Kennedy nephew gets 20 years for 70s murder

Kennedy nephew Michael Skakel was jailed for 20 years to life today for murdering the girl next door in 1975 when they were 15-year-old neighbours.

Skakel - who wept while professing his innocence - stood firm as the judge in Norwalk, Connecticut, imposed the sentence.

It came on the second day of Skakel’s sentencing hearing.

The 41-year-old nephew of Ethel Kennedy, widow of the late Senator Bobby Kennedy, was convicted in June of beating Martha Moxley to death with a golf club.

Martha’s body was found on the lawn of her parents’ home in a wealthy Greenwich neighbourhood.

She had been beaten with a golf club that investigators matched to a set belonging to Skakel’s mother.

Judge John Kavanewsky rejected motions by Skakel’s lawyers who claimed they were hamstrung by the prosecution’s failure to turn over a police sketch during the trial.

Kavanewsky also rejected defence claims that the prosecution inflamed the jury by using an audio-video presentation that included photos of Martha’s autopsy and Skakel’s voice on a tape describing his actions on the night she was killed.

Skakel’s lawyers had filed more than 100 pages of documents on Tuesday, including letters from supporters such as Robert F Kennedy Jr.

The defence said Skakel was abused by his father and nannies but had overcome a difficult upbringing to lead an exemplary life and should receive leniency.

“During his short life, Michael has endured unusual suffering,” Kennedy wrote.

“He was a small, sensitive child – the runt of the litter with a harsh and occasionally violent alcoholic father who both ignored and abused him.”

The sentence means Skakel will serve a minimum 20 years in prison.