Kennedy kin verdict nixed

Skakel counsel inadequate

KENNEDY COUSIN Michael Skakel is no longer a convicted killer.

Connecticut’s top court issued a surprise ruling Friday that overturned Skakel’s 2002 conviction for the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley, his 15-yearold neighbor found bludgeoned and stabbed with a golf club in their wealthy Greenwich enclave.

The new ruling was an abrupt about-face for the state Supreme Court, which said in a prior decision just 16 months ago that Skakel’s conviction should stand.

In its 4-3 decision, the panel agreed Friday with Skakel’s argument his original lawyer Mickey Sherman provided “inadequate” representation when he failed to track down a crucial alibi witness, thereby depriving Skakel of a fair trial.

Skakel, 57, argued the witness, Dennis Ossorio, would have backed up his alibi that he and his brothers were 20 minutes away watching “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” on TV around the time of Moxley’s murder.

If the jurors had heard Ossorio’s testimony and found him to be a more “disinterested and credible witness” than Skakel’s brothers and cousin, the verdict might have been different, the court said.

“We agree with the petitioner that (a lower) court correctly concluded that Sherman’s failure to identify and call Ossorio as an alibi witness constituted deficient performance,” the opinion obtained by the Daily News said. “The inadequate performance resulted in prejudice to the petitioner sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome of his criminal trial.”

Skakel’s new lawyer Hubert Santos declined to comment Friday.

Attempts to reach Sherman and Moxley’s relatives were not successful.

Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow Ethel, was convicted after jurors heard testimony he allegedly confessed to killing Moxley with a golf club.

Moxley (bottom photo) was found face-down under a pine tree on her family’s estate on Oct. 31, 1975, with broken pieces of a golf club nearby.

Skakel (top photo) was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

After the verdict, his former classmate Gitano Bryant, a cousin of former NBA star Kobe Bryant, stepped forward to say that he was with two friends the night of the murder, and one of the friends took Skakel’s golf clubs from his yard and mused about attacking a girl “caveman style.”

Despite the revelation, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.

Skakel went another route and scored a major victory at a habeas trial in 2013 with a ruling that Sherman botched his case. Connecticut’s Supreme Court then overturned that decision with its 2016 ruling.

With the latest reversal, Skakel’s conviction, 43 years after Moxley’s death, has been rescinded.

He has been free since 2013 as the appeals process unfolded. Prosecutors now must decided whether they will retry him.