Skakel Option On, Off Table

Prosecutors in the Michael Skakel case Thursday sought to give the jury a fallback option that would soften the penalty for a murder verdict. But hours later they withdrew their request that the jury be instructed on the possible role of extreme emotional disturbance in the brutal attack on Martha Moxley.

Defense attorney Mickey Sherman said the prosecutors' actions telegraphed a lack of confidence in their case.

Prosecutors countered that they wanted to give the jury the widest latitude possible, but realized they would run the risk of unprecedented appellate issues if they pursued that course.

While Sherman was able to spin the state's ambivalence, he could not claim total victory Thursday. Judge John F. Kavanewsky Jr. ruled that he will tell the jury that any inconsistent statements made by Skakel may reflect his consciousness of guilt, and may be factored into the deliberations.

Skakel's statements since the crime are inconsistent. He told police he returned home from his cousin's house and went to bed close to midnight the night of Moxley's death. He told others, including an author collaborating on his biography, that he left the house and climbed a tree on the Moxley property to masturbate while peering into the windows of Martha's house. Whether he even left their Belle Haven neighborhood to drive his cousin home is an issue for the jury to decide.

Hmm? I'm not sure, but I think old Judge Roy Bean might like this judge? lol!

"Judge Roy Bean, the `Law West of the Pecos,' holding court at the old town of Langtry, Texas in 1900, trying a horse thief. This building was courthouse and saloon. No other peace officers in the locality at that time."
http://www.nara.gov/nara/nn/nns/west084.jpg

As I said in an earlier post, Skakel may very well be guilty as sin but the age of the case, the initial police blundering, faulty memories and little to no hard physical evidence (but a lot of conflicting stories all around) make a murder conviction doubtful. The last-minute, hastily withdrawn manslaughter offer from the prosecution simply cements my suspicion that the state has a weak case and was grasping at straws, then, as Mickey Sherman stated, they realized the negative message the offer sent and tried to snatch it away as quickly as possible. Probably too late.

From the little I've seen and heard about Michael Skakel he's no prize and his attorney, 'Mickey' Sherman, is probably on the shady side of sleazy but all that doesn't count for much when you have to judge a man guilty of murder based mostly on conflicting stories he's told and a lot of conflicting testimony from some incredible witnesses on both sides. I say the jurors will hold their collective noses and vote: Not Guilty.

My heart goes out to Martha Moxley's aged mother who has carried the pain of her lovely young daughter's murder for 27 years, probably by a lout named Michael Skakel who will now walk away, a free man while her daughter rots in the ground. Tough break and undeserved but almost inevitible, with the clout of the Skakels' and the intimidation tactics used on the local police in '75, a conviction was almost always out of reach, absent DNA or an eyewitness that would not be afraid to talk. Fat chance. The Kennedy connections are intimidating.

Kennedy cousin bump -

From the AOL men's "true crime" section -

Prosecution Shifts Gears at Skakel Trial

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
.c The Associated Press

NORWALK, Conn. (May 30) - Prosecutors in the murder trial of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel proposed and then abruptly withdrew a request that could have reduced the penalty if Skakel is convicted in the 1975 slaying of Martha Moxley.

Skakel, 41, is charged with beating Moxley to death with a golf club when they were 15-year-old neighbors in Greenwich. Skakel is a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel Kennedy.

During a hearing Thursday outside the presence of the jury, prosecutors dropped their request that if jurors decided Skakel is guilty, they could also consider whether he acted under extreme emotional disturbance. If so, the judge would reduce the verdict of murder to manslaughter.

Murder is punishable by 25 years to life in prison, manslaughter by up to 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors said they withdrew the motion because they feared it might create grounds for an appeal.

``We decided that we feel strongly enough in the integrity of our case,'' Deputy Chief State's Attorney Chris Morano said.

The idea had been proposed earlier Thursday as lawyers for both sides discussed the instructions Superior Judge John F. Kavanewsky Jr. will give jurors after closing arguments Monday.

Defense attorney Michael Sherman had opposed the request.

``Maybe they realized they made a big mistake,'' Sherman said after the hearing. ``I think they filed this motion in a display of a lack of confidence in their case.''

A manslaughter conviction could raise a statute of limitations question. Sherman previously lost a bid to have the case thrown out on those grounds, but said Thursday that in 1975 there was a five-year limit on manslaughter prosecutions.

On the other hand, prosecutors could have argued that such a verdict would still be a murder conviction and thus not subject to a limit.

During the trial, witnesses have testified Skakel told classmates at a substance abuse treatment center in Maine that his brother ``stole his girlfriend.'' Investigators have said both Michael and his older brother, Thomas, were romantically interested in Moxley.

Prosecutors also played a tape of Skakel telling an author in 1997 that he had been drinking and smoking marijuana the night of the slaying, and had sat in a tree outside the Moxley home yelling her name and becoming sexually aroused.

But Sherman said there is no basis to argue that Skakel - who has steadfastly denied any involvement in Moxley's murder - was affected by extreme emotional disturbance.

``He didn't do it while he was under the influence of alcohol, drugs or Twinkies,'' Sherman said.

APNY 05/30/02 18:14 EDT

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