Kennedy cousin murder conviction upheld

A US Supreme Court has unanimously upheld Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel’s murder conviction, more than 30 years after a killing that sparked decades of intrigue.

Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, was convicted in 2002 of bludgeoning his neighbour, Martha Moxley, to death with a golf club in 1975 in wealthy Greenwich.

Skakel, who, like with the victim, was aged 15 at the time, is serving 20 years to life in prison.

He appealed against his conviction to the Connecticut Supreme Court last year, arguing among other things that the statute of limitations had expired when he was charged in 2000.

“We’re of course very pleased,” said Bridgeport State’s Attorney Jonathan Benedict. “We felt it was a very clean trial. It’s just a great relief to have this behind us.”

Michael Sherman, Skakel’s trial lawyer, said he was surprised.

“Nothing will ever change my opinion that an innocent man is in jail,” he said.

Skakel’s solicitor, Hope Seeley, issued a statement saying she would ask the court to reconsider, adding that the decision overturned a 25-year-old precedent on the statute of limitations.

Skakel’s family called the ruling a “grave injustice”.

“Our brother Michael has been branded a killer for a crime he did not commit,” the family said in a statement. “We believe 100% in Michael’s innocence. The real killer has escaped justice and lives freely. We will not give up until justice is served and Michael is freed.”

Dorothy Moxley, Martha’s mother, said: “I’m not at all doubtful Michael did this. I know he did this. I hope this is the last we’ll hear of them.”

The crime has long generated suspicions of a powerful family cover-up. Skakel’s older brother Thomas was an early suspect because he was the last person to be seen with Moxley, but investigators later focused on Michael because of reports of incriminating statements he had made over the years.

Some of Michael Skakel’s friends and classmates testified that he was romantically interested in Moxley and jealous because Thomas was competing for her affections.

Skakel still has a petition for a new trial pending in Stamford Superior Court. In that appeal, the cousin of basketball star Kobe Bryant implicates two other men in the murder. Prosecutors have said they are sceptical of that claim.

The Supreme Court rejected assertions that incriminating statements Skakel made at a Maine reform school he attended in the late 1970s were coerced.

Also rejected were several defence allegations of misconduct by the prosecution. In one instance, where the prosecution called Skakel a “spoiled brat”, the judges said prosecutors had crossed a line but added that the remark was harmless.