Moxley case DNA must be reinvestigated
Since the Hearst Connecticut Editorial Board has discarded the presumption of innocence in its Jan. 8 editorial, let me provide some balance and a possible path forward.
Michael Skakel’s wrongful conviction for the murder of Martha Moxley is now finally overturned. Michael was freed from prison in 2013 because a credible non- family witness confirmed he was miles away when Martha was killed 43 years ago in 1975.
The state of Connecticut has the option to go to trial once again. But the state’s circumstantial case has evaporated. Michael’s alibi is now rock solid. Their star witness — deceased heroin addict Greg Coleman — has been fully discredited by his own family attorney and his confession allegations proven false. The deceitful Pow- erPoint media at closing arguments that falsely linked Michael’s recorded voice with gruesome crime scene photos is not going to work against a competent defense attorney.
It’s time for the state to come clean about the forensic evidence in its possession and face the reality that forensic science can and should solve this case with certainty.
Prior to the 2002 trial, prosecutors demanded DNA samples from Michael hoping to make a media spectacle of him stonewalling. When he agreed they quickly withdrew the demand, knowing that the only genetic evidence they had at the time — two non-Caucasian hair samples found at the crime scene — did not belong to Michael. Both the state and the media ignore this critical evi- dence and the fact that a match has never been found.
Yale professor David Cameron wrote an Op- Ed in May calling for a reinvestigation of all the physical evidence in this case using “touch DNA,” which can reveal skin cells left behind on clothing. Dozens of cold cases have been solved across the country since Cameron’s article in what is being calling “the biggest crimefighting breakthrough in decades.” A Boston case nearly 50 years old was solved in November. The unexplained hairs that do not belong to any Skakel and the physical evidence including Martha’s clothing must be re- examined using these DNA advances to seek a match.
DNA advances have definitively solved cold cases this past year in Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington. Why not Connecticut and why not this case?
We know of at least three teenagers who visited the Belle Haven neighborhood on the day Martha was killed but have never been interviewed by police. Martha mentions one of them multiple times in her diary. Unlike Michael, all three are a potential match with the hair evidence. Why not use the advances in forensic science that are readily available and producing stunning results in many other states and let the evidence bring closure and an outcome that can be trusted? John Skakel is one of Michael Skakel’s brothers and lives in Portland, Ore.