“Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P.J.O’Rourke
Posted on 01/10/2009 6:21:43 PM PST by nickcarraway
Convicted celebrity murderer Michael C. Skakel says he has uncovered secret evidence suggesting his innocence and is using it to support an unusual effort in federal court to obtain release from prison while his appeals proceed through a variety of courts.
In a federal motion filed late Thursday, Skakel's lawyers say state prosecutors improperly concealed two pieces of exculpatory evidence during his trial in the murder of Martha Moxley — an interview that discredits the star prosecution witness and police reports suggesting that a 15-year-old Greenwich boy, later convicted of another murder, had information concerning Moxley's death.
Skakel was 15 himself on Oct. 30, 1975, the night he is accused of beating his friend and neighbor Moxley to death with a golf club. He was arrested and charged with murder on Jan. 19, 2000, and convicted by a jury on June 7, 2002, after a monthlong trial.
Every turn in the case has been followed assiduously by a small army of reporters focused on Skakel's relation to the Kennedy family — he is a cousin — and sordid disclosures about life in the private Greenwich neighborhood of Belle Haven, where the two teens grew up.
The Michael Skakel Trial Since his conviction, Skakel has served six years in state prison while a new legal team, Hartford lawyers Hope Seeley and Hubert Santos, have filed appeals in the state Superior Court, state Supreme Court and U.S. District Court. The appellate issues run from arcane legal questions to assertions of ineffective legal assistance and allegations of bias on the part of a prosecution investigator who was paid for information by an author.
Most of the issues raised in state courts have been denied, but legal documents indicate that the lawyers have not exhausted all state appellate issues. If Skakel ultimately fails in state court, his lawyers will work for his release in federal court.
The federal motion filed Thursday argues that the cumulative weight of the two new evidentiary disclosures, combined with previously raised appellate issues, is so extraordinary that it justifies Skakel's release on bail while the appeals are sorted out.
Fairfield County State's Attorney Jonathan Benedict, who led the team that convicted Skakel, declined to discuss any aspect of the case Thursday, including what the Skakel lawyers assert are the two pieces of previously withheld evidence.
One of those pieces of evidence appears to further erode the credibility of Gregory Coleman, a now deceased drug addict and ex-convict, who said Skakel once bragged that he would get away with Moxley's murder because he is a Kennedy. The conversation was said to have taken place at the Elan School in Maine, an institution for teens with addiction problems.
Coleman died of a drug overdose before the trial, but prosecutors were allowed to read to jurors from transcripts of his testimony to the grand jury that indicted Skakel and at Skakel's probable cause hearing. Coleman admitted being high on heroin when he appeared before the grand jury, but stood by his assertion that Skakel boasted he would get away with murder.
In their federal motion, Skakel's defense team produced an affidavit from a Coleman family lawyer who said, in part, "It would be fair to say that no one in their right mind, knowing Gregory, would put the slightest confidence in his contentions concerning the supposed admissions by Michael Skakel."
The lawyer, John M. Regan Jr., said in his affidavit that he received a call at his Rochester, N.Y., office in 1998 from someone who identified himself as a Connecticut prosecutor and said he was trying to locate Coleman. The caller said he wanted Coleman to testify as a witness before a grand jury that was expected to indict Skakel.
Regan described Coleman as an "incorrigible drug addict" who "regularly engaged in dishonest, deceitful and criminal behavior in order to obtain money from his father."
"I was incredulous and commented that I hoped he was not serious that he was going to use Gregory's testimony to accuse someone of murder," Regan said in the affidavit. "He responded by telling me not to worry, that they had plenty of evidence, and that they were going to 'get this guy.'"
Michael Sherman, Skakel's trial attorney, produced an affidavit for the appellate lawyers arguing that he may have been able to render Coleman's prosecution testimony ineffective if he had the Regan information.
Sherman asserts that he believes the person who called Regan was prosecution investigator Frank Garr. It is Garr, the appellate lawyers say, who was contributing to a book about the case.
"The information from Attorney Regan, together with Garr's 'book deal,' may very well have allowed the jury to conclude that this exculpatory evidence was being withheld from the defense in an effort to convict Michael Skakel, regardless of his possible guilt or innocence," the Sherman affidavit says.
The appellate lawyers also say the trial prosecutors improperly withheld from the defense police reports about a teenager named Andrew D. Wilson, who was 15 and living in Greenwich at the time of the Moxley murder.
In 1993, according to information Seeley and Santos say they have obtained, Wilson's sister called police to report her fear that her brother suffered from serious mental illness, was potentially dangerous and said he knew the identity of Moxley's killer. The lawyers say the information was transmitted to Greenwich police, who did not act on it.
About two months later, in August 1993, Wilson was charged with shooting to death the father of the man he said was Moxley's killer.
