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Michael Skakel Biography

Convict / Political Relative

Michael Skakel was tried and convicted in 2002 of the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley. Moxley was a 15-year-old resident of Greenwich, Connecticut who was bludgeoned with a golf club and left dead in her family's yard on the night of 30 October 1975. The crime went unsolved for more than two decades, though Skakel and his brother Tommy were among the suspects; they lived nearby and the golf club had come from the Skakel family garage. (Skakel is a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy, adding a sensational note to the case.) A 1998 book by Mark Fuhrman titled A Murder in Greenwich named Skakel as the prime suspect and helped renew interest in the case. Skakel was arrested in 2000; his arrest was followed by nearly two years of legal arguments, mainly over whether Skakel should be tried as an adult or a juvenile (since he was 15 when the murder was committed). Judge Maureen Dennis ruled that Skakel should be tried in adult court, and in 2001 the Connecticut Supreme Court upheld her ruling. Skakel's trial for the murder of Moxley began in May of 2002, and on 7 June 2002 the jury returned a verdict of guilty. Skakel was later sentenced to from 20 years to life in prison.

Extra credit: Mark Fuhrman, formerly a Los Angeles policeman, was a famous figure in the murder trial of O.J. Simpson.

Other high-profile murder trials of the 20th century included those of Dr. Sam Sheppard, Charles Manson and Mark David Chapman.