Posted on 12/30/2016 2:09:20 PM PST by heterosupremacist
HARTFORD, Conn. — A divided Connecticut Supreme Court Friday reinstated the murder conviction of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, rejecting a Superior Court judge’s finding that Skakel’s trial was tainted by ineffective lawyering and setting the stage for Skakel’s return to prison after three years of freedom.
“Because we conclude that the petitioner’s trial counsel rendered constitutionally adequate representation, we reverse the judgment” of the lower court, a 4-3 majority of the Supreme Court wrote in a decision released Friday afternoon.
Skakel was convicted in 2002 in the bludgeoning death 27 years earlier of Greenwich neighbor Martha Moxley, when she and Skakel were both 15. The case has generated headlines for four decades because of Skakel’s Kennedy connection — he is a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel — and the window the case provided into the privileged lives of Greenwich’s monied residents.
Skakel received a sentence of 20 years to life. But his conviction was overturned in 2013 after a Superior Court judge declared that Skakel’s defense attorney had botched the case.
“The defense of a serious felony prosecution requires attention to detail, an energetic investigation and a coherent plan of defense capably executed,” Judge Thomas Bishop wrote in October 2013. “Trial counsel’s failures in each of these areas of representation were significant and, ultimately, fatal to a constitutionally adequate defense.”
A month later, Skakel was out on bail. And the state began an effort to put him back behind bars, ultimately filing a 249-page appeal refuting Bishop’s conclusion that Skakel’s conviction was marred by ineffective assistance of counsel by lawyer Mickey Sherman. They said Bishop’s conclusions amounted to second-guessing Sherman’s reasoned defense strategy.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Ah, that’s the guy whose alibi was that he was spanking his monkey in a tree (or something) when the murder occurred...
That's the guy, used the old 'Spanking the Monkey Defense'.
As part of his release agreement he is not allowed to climb any trees.
lawyers just don’t use the flogging his mule/polishing his rocket defense anymore
Have you seen a picture of him - not too many trees could support that weight :-)
In the words of the bomber William Ayers, “[no longer] free as a bird, guilty as hell!”.
Odd footnote: He might have gotten away with it, but Mark Fuhrman, fresh off his book on the O.J. trial, had some time on his hands and reinvestigated the case, resulting in the arrest and trial of scumbucket Skakel.
After all of this, I doubt the prosecution will be very amenable to his serving the minimum sentence.
The defense called an ex-spurt witness to testify.
Oh, gee, Obana will be so dissapointed he can’t pardon Skakel for a state conviction.
You just want to smag him up side the head.
No! He was choking the chicken!
Mark Fuhrman always came across to me as a damn good detective!
Like a Kennedy wouldn’t have the best legal representation.
It’s gonna be so much worse, going back after a three year sabbatical.
Die behind bars, scumbag.
Maybe bozo pardons him?
Scumbucket Kardashian, father of the dysfunctional adipose tribe, is the one who ambushed him. I liked Fuhrman. My cousin spent 20 years on the job with the NYPD, retiring as a Lieutenant Detective on the Manhattan DA’s Homicide Squad. Fuhrman reminds me of him.
His defence was hurt by the fact that he killed the poor girl.
uh....YEAH!!!!! Finally a “Kennedy” paid the price of their sins....here on earth!!
“His defence was hurt by the fact that he killed the poor girl.”
Good one. This is good news, l’m convinced the punk did it. Interesting side note, her family was one of only a few Republican in the area. One of the Kennedy clan has made it his mission to get this guys conviction tossed that is when he’s not crying that your car is destroying the planet.
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