Seeley and Santos say the police reports generated by the call from Wilson's sister identified two potential suspects in the Moxley death — Wilson and the man Wilson said was the killer.
As was the case with the Regan information, the appellate lawyers say the Skakel prosecutors improperly withheld the Wilson police reports from Skakel's trial lawyers.
In his affidavit, Sherman contends that, had he been provided the Wilson police reports at trial, he could have argued persuasively to jurors that Wilson may have killed Moxley.
Sounds like a Democrat controlled election recount. Keep uncovering or finding things until you get the results you want.
Its a Kennedy, where is the problem, it was an accident. The Kennedys couldn’t possibly be linked with any crime, they’re THE KENNEDYS!!!
That's what I was just thinking! So true!
If they hurry this up, maybe he could run for the Senate in Connecticut.
No.
an accident?
I believe the girl was beaten with a golf club repeatedly.
Hard to believe that an accident.
Maybe O can give him a pardon.
I believe the girl was beaten with a golf club repeatedly............. nnnnnnnnah, that was an accident, Kennedy style, they never do anything bad, its always excusable. I was being Sarc/ I left it out.
Ah another one of the kennedy clan in the news. With all the redilly available evidence of thier misdeeds and no deeds, how could anyone not see them with utter contempt.
Who’s ultimately responsible for putting Skakel away?
Detective Mark Fuhrman.
He was dead-on in the OJ trial, which the prosecution poorly presented to an illiterate and unwilling jury.
Years later, he wrote the book and assembled the evidence used against Skakel.
Yes, and his DNA could only be at the scene because he left it there “accidentally” after masturbating in a tree!
Laws are for the little people.
“I believe the girl was beaten with a golf club repeatedly.
Hard to believe that an accident”
And the bloodly golf club was found in the Skakel home.
I knew it! A Kennedy can do no wrong.
The evidence was found on the Island where Elvis and JFK are kept.
I cannot begin to tell you how much I detest this man.
Members of my family have had “incidents” with him and his legal shennanigans prevented one of my godmother’s closest friends from attending her funeral.
death is too quick for him.
The law firm of Santos & Seeley, P.C. is one of the most preeminent and well-respected trial and appellate firms in Connecticut. Hubert J. Santos opened his office at the current location in Hartford in 1974 after having served as an Assistant Federal Defender for the District of Connecticut for two years. Hope C. Seeley joined him in practice in 1989.
******
Skakel complains of treatment in prison.
Michael Skakel complained in letters to his cousin George Skakel III of a lack of medical treatment, appropriate temperatures in prison cells and unusually harsh treatment afforded him by prison officials.
“I have always received harsher treatment than anyone from day one,” Skakel wrote in a letter dated Nov. 13.
George Skakel, 52, an investor who lives in Greenwich, is Michael Skakel’s first cousin, who, in a letter to the editor printed in last week’s edition of Greenwich Post, urged Greenwich residents to read an article written by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Skakel’s first cousin.
In the article, Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and former prosecutor, makes a case for his cousin’s innocence.
In one letter, dated July 22, Michael also appears to express regret for hiring Michael Sherman, who defended him at trial. Kennedy criticized Sherman in his article, saying the attorney seemed more interested in basking in the media limelight than getting Skakel acquitted.
“George, I am sorry to say that you were right on all accounts with regards to my legal representation,” Skakel wrote. George said Michael was responding to George’s comment that hiring Sherman was a mistake.
******
In his letters, Skakel focuses heavily on his son, George Skakel IV, in his letters, saying he prayed with a priest for “Georgie” and complaining that the prison’s visiting hours make it impossible for him to see his son.
“The solitary cells here were well over 100 degrees, coupled with not getting my heart medicine, [that] was a serious recipe for disaster. I was told and confirmed (sic) that a man my age died of a heart attack on the same block three months ago. He apparently complained for four days about chest pains. Well, we know the rest.”
Skakel also complained of not being allowed to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and not being able to attend church often.
Skakel also said he was denied dental care.
“I bit into something and broke my teeth three weeks ago. I am told it will be eight months before I can see a dentist,” he wrote.
Stephen Skakel, Michael’s younger brother, said Monday that Michael had some issues regarding his incarceration but they had since been addressed.
A lot of people have been really surprised by Michael Skakel coming out and saying he is a changed man, he is a religious man, God is by his side.
JOHN MOXLEY, MARTHA MOXLEY’S BROTHER
Too little too late. You know, I’m sure everybody there is a little good and a little bad.
I’m sure that Michael — this may sound harsh, but without booze and alcohol, booze and drugs and what have you, know, and his counseling A.A., he would have nothing else. I was a little surprised, quoting his — talking about his ex-wife being rough like his beard. You know, somebody said — and I don’t know how appropriate this is — but you know, everybody in jail and foxholes has religion. You know, I think part of, you know, being a good Catholic is confessing to your sins, not running from them.
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