The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
State will not retry Skakel
45 years after her death, Martha Moxley case comes to an end
STAMFORD — Prosecutors announced Friday the state will not retry Michael Skakel, bringing the Martha Moxley case to a close on the 45th anniversary of her death in Greenwich.
Judge Gary White made the ruling Friday morning in state Superior Court in Stamford to nolle the charges against Skakel.
The state could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, Chief
State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo told White. He requested the nolle, which officially dismisses the case 13 months from now, and the judge granted it during the brief court proceeding.
“Investigator Steve Jacobs and I reinvestigated the case and determined there were 51 potential witnesses. Seventeen of them are dead, 18 years have passed since the trial, it has been 45 years since the crime, there was no additional evidence that I
could send for forensic testing, and there were no other additional things we could do based on the state of the case right now,” Colangelo told White.
Skakel, dressed in a dark sweater, looked straight ahead and appeared to have no reaction as the nolle was granted, announcing that for the first time since his 2000 arrest for murder, he was truly a free man.
Colangelo also said he had been in close contact with the Moxley family throughout the process.
“We’re at peace with the decision,” John Moxley, the brother of Martha Moxley, said outside the courtroom.
When asked if the decision would bring closure to his family, Moxley said, “It will never be over.”
But he said he still believes Skakel is responsible for his sister’s death.
“I don’t think Michael Skakel is the devil. I think he did something in a fit of jealous rage. He was a self-described alcoholic at 15, and involved in drugs. He probably didn’t know what he was doing. His life will never be the same, mine will never be the same. I wouldn’t want to walk a mile in his shoes,” Moxley said outside the courthouse, as a light rain fell. He said his mother, Dorthy, was “at peace” with the decision.
Moxley said the family was “grateful” for kindness and sympathy they had received from well-wishers and supporters through the years.
Skakel looked relaxed and upbeat behind his mask outside the courtroom, but he did not make a statement or answer any questions. His defense attorney Stephan Seeger spoke on his behalf after the court proceeding had ended.
“It’s the right result. Michael Skakel is innocent of this crime. He’s been innocent from Day 1,” Seeger said, reiterating his belief that Skakel was unfairly charged in the murder.
“He’s happy that it’s over,” the defense lawyer said. “Mr. Skakel is now able to live his life without restrictions. He’s not subject to bail conditions, and he can move forward with his life. He’s been through a lot. He spent 11 and half years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit. You can imagine there are some things he’d like to
accomplish without that weighing on his mind.”
The criminal case that transfixed the nation has been the subject of 45 years of speculation.
Martha, a 15-year-old Greenwich High School sophomore, was beaten to death with a golf club near her home in the wealthy enclave of Belle Haven on the night before Halloween in 1975. Had she lived, she would turn 60 this year.
A convoluted legal drama, with an assorted cast of prominent characters, arose from the grisly crime, and the case took on a life of its own over its long history, becoming the subject of numerous books, TV specials and movies.
Skakel, who also was 15 at the time of the murder, has maintained he was watching television at a relative’s house in the Greenwich backcountry at the time of the brutal killing.
The murder case went cold soon after the crime, in part due to what became recognized as numerous missteps by investigators. A number of suspects were scrutinized before the case was largely left to languish for much of the 1980s.
The investigation was later reopened in the 1990s, and soon turned to Michael Skakel, scion of a wealthy family who was related to the Kennedys. Skakel is the nephew of Ethel Skakel Kennedy, widow of the late Robert F. Kennedy.
Michael Skakel was tried and convicted of murder in 2002, eventually serving more than 11 years in state prison for the crime.
Former State’s Attorney Jonathan Benedict, who prosecuted the murder case against Skakel, said Colangelo did the right thing Friday. Skakel wound up serving about the same amount of time he would have had he been tried and convicted as a 15-year-old, the prosecutor said.
