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Date Posted: 16:59:12 06/07/02 Fri
Author: Lafaux
Subject: Skakel is found guilty in the Moxley case. Do you agree with the verdit?

Skakel Found Guilty in Moxley Murder

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
.c The Associated Press

NORWALK, Conn. (June 7) - Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel was convicted Friday of beating Greenwich neighbor Martha Moxley to death in 1975 when they were 15 - a crime that went unsolved for nearly a generation and raised suspicions his family connections had protected him.

The 41-year-old Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel, was handcuffed and led off immediately to jail. Skakel faces from 10 years to life in prison at sentencing July 19.

The Moxley family wept at what her mother called ``Martha's day,'' which finally came more than a quarter-century after her death.

Skakel's lawyer promised a quick appeal in a case that had no eyewitnesses and little forensic evidence.

``This is certainly the most upsetting verdict I've ever had - or will ever have - in my life,'' defense attorney Michael Sherman said. ``But I will tell you, as long as there's a breath in my body, this case is not over.''

Martha's battered body was discovered under a tree on her family's estate in the wealthy community of Greenwich. She had been bludgeoned and stabbed with a golf club, later traced to a set owned by Skakel's mother.

Prosecutors contended Skakel had a crush on Martha and was upset because the blond girl seemed more interested in his older brother, Thomas.

The prosecution's case rested almost entirely on about a dozen people who said they had heard Skakel confess or make incriminating statements over the years. Several were former classmates from the Elan School, a drug and alcohol rehab center for rich kids in Maine.

The defense argued that the Elan School witnesses were of dubious credibility. And family members all backed up Skakel's alibi: that he was at a cousin's home around the time of the slaying. His lawyers also sought to cast suspicion a former family tutor, and pointed out that the tutor and Thomas Skakel were both early suspects in the investigation.

Skakel did not take the stand, but in a tape-recorded 1997 interview with an author that was played for the jury, Skakel said he went to the Moxley home, threw rocks at Martha's window to try to get her attention, then masturbated in a tree and ran home.

The jury deliberated for more than three days.

``We worked very, very hard to find something that would acquit Michael Skakel,'' juror Cathy Lazansky of Greenwich said. ``We just couldn't.''

One of the alternates, Anne Layton, said prosecutor Jonathan Benedict's closing argument was powerfully persuasive. ``He really connected the dots and I think he did an incredible job,'' Layton said.

In fact, the jury made the unusual request of asking to rehear part of the argument on Thursday, but the judge refused.

In his closing argument, Benedict played the taped interview, using Skakel's own words to put him at the scene. As he spoke, a picture of a smiling teen-age Martha was projected onto a courtroom screen. The portrait dissolved into a grim crime-scene photo.

``It's nice to say, once in a while, that justice delayed doesn't have to be justice denied,'' the prosecutor said after the verdict.

Martha's mother, Dorthy Moxley, said she had been praying for justice for her daughter for more than a quarter-century. ``I just feel so blessed and so overwhelmed,'' she said. ``This is Martha's day. This is truly Martha's day.''

Skakel slumped slightly upon hearing the verdict, then looked with surprise at the jury and the courtroom audience. He appeared on the verge of tears.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the longtime spokesman for the Kennedy family, had no comment.

Over the years, the lack of an arrest in the case gave rise to speculation that wealth and influence had protected Skakel. Interest in the case was renewed in the 1990s, particularly after Dominick Dunne and former Los Angeles Detective Mark Fuhrman wrote books about the case.

Fuhrman and Martha's brother John were among those who said police were overly deferential to the Skakels during the investigation, perhaps because of their Kennedy connection.

After an investigation by a one-judge grand jury, Skakel was arrested in January 2000. He fought unsuccessfully to have the case heard in juvenile court, where a conviction might have meant no punishment at all for the middle-aged Skakel.

The trial opened a window onto a world of wealth and privilege, and depicted Skakel as a troubled and confused figure.

Among other things, the jury was read testimony from former Elan School classmate Gregory Coleman, who quoted Skakel as once saying: ``I'm going to get away with murder because I'm a Kennedy.'' Coleman died of heroin use before Skakel's trial began.

Some legal experts initially thought the prosecution's case would be a disaster, with no direct physical evidence, no eyewitnesses and the blurring of memories after the passage of 27 years.

``For all our fascination with forensics, for all the absolutes of science, confessions count, witnesses count,'' said University of California law professor Susan Estrich. ``In many respects, the time lag made it an old-fashioned trial, a question of who - not what - do you believe.''

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