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 A bond hearing was scheduled for Thursday in Stamford Superior
Court for Skakel, the 53-year-old nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's
widow, Ethel Kennedy. Skakel has been serving 20 years to life. The
hearing was expected to focus on the terms and conditions of his
release from prison.
Robert Kennedy Jr., who campaigned to overturn Skakel's conviction,
said this week that he felt "pure joy" at the prospect that his
cousin was being released. Skakel has seen his son only a handful of
times since he was sent to prison, he said.
"Everybody in my family knows that Michael is innocent," Kennedy
said Tuesday. "He was in jail for over a decade for a crime he
didn't commit. The only crime that he committed was having a bad
lawyer."
Judge Thomas Bishop ruled last month in Vernon Superior Court that
Skakel's trial attorney, Michael Sherman, failed to adequately
represent Skakel in 2002 when he was convicted in Moxley's
bludgeoning with a golf club in wealthy Greenwich when they were 15.
Bishop said Sherman failed to locate a witness who backed up
Skakel's alibi that he was at his cousin's house the night of the
murder and failed to find a man who challenged the claim by a star
witness that Skakel confessed.
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's release. "If he gets out
on bail, he gets out on bail," Dorthy Moxley said this week, 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."
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John Moxley, the victim's brother, said that he and his mother will
attend the hearing and that he expects Skakel to be released.
Skakel's attorney, Hubert Santos, has argued Skakel should be
released immediately, saying that the ruling makes him an innocent
defendant awaiting trial and that he was not a flight risk. Santos
also argued prosecutors were highly unlikely to win their appeal, a
contention prosecutors dispute.
Prosecutors and Sherman defended his handling of the case.
Skakel's older brother Thomas was an early suspect because he was
the last person seen with the victim, and in Bishop's ruling, he
said Michael Skakel's defense should have focused more on Thomas.
The case was considered a big challenge for prosecutors because of
issues including the age of the crime and the lack of forensic
evidence. Michael Skakel was convicted after a trial that focused on
testimony that he confessed or made incriminating statements over
the years.
[Associated
Press; JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN]
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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