Emotions run high, but few shocked by Skakel decision

Strong emotion, but little surprise followed the revelation in state Superior Court Friday that prosecutors would not retry Michael Skakel in the 1975 death of Martha Moxley.

Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo told a Superior Court judge that the state could not prove the case against Skakel beyond a reasonable doubt with a new trial.

The brother of Martha Moxley, John Moxley, said outside the court that he and his mother, Dorthy, were “at peace” with the decision, as they continue to mourn Martha’s death. An appeal, the last of many, allowed Skakel to be released from jail in 2013 from an earlier conviction for murder in 2002, under the contested premise that he did not receive a fair trial due to mistakes made by his defense lawyer.

The state’s decision this week appeared to turn the final page on the last chapter of a legal case that has stretched from an exclusive Greenwich neighborhood to the U. S. Supreme Court, often marked by acrimony and deeply divided opinion along the way. Questions about the 45- year- old killing are likely to linger, even after the criminal case against Skakel has been disposed of.

To many longtime observers of the case, the events of the week were not unexpected.

“I don’t think it was a surprise at all,” said Quinnipiac University law professor William Dunlap. “It is so difficult to prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt 45 years after it happened. Witnesses have died, and it would also be extraordinarily painful for the Moxley family.”

Many were surprised to see a conviction in 2002, he said.

“For that to happen again … the chances of it happening were very small.”

There may never be a full accounting of what happened in 1975, on the night before Halloween in the Belle Haven section of Greenwich.

“It will probably be an unsolved case forever,” Dunlap said.

Many observers took to social media after the announcement to express sorrow over the brutal death of Martha, a Greenwich High School sophomore. Lively discussion about the case arose, from personal memories of Martha, to criticism of the initial police investigation that led to the case going cold. A number of commenters spoke about the murder shattering their complacency about Greenwich and towns like it in southern Connecticut, upending a belief that it was a safe- haven from problems like violence — and violence against women in particular.

Martha Moxley was beaten to death with a golf club, which later traced to a set owned by Michael Skakel’s late mother. Moxley’s battered body was found under a tree on her family’s property on Halloween. Skakel, a cousin of the Kennedys and scion to a wealthy Greenwich family, was first publicly named as a suspect in the 1990s and arrested in 2000.

Others who have lost family members to acts of violence say the circumstances of death can create a unique set of emotional ordeals that can last years.

The Moxley murder case was the subject of books, websites, documentaries, TV movies, podcasts — there was seemingly no end to theories about the killing, or those who wanted to offer them.

“There was a connection to the Kennedy family, which attracts public attention always. It was wealthy families in Greenwich, teenagers, an unsolved murder for so long, all that contributed to public fascination,” said Dunlap, the Quinnipiac law professor.

As one former Greenwich resident who lived under the shadow of the killing, Elizabeth Haran Caplan, observed on social media: “I will never forget the violent end to her young life. For many of us it was our revelation as young women that misogyny posed a real risk to our lives. There isn’t a Halloween that goes by that my thoughts don’t turn to her mother, who never stopped seeking justice for Martha's death.”