CT - Michael Skakel & the murder of Martha Moxley, Greenwich, 1975 *Not Guilty*

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Have any of you listened to the tape Michael Skakel made for the ghost writer of his proposed book? He says he had a crush on Martha, that he wanted to kiss her that night, that he went over to her house because he decided to "be bold" and "get a kiss" from her. Then he claimed he climbed a tree and masturbated outside her window, and that as he was leaving, he sensed someone at the murder scene. This was all told many years after the fact. If he was innocent and didn't have reason to believe he'd been seen or that he had left some sort of physical evidence behind that needed to be explained, why would he decide to tell that story, even if true, so many years after the fact? It strikes me as very suspicious.

I also wonder why he wasn't telling everyone that he thought his brother might be guilty if he knew he himself didn't kill Martha? It's one thing to stay silent when your brother is the suspect and you think he may be guilty. It's entirely another to sit in jail and do time for a murder that many people suspect your brother committed. I think Michael would have to be pretty sure his brother didn't do it to endure incarceration instead of at least wondering aloud in the press about alternative theories involving his brother.
 
Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel poised for freedom in 1975 killing while he awaits new trial
Thursday’s hearing is expected to focus on the terms and conditions of his release from prison.

The ruling caught Moxley’s family by surprise after a decade of unsuccessful appeals by Skakel’s attorneys. Moxley’s 81-year-old mother, Dorthy, is resigned to Skakel being released.

“If he gets out on bail, he gets out on bail,” Mrs. Moxley said, noting Skakel has a good prison record. “I just think he ought to serve his punishment. There’s no doubt in my mind that he did it. A little justice for Martha is not asking a lot.”
Click to expand...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...9d30f8-51fb-11e3-9ee6-2580086d8254_story.html
 
After 11 years in jail for murder, Kennedy cousin freed on bail

STAMFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel was freed on bail on Thursday by a Stamford Superior Court judge, after spending the last 11 years in prison for the 1975 murder of a teenage neighbor in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Judge Gary White set Skakel's bail at $1.2 million and told him not to leave the state of Connecticut and to wear a GPS tracking device while out on bail. Applause broke out in the packed courtroom as White made his ruling.

http://kfgo.com/news/articles/2013/...murder-kennedy-cousin-could-be-freed-on-bail/
 
Family’s Tenacity and Wealth Put Skakel at Cusp of Freedom

They hired expensive lawyers, private investigators and expert witnesses, one at $250 an hour. They fired Mickey Sherman, the defense lawyer who failed to win his case in 2002, and hired Hubert J. Santos, a prominent Hartford lawyer. They brought in Theodore B. Olson, a solicitor general of the United States under President George W. Bush, to petition the Supreme Court. They tracked down witnesses in Tampa, Fla., and Spain. They hired lawyers to mount an offensive on news organizations that broadcast misinformation about Mr. Skakel and sued the celebrity news personality Nancy Grace for libel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/20/n...kel-at-cusp-of-freedom.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0
 
I haven't followed this case here at WS, so admittedly I don't know all the details, but didn't he mount other appeals prior to the ineffectual counsel appeal that led to this? My point being, if ineffectual counsel was so apparent wouldn't it have been their first "line of defense?" Isn't this claim typically the Hail Mary move when nothing else has worked. I just find it inconceivable that this was granted when such a high-powered, prominent attorney was employed for the defense????!!!!
 
Just received email alert from local (Detroit) TV station:

Michael Skakel free on bail

Skakel awaits new trial

Author: By Leigh Remizowski and Ray Sanchez CNN

Published On: Nov 21 2013 10:22:54 AM EST Updated On: Nov 21 2013 02:26:37 PM EST

(CNN) -
Michael Skakel, a Kennedy relative convicted of the 1975 murder of a 15-year-old neighbor, Thursday walked out of a Connecticut courthouse a free man.

A Connecticut judge set bail at $1.2 million for Skakel, whose murder conviction in the death of Martha Moxley was vacated last month after a judge decided he did not receive adequate representation in his 2002 trial...

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...ail/-/1719418/23086072/-/5itjigz/-/index.html
 
Can't bear it. I believe he will be found just as guilty. I feel so awful for Martha's family that I cannot even write about it; not yet.
 
Cherry said:
Can't bear it. I believe he will be found just as guilty. I feel so awful for Martha's family that I cannot even write about it; not yet.
Click to expand...

Don't be so sure that he will be found guilty again-I would bet money that he won't
 
Don't miss a great show at 8 PM Eastern tonight (Sunday) on Tricia's True Crime Radio.

Sheryl McCollum will discuss the latest in the continuing saga that is George Zimmerman and Cathy from CourtChatter.com will join in and discuss Michael Skakel.

Click here to listen live tonight (Sunday) 8 PM Eastern
 
Don't miss a great show at 8 PM Eastern tonight (Sunday) on Tricia's True Crime Radio.

Sheryl McCollum will discuss the latest in the continuing saga that is George Zimmerman and Cathy from CourtChatter.com will join in and discuss Michael Skakel.

Click here to listen live tonight (Sunday) 8 PM Eastern
 
neesaki said:
Does anyone know if there has ever been any explanation as to why Skakel was tried as an adult when he was only 15 at the time of the murder? TIA
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Because:

1. In Connecticut they can decide to charge a juvenile as an adult if the crime is particularly heinous, i.e. murder, rape.

2. When his case was reviewed, it was decided that since the juvenile court was meant to keep teenaged offenders out of the hard-core prison system, Michaels age at time of trial (40), rendered this consideration non-applicable.

I don't have link, that is from my memory file :drumroll:
 
Another good book is "Greentown" by Timothy Dumas.

I honestly thought reasonable doubt existed in Michael's trial unless there was more presented than I'm aware of. I did, however, find the fact that Michael put himself at the crime scene to be pretty compelling. Tommy suddenly changing his story was also suspicious.

I wonder if Martha wasn't even the target. Geoffrey Byrne was chased on his way home that night. It scared him very, very badly. I wonder if someone was out to do harm and Martha just happened to be available. Not that that makes it any easier on her family.
 
I just finished "Conviction" by Len Levitt. I had no idea there was so much evidence against Michael. He just couldn't shut up about it. I now believe the conviction was just.
 
epiphany said:
RFK, Jr. certainly is:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer and cousin of Mr. Skakel’s who helped develop new evidence after Mr. Skakel was convicted, said he was happy with the decision. “A first-year law student from any of my classes would have done a better job than Mickey Sherman, who’s a very likable guy but was clearly interested — his ambition was to be a television lawyer and he thought this trial was going to be his ticket to that career,” he said. “He told a bar association meeting that he intended to have a lot of fun at that trial.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/n...in-75-killing-of-teenager-in-connecticut.html
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Ya know, it's such a shame that poor, poor Michael ended up with this apparently not-so-hot lawyer. I guess Sherman was court-appointed, right?!? [D'oh] Musta been. <choke>

If the Skakels could have gotten the lawyer they wanted <gag> I guess they would have gotten a good one the first time. Such a shame for MS.

Have you evah?? And the thing got o'turned for that? And they should've pointed to his older brother a little more (quoted in a previous post). Yes, indeed, pure incompetence. Again, as I said in the Ramsey case about 12,000 (or maybe less) times, $$ talks, everything else walks. Grrrrrr.
 
Yeah... that fact does need to be suppressed for him to have a chance. Which he should not IMO.
 
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