NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) – In a bid to win a new trial, attorneys for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel submitted a three-year-old videotaped interview Wednesday of a man who implicated two friends in a 1975 murder that sent Skakel to prison.

The move was aimed at compelling one of the friends to testify after he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

“It’s very powerful evidence that Michael Skakel was not involved in the homicide,” said Hubert Santos, Skakel’s attorney. “At a minimum, the jury should have been permitted to have this information if it were available.”

Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, is serving 20 years to life in prison after he was convicted of bludgeoning Martha Moxley to death with a golf club in 1975 in wealthy Greenwich. He is seeking a new trial based on a claim by Gitano “Tony” Bryant in 2003 that two of his friends may have killed Moxley.

“I think they were definitely involved,” Bryant said during the interview, sitting and speaking calmly though he said at one point he was nervous. “There is no doubt in my mind that they were involved.”

Bryant and the two men he has implicated, Adolph Hasbrouck and Burt Tinsley, have all asserted their Fifth Amendment rights.

After Bryant took the Fifth at his deposition last month, Hasbrouck’s attorney sent a letter to a Stamford Superior Court judge last week saying Skakel will not be able to win a new trial without Bryant’s testimony.

“At a minimum, it puts the cart before the horse in seeking to elicit Mr. Hasbrouck’s testimony before plaintiff can even meet his threshold obligation of demonstrating to the court that it possesses any competent evidence, let alone newly discovered evidence, suggesting that someone other than Mr. Skakel murdered Martha Moxley, ” wrote Lawrence Schoenbach, Hasbrouck’s attorney.

Schoenbach would not comment Wednesday about Bryant’s claim, except to say he was considering a libel or slander lawsuit against Bryant. Hasbrouck’s wife has called the claim a lie, while Tinsley has not returned telephone calls.

Skakel’s attorneys filed a motion Wednesday opposing Hasbrouck’s efforts to avoid testifying, saying the interview Bryant gave to Skakel’s investigator was sufficient to win a new trial.

“These developments are significant because the Bryant statements and the subsequent invocation of the Fifth Amendment privilege by all three witnesses collectively provides substantial new evidence, not heard by the jury that convicted Michael Skakel, that someone other than Michael Skakel is responsible for the murder.”

“of Martha Moxley,” Santos said.

Bryant has also said he does not plan to testify at any upcoming hearings. His attorney, Joel Denaro, would not comment on whether Bryant stands by his account. Skakel’s lawyers also expect to file a motion seeking to compel Bryant’s testimony.

Prosecutor Jonathan Benedict accused Bryant of making up the story. He said he will object to the videotaped interview being admitted as evidence without an opportunity to cross-examine Bryant.

According to Skakel’s attorneys, Bryant said he was with two friends from New York in Skakel and Moxley’s neighborhood the night she was killed. According to court papers, Bryant said one friend had met Moxley and “wanted to go caveman on her,” and that after he left them that night, they later told him, “We did what we had to do.”

Bryant said he had given the statement reluctantly after a classmate had told Skakel’s supporters about his account.

“As a teenager, I wanted to run away from this,” Bryant said during the interview. “As an adult, I tried to block it out.”

Bryant, who is black, also said he feared becoming a suspect. He said he never expected Skakel to get convicted.

“He’s not guilty of this,” Bryant said.

The petition for a new trial is separate from an appeal Skakel lost before the Connecticut Supreme Court earlier this year that argued, among other issues, that the five-year statute of limitations had expired when he was charged in 2000. Skakel’s attorneys have taken that issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

AP-ES-09-06-06 1810EDT