# High court won't review Skakel verdict



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday let stand the murder conviction of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, who is serving a prison term of at least 20 years.

The justices declined, without comment, to take Skakel's appeal of his conviction in the beating death of his Greenwich, Conn., neighbor, Martha Moxley, 31 years ago when the two were teenagers. Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, was convicted in 2002.
Now 46, Skakel is serving 20 years to life in prison.
Skakel's lawyer, former Solicitor General Theodore Olson, had argued that the deadline for prosecuting Skakel passed 19 years before he was arrested in January 2000.
At the time of Moxley's killing, Connecticut had a five-year statute of limitations on murder cases that did not involve the death penalty. One year later, in 1976, the state legislature removed the five-year deadline in such cases.
The Connecticut Supreme Court upheld Skakel's conviction, overturning its earlier holding that the new law did not apply to crimes committed before its enactment. The legislature intended to remove the deadline for prosecution for all crimes, like Moxley's killing, for which the statute of limitations had not yet expired, the state court said.
Olson said the state court was wrong and that applying the new law to this case violated Skakel's constitutional rights.
Authorities say Skakel beat Moxley to death with a golf club. They also accused Skakel's wealthy family of a cover-up to thwart his prosecution.
Some of Skakel's friends and classmates testified that he was romantically interested in Moxley and was jealous because his older brother was competing for her affections.
Skakel's defense also argued that prosecutors failed to hand over a police sketch that they said resembled an earlier suspect.
Separately, Skakel is seeking a new trial based on a claim by a former schoolmate that two of his friends may have killed Moxley. But the man, Gitano "Tony" Bryant, has since refused to testify at upcoming hearings.

The case is Skakel v. Connecticut, 06-52


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Kennedy Cousin Appeals Murder Conviction*

*Lawyers Say Evidence Points To Another Suspect*

*HARTFORD, Conn. -- *Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel's lawyers have filed a new appeal of his murder conviction, claiming police and prosecutors failed to provide them with evidence that pointed to another suspect and discredited a key state witness.

The motion filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in New Haven seeks a hearing and the setting of bail. A judge has not ruled on the requests.

A state jury convicted Skakel in 2002 of killing 15-year-old Martha Moxley in their Greenwich neighborhood in 1975. He's serving 20 years to life in prison.
His new appeal alleges his lawyers were never given two crucial pieces of evidence: a report received by Greenwich police that implicates another suspect, and statements by a lawyer who said a key witness for the state had a history of lying.

Fairfield County State's Attorney Jonathan Benedict, who prosecuted Skakel, declined to comment on the new court filing Friday. He said he hadn't seen the motion and will respond to the claims later in court.

The state Supreme Court upheld Skakel's conviction in January 2006, rejecting defense arguments including claims that Skakel was charged long after the statute of limitations in effect in 1975 expired, and that his case should have been tried in Juvenile Court.

Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, was also 15 at the time of Moxley's killing.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case in November 2006, but Skakel has several other appeal claims pending in state and federal courts.

Two other men have been implicated in Moxley's killing, but a state judge rejected that allegation last year when he turned down Skakel's request for a new trial.

Skakel's Hartford-based lawyers, Hubert Santos and Hope Seeley, say in the new motion that a Madison police officer forwarded to Greenwich police a letter from a mentally ill man's sister, who said her brother accused another man of killing Moxley.

The sister wrote the letter to Madison police on July 19, 1993, saying she needed help for her brother and worried he was a danger to others.

She also said he had been threatening a high school friend from Greenwich and his father, and that her brother said the former friend had killed Moxley.

Only weeks later, Wilson killed the former friend's father in Greenwich. He is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence for the murder.

Skakel's lawyers say in their motion that they learned about the sister's letter only two months ago.

At Wilson's murder trial, witnesses testified that Wilson, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, had become delusional and said the victim's family ruined his life through mind control and drugging.

"It would be a surprise to me if it was accurate," Robert Skovgaard, Wilson's attorney, said of the latest claim related to the Moxley murder.

John Moxley, the victim's brother, called the latest claim "far-fetched."

"Michael Skakel is never willing to own up to the overwhelming evidence that convicted him," Moxley said.

The motion also says that a lawyer who once represented key state witness Gregory Coleman told a state prosecutor in 1998 that Coleman was an "incorrigible drug addict who would routinely lie in order to get money for drugs."

The lawyer, John Regan, whose practice is in Rochester, N.Y., contacted Skakel's lawyers in December to tell him about his conversation with the prosecutor, the motion says. The prosecutor was not named.

After Skakel's conviction, the motion says, Regan "was disturbed to see that Coleman's role as a witness had been prominent. Attorney Regan had assumed there must have been a lot of other solid evidence."

The motion says Regan learned there had been little other evidence from an Atlantic Monthly article written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Skakel's cousin.

Coleman, who attended a reform school in Maine with Skakel in the late 1970s, said at a hearing before Skakel's trial that Skakel confessed to killing Moxley and said he would get away with murder because "I'm a Kennedy."

Coleman admitted to being high on heroin during his grand jury appearance and he died in 2001 after using drugs, but his testimony was read into the record during Skakel's trial.

"These most recent discoveries of the state's failure to turn over exculpatory evidence represent yet another pattern of egregious conduct that has worked to further the injustice of the petitioner's conviction," Skakel's lawyers wrote in the motion.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/18447483/detail.html


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## BLUE BLOOD (Aug 31, 2008)

Love him or hate him, Mark Furhman wrote a great book about this case, "Murder in Greenwich".


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2009)

BLUE BLOOD said:


> Love him or hate him, Mark Furhman wrote a great book about this case, "Murder in Greenwich".


After the verdict, Martha Moxley's mother went out of her way to praise Mark Fuhrman, saying the case never would have gone forward without him, and getting choked-up in the process. Skakel himself turned to Furhman after the verdict, and said something like "This is all your fault". Fuhrman's response....."Great!".

When I visited my father when he lived in Connecticut, I'd pass by the prison where Skakel is being held, both coming and going. I always gave him the one-finger salute both times.


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Kennedy Cousin Loses Sentence Reduction Bid*

*NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- *Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel has lost his bid for a reduction in his prison sentence of 20 years to life for the 1975 beating death of a teenage neighbor.

A three-judge panel rejected Skakel's request in a decision obtained Monday by The Associated Press. The panel said there was nothing inappropriate or disproportionate about the sentence.

The panel quoted the sentencing court calling the crime serious, the effect on the victim and her family "supreme" and saying Skakel has been living a lie for 25 years.

A prosecutor declined to comment. Messages were left for Skakel's attorney, Hope Seeley.

Read more: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/30612961/detail.html#ixzz1oIPwK4pP


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, who will get his first parole hearing Wednesday, he deserves to be released from prison a decade after he was convicted of killing his neighbor because he was a victim of a miscarriage of justice and has been a model inmate, his supporters say.​​​Read more: http://www.wcvb.com/news/local/bost...onn/-/9848842/17074434/-/sj40c1z/-/index.html​


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## pahapoika (Nov 5, 2006)

must still be upset uncle teddy got away with it and he didn't


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel denied parole*

*Skakel convicted of killing neighbor*

Read more: http://www.wcvb.com/news/local/Kennedy-cousin-Michael-Skakel-denied-parole/-/9848876/17109294/-/edlqwbz/-/index.html#ixzz2AEV4aDSM


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Kennedy cousin Skakel posts bail, released from prison *

Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel got his first taste of freedom in more than 11 years while prosecutors appealed a ruling granting him a new trial in the 1975 slaying of neighbor Martha Moxley.

Read more: http://www.wcvb.com/news/local/hear...in/-/9848876/23083130/-/154h40jz/-/index.html


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## pahapoika (Nov 5, 2006)

well at least they locked up the little bastard for 11 yrs


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## BxDetSgt (Jun 1, 2012)

Inneffective counsel? WTF? If he had a bad defense every perp represented by a pubic defender should be released immediatley. What a crock!!


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## Hush (Feb 1, 2009)

Like dicks, lead, or a 9-iron.


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