“It is all said and done. I had a conversation with Colangelo yesterday and I knew it was going to happen. It was the right thing,” Benedict, who retired 11 years ago, said from his Oxford home. “It was a long haul. We were successful. I think it worked out pretty well.”
After numerous appeals were tried and exhausted, Skakel was released in 2013, after a state judge ruled he was convicted as a result of incompetent legal counsel, starting another round of extensive litigation.
In May 2018, the Connecticut high court, by a
5-4 majority, ruled Skakel did not receive a fair trial due to mistakes made by his defense lawyer, Michael Sherman. Among other lapses, the court faulted Sherman for not calling a witness who might have corroborated Skakel’s stated alibi — that he was watching an episode of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” across town at the estimated time of the killing.
Sherman on Friday said he was glad the case has finally come to an end.
“Michael never should have been convicted in the first place,” Sherman said. “The case should have been tried in juvenile court. I wish him the best. It has been a long haul, and I just hope Michael enjoys the rest of his life.”
Connecticut prosecutors challenged the decision made by the state’s high court and brought a request to the U.S. Supreme Court. In January 2019, that court declined to hear the case. That left the decision of whether or not to try Skakel again for murder in the hands of prosecutors.
Skakel has had prominent and high-profile defenders. His cousin, Robert Kennedy Jr., has been a longtime supporter and published a book in 2016 making the case for Skakel’s innocence.
Skakel was convicted in the case, but there have been a number of other suspects put forward by commentators and analysts through the years. Brother Tommy Skakel had been considered a suspect in the crime until investigators’ focus shifted to Michael in the early 1990s. In court filings for Michael’s final appeal, his attorneys listed Tommy Skakel among several men who Sherman should have investigated more fully in possible connection with the 1975 murder.
Beyond suspects, the story of Martha Moxley’s death has gathered and discarded a constantly shifting cast of characters over the past 45 years, as prosecutors, defense attorneys, writers, investigators and media celebrities who attached themselves to the case came and went.
The two constants have been Skakel himself, who maintained his innocence throughout, and Dorthy Moxley, Martha’s mother, who never stopped pushing for justice for her daughter.
Skakel was a mostly silent figure, his utterances over the years all the more notable for their rarity.
“You’ve got the wrong guy,” he said after approaching Dorthy at his March 2000 arraignment.
After that he said little publicly until taking the stand during January 2012 court proceedings for his appeal claiming insufficient counsel.
In one headline-grabbing comment, Skakel said the long-held narrative that he had benefited from his family’s ties was not true.
“It’s laughable. No, the Kennedys and the Skakels are much like the Hatfields and McCoys,” Skakel said from the witness stand. “We have a feud going way, way back.”
Dorthy Moxley, on the other hand, was a persistent, vocal advocate for her daughter’s cause.
She also was a constant presence at trials and court hearings over the years. By the time of the 2012 appeals hearing she was 80, and needed noise- amplification headphones provided by the court to follow testimony. But for two weeks she kept her post in the Vernon courtroom, positioned in the third row of the gallery — immediately behind the prosecutors and with a direct view of the witness stand.
Never leaving her seat while court was in session, she took copious notes on a steno pad as opposing lawyers battled, once more sitting through descriptions of the worst night of her life.
“It is hard,” she said at the time. “I don’t need to hear them again and again.”
John Moxley was at Dorthy’s side at trials and press conferences over the decades. Earlier this month, John said the family had been told the state would not put Skakel back on trial, and they accepted the decision.
“It would be extremely hard to put forward a case,” he said. “People have died. People’s memories have faded. … It’s disappointing, but not devastating. We feel nothing but gratitude for the work the Greenwich Police Department and the Connecticut state’s attorneys have done.”
Capt. Mark Zuccerella of the Greenwich Police Department said after the decision, “The Greenwich Police Department expresses its continued support and sympathy to the Moxley family for the loss of Martha. With our investigation complete, we support the determination of the court as to the outcome of the case.”