skakel's attorneys filed a petition based in part on Bryant's claims, asking for a new trial. Prosecutors formally responded that Bryant may have made up the story to sell a play about the case.[3]

The new Skakel defense team also hired a full time round-the-clock investigative team to review existing and new information--particularly a book written about Elan School --in preparation for the hearing. They argued that no other Elan School residents with Skakel--other than Gregory Coleman--ever spoke about Skakel's confession to anyone including author of the book.

On 25 October 2007, a Superior Court judge denied the request for a new trial, saying Bryant's testimony was not credible and there was no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct in the original trial. Skakel's lawyer indicated she would appeal this decision.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Skakel Murder Conviction Left Intact by U.S. Supreme Court," Bloomberg, November 13, 2006
  2. ^ "Skakel Heads Back To Court," Hartford Courant, April 17, 2007
  3. ^ "Attorneys spar over Skakel's trial bid," John Christoffersen, Associated Press, September 14, 2007
  4. ^ Christoffersen, John (October 25, 2007). Attorney: Judge denies Skakel's bid for a new trial. Associated Press.

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