Kennedy cousin and accused killer Michael Skakel is likely to walk out of a Connecticut courtroom a free man Thursday – temporarily at least.
An appeals judge ordered a new trial for Skakel in the brutal 1975 slaying of teenage neighbor Martha Moxley, who was bludgeoned by a golf club in wealthy Greenwich.
The 53-year-old nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel Kennedy, has a bond hearing later today in Stamford Superior Court as prosecutors plan an appeal of the judge’s decision.
The hearing was expected to determine the terms and conditions of his release from prison.
Dorthy Moxley, Martha’s 81-year-old mom, was resigned to Skakel’s release.
“If he gets out on bail, he gets out on bail,” Dorthy Moxley said this week, noting Skakel has a good prison record. “I just think he ought to serve his punishment. There’s no doubt in my mind that he did it. A little justice for Martha is not asking a lot.”
John Moxley, the victim’s brother, said that he and his mother will attend the hearing and that he expects Skakel to be released. The wealthy family has spent millions fighting for Skakel’s release.
Robert Kennedy Jr., who tirelessly campaigned to overturn his cousin’s conviction, said he felt “pure joy” that Skakel was going to be freed from prison after 11 years of incarceration.
“Everybody in my family knows that Michael is innocent,” said Kennedy, whose troubled family has been plagued by scandals and tragedy for decades.
“He was in jail for over a decade for a crime he didn’t commit. The only crime that he committed was having a bad lawyer,” Kennedy claimed.
Judge Thomas Bishop ruled last month in Vernon Superior Court that Skakel’s lawyer, Mickey Sherman, failed to adequately represent Skakel in 2002 when he was convicted in Moxley’s murder when they were both 15.
Bishop said Sherman failed to locate a witness who backed up Skakel’s alibi that he was at his cousin’s house the night of the murder and failed to find a man who challenged the claim by a star witness that Skakel confessed.
The ruling caught Moxley’s family by surprise after a decade of unsuccessful appeals by Skakel’s lawyers.
Skakel’s attorney, Hubert Santos, has argued Skakel should be released immediately, saying that the ruling makes him an innocent defendant awaiting trial and that he was not a flight risk.
Santos also argued prosecutors were highly unlikely to win their appeal, a contention prosecutors dispute.