The New York Times/Rick Rojas: Connecticut Court Reverses Murder Conviction of Michael Skakel

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Connecticut Court Reverses Murder Conviction of Michael Skakel

By RICK ROJAS MAY 4, 2018
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The Connecticut Supreme Court on Friday vacated the conviction of Michael Skakel, who had been found guilty of murdering his neighbor with a golf club in 1975. Credit George Etheredge/The New York Times

The Connecticut Supreme Court, in a surprising reversal of its own decision less than two years ago, ruled on Friday to vacate the conviction of Michael C. Skakel, who had been found guilty of bludgeoning his neighbor with a golf club in 1975.

The ruling is not only the latest of the many twists in a legal battle that has been drawn out over decades, but could stand as the conclusion of a case that has attracted the attention of tabloids and television newsmagazines with its blend of a cold-case murder with celebrity and wealth.

Mr. Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, had been convicted in 2002 of killing Martha Moxley, a 15-year-old in his Greenwich, Conn., neighborhood. Mr. Skakel, also 15 at the time of the killing, was not arrested until he was in his late 30s. He was convicted after a three-week trial that brought to light details including his drinking and drug use.

He had initially been sentenced to 20 years to life for murder. He spent more than a decade behind bars before he was released in 2013, when a judge vacated his original sentence after finding that his lawyer had not provided effective representation. In a 2016 decision, the Supreme Court ruled to reinstate the conviction, disagreeing with the lower-court judge’s finding. Prosecutors will now have to decide whether they will try the case again.

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The grisly crime in one of the most affluent suburbs in the country — Ms. Moxley was found lying facedown under a pine tree on her family’s estate — led to years of police investigation, Hollywood movies and books that capitalized on the case’s link to the Kennedy family.

One of Mr. Skakel’s most vigorous defenders has been his cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former prosecutor and environmental lawyer who, in a book published two years ago, explored what he said was a botched police investigation and prosecutorial misbehavior and offered alternative theories about who killed Ms. Moxley.
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A central character in the case has been Michael Sherman, a celebrity lawyer whose defense of Mr. Skakel has been the subject of intense scrutiny and was key in Mr. Skakel’s quest to be cleared of the killing.

Mr. Sherman’s strategy at the trial included trying to establish an alibi showing that Mr. Skakel was at a cousin’s house watching Monty Python at the time of the killing, and presenting evidence that the Moxley family’s live-in tutor might have committed the crime.

A new legal team for Mr. Skakel argued before the state’s highest court that Mr. Sherman had failed to adequately pursue an alibi defense; failed to rebut the testimony of some former schoolmates who said that Mr. Skakel had admitted to the killing; and failed to implicate his brother, Thomas Skakel, in the murder, one of their main arguments at trial. In subsequent arguments, Mr. Skakel’s lawyers also attacked Mr. Sherman for delivering a poor closing argument and for having a conflict of interest in representing him related to how he billed Mr. Skakel.
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Related Coverage

    Timeline of the Michael Skakel-Martha Moxley Case DEC. 30, 2016
    Michael Skakel’s Murder Conviction Has Been Reinstated DEC. 30, 2016

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