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 ...
Happy Damn New Year Scumbag Skakel.
He’s a most deserving GUILTY criminal PERVERT.
Good. I am familiar with this case. Good.
Kennedys, Kerrys, Clintons, Skakels, Shrivers...
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Oh my goodness.
Safe space! Safe space!
Did they DNA test the tree?
LOL! A Kennedy claiming incompetent defense representation - I guess any time one is convicted, the standard will be to make the same claim...
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