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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums**Breaking** Conviction of Michael Skakel, Kennedy cousin,in 1975 killing has been vacated.
New murder trial ordered for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel
By: DAVE COLLINS, Associated Press
http://www.krqe.com/news/national/new-murder-trial-ordered-for-kennedy-cousin-michael-skakel/1159926821
The court issued a 4-3 ruling Friday that Skakel's trial attorney, Michael Sherman, failed to present evidence of an alibi. The decision reversed the high court's previous ruling in December 2016 that reinstated Skakel's conviction after a lower court ordered a new trial, citing mistakes by Sherman.
Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel Kennedy, was convicted of murder in 2002 in the bludgeoning death of Martha Moxley in their wealthy Greenwich neighborhood in 1975, when they were teenagers. He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, but was freed on $1.2 million bail after the lower court overturned his murder conviction in 2013. --snip--
Santos argued that Sherman made poor decisions, including not focusing on Skakel's brother as a possible suspect and failing to attempt to contact an alibi witness. Santos said Skakel was several miles away from the crime scene watching a Monty Python movie with friends when Moxley was bludgeoned with a golf club.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,182 posts)Seeing that he milked his investigation all that he could in order to try and rehabilitate his image after his racial comments came out in the Simpson trial.
hlthe2b
(102,291 posts)Robert Kennedy Jr., despite his anti-vax nuttiness, was so convinced of Skakel's innocence that he's fought for him all these years. I found that touching and maybe a bit convincing of the need for another "look"...
So many years have passed, though, it may be impossible to find the truth.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)There was a documentary that made him look REALLY guilty. Then you read about some evidence the documentary didn't cover that casts some doubt.
Very sad that this girl has been denied justice either way.
hlthe2b
(102,291 posts)It never ends for her...
Demsrule86
(68,586 posts)it back. He is as guilty as sin.
Demsrule86
(68,586 posts)They were always in trouble and ran wild...their parents and aunt (Ethel Kennedy) had been raised the same way according to my Mom and Dad. They were also considered nouveau Riche and were not accepted by the old families.
underpants
(182,826 posts)Now he adds his insight on Fox News from a dimly lit home office with the shades drawn. Yes it's hiding that he's in California while the broadcast from NYC...but I think it's also supposed to add credibility.
RandySF
(58,899 posts)I remember him going to jail.
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)hlthe2b
(102,291 posts)AL and MS have their own brand of ugliness, but Louisiana has been notorious for this kind of thing for POC.
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)Here's another black man in Florida who was found not guilty by a jury, no less, but the judge sentence him to prison for seven years anyway:
Michael Harriot
5/23/17 2:00pmFiled to: NEWS
In todays example of how the American justice system treats black bodies, we take a look at Ramad Chatman, a 24-year-old man who was found not guilty by a jury of his peers but will serve seven years in prison because ...
Come on, you know why. Read the first two words of the headline again.
According to The Independent, in 2012 Chatman was convicted of breaking and entering for stealing a television worth $120. It was