 An attorney for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel said Tuesday she would appeal his murder conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Connecticut Supreme Court refused to reconsider the case. Skakel, 45, is serving a sentence of 20 years to life for his 2002 conviction in the 1975 beating death of his Greenwich neighbor, Martha Moxley, when the two were teenagers.
| Skakel's not a teenager anymore, but Martha never made it out of her teens. |
Skakel appealed 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. The court unanimously rejected that appeal in January. The motion for reconsideration had asked the court to review its decision, which overturned a 1983 precedent. The court denied the motion last week.
| "Bailiff! Throw them out!" |
Attorney Hope Seeley said Tuesday she would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court within three months. Seeley said the appeal would likely focus on the statute of limitations; evidence not turned over during the trial; and the decision to try Skakel in adult court even though he was 15 at the time of the crime.
| He grew out of being a child, so they can't charge him as a juvenile, and the statute of limitations has expired (really? for murder?) so they can't charge him regardless. That's his defense, folks -- wouldn't you like to go through life like that? I bet Mikey doesn't care. |
"Michael Skakel is innocent, and we will fight his wrongful conviction and incarceration," she said.
| ... "until the money runs out." |
Seeley also said she will argue in state court that Skakel had ineffective counsel at his 2002 trial.
| "Yer honor, my client's previous counsel was a stalk of broccoli! Not only was he not sentient, he didn't even have a law degree!" |
Prosecutor Susann Gill said the Connecticut Supreme Court's decision was well-reasoned, and she expressed skepticism that the U.S. Supreme Court would agree to hear the case. Statutes of limitations chiefly involve interpretations of state laws, rather than federal constitutional issues, added William Dunlap, a criminal law professor at Quinnipiac University. Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, also has a petition for a new trial pending in Superior Court in Stamford. That petition is based on a claim by Gitano "Tony" Bryant implicating two of his friends in Moxley's murder. Bryant is a cousin of basketball star Kobe Bryant.
Here's hoping the scumball serves the max. |