HARTFORD — The Connecticut Supreme Court has finalized a ruling that reinstated the murder conviction of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel.
The court on Monday released a final, edited version of a decision announced in December. Skakel’s request for justices to reconsider that decision remains pending.
Skakel was convicted in 2002 of murder in the bludgeoning of Martha Moxley in their wealthy Greenwich neighborhood in 1975, when they were both teenagers. He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, but was freed on bail in 2013 after a lower court granted him a new trial because of mistakes made by his trial lawyer.
The state Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in December that Skakel’s trial lawyer, Michael Sherman, provided an adequate defense and overturned the lower court. Among arguments by Skakel’s appellate lawyers are that Sherman failed to argue Skakel’s brother could have been the killer.
Skakel remains free on bail while his motion for reconsideration is still pending.
He is a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel.
