Michael Skakel.Photo:AP Photo/Jessica Hill
AP Photo/Jessica Hill
Michael Skakel’s murder conviction in the 1975 death of Martha Moxley was overturned after he spent more than a decade behind bars. Now, he’s suing the case’s lead police investigator and his hometown of Greenwich, Conn., according toCBS News,Greenwich Timeand theAssociated Press.
In 2002, Skakel — a nephew ofEthel Kennedy,Robert F. Kennedy’s widow — was found guilty of murdering Moxley, a friend and neighbor of his family in Greenwich, per CBS.
Both Skakel, 63, and Moxley were 15 at the time of her death.
After serving more than 11 years in prison, he was freed on an appeal in 2013 on the grounds that he was not given a fair trial due to deficient legal counsel, according toGreenwich Time.
In 2018,the Connecticut Supreme Court overturned Skakel’s convictionand in 2020, the murder charge was dropped, and a state prosecutorannounced that the Kennedy cousin would not be put on trial again.
“He spent 11 and a half years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit and was put through every thinkable proceeding until the case was finally dismissed," Stephan Seeger, Skakel’s defense lawyer, told CBS.
Martha Moxley at age 14.Erik Freeland/Corbis via Getty
Erik Freeland/Corbis via Getty
The lawsuit contends that Garr was intent on convicting Skakel out of financial interest, and thus ignored key evidence about other suspects in Moxley’s murder,Greenwich Timereports.
According to the complaint, the defendants “knew that there were other more likely suspects and that there was no probable cause to arrest and/or maintain a prosecution against the Plaintiff (Skakel), but continued to do so intentionally and maliciously, in order to convict a ‘Kennedy Cousin,’” per CBS.
The complaint also alleges that the state’s primary witness, Gregory Coleman — who allegedly heard Skakel’s murder confession — was “mentally unstable and was a complete liar who could not be trusted,” perGreenwich Time. (Coleman has since died.)
“For a sensationalized ‘Kennedy Cousin’ murder he didn’t commit, he was given 11 and a half years of his life in jail,” Seeger toldGreenwich Time.
The suit seeks unspecified compensation and punitive damages,Greenwich Timereported. Neither Garr nor the town Greenwich have filed their responses to the suit, per CBS.
PEOPLE was not able to immediately reach either party.
Moxley was bludgeoned to death with a golf club and found in the yard of her family home on Oct. 31, 1975.
The brutal way she died, coupled with the Kennedy name, caused the case to garner international attention — as well as a 2021 episode of CBS’48 Hours, “The Diary of Martha Moxley” — long after Moxley’s death.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
In 2000, after new books about the case reignited the police investigation, Skakel was arrested, per CBS.
Skakel’s brother, Tommy, was also mentioned as a possible killer, but denied any involvement in her murder, CBS reported.
Another one of Skakel’s relatives, 2024 presidential candidateRobert Kennedy Jr., hasconsistently fought for Skakel’s innocence.
“Michael deserves to have his story told,” Kennedy told PEOPLE in 2016. “Nobody understood what the facts were in the case. There was a narrative and a kind of prevailing orthodoxy and it was almost altogether untrue.”
Meanwhile, Moxley’s familyhas maintained their belief in Skakel’s guilt.
“I believe Michael is the one who swung the club,” Moxley’s mother Dorthy told PEOPLE in 2016. “It has been 41 years since Martha died. When you gather all this information for that long a time, you get to a point where you put it all together and it just fits.”
source: people.com
