NEW YORK – Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel will ask the Supreme Court to overturn his murder conviction for the 1975 slaying of Connecticut teenager Martha Moxley, his lawyer said Tuesday.
The nephew of Ethel Skakel Kennedy was sentenced to 20 years to life in 2002 after a Norwalk, Conn., jury found him guilty of slamming Moxley repeatedly in the head with a golf club after she rejected his advances. Both were 15.
Skakel’s lawyer, Hope Seeley, said she was disappointed with the Connecticut Supreme Court’s decision not to reconsider its prior ruling in which it declined to overturn the conviction.
Seeley had argued that the statute of limitations was expired at the time Skakel was arrested for the crime in 2000. She said the court overruled a 23-year-old precedent set with another case to reach that decision.
“Michael Skakel is innocent and we will fight his wrongful conviction and incarceration,” Seeley said.
Moxley’s mother, Dorthy Moxley, who waged a public battle to get justice for Martha, said she doesn’t think the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Skakel’s case.
“I feel he’s very guilty and that he was represented very well,” Moxley said.
Skakel’s trial attorney, Mickey Sherman, said he hopes the court agrees to hear the case because he is confident Skakel is innocent.
“I am convinced of it – I have always been convinced of it,” Sherman said. He said Seeley’s additional appeal arguments that he didn’t provide effective assistance of counsel are necessary.
“It’s not about me. They (Skakel and his lawyer) have to do whatever they think is appropriate, and more power to them,” Sherman said.
The country’s highest court agrees to hear just 5 percent of the cases it is asked to review.
Comments are no longer available on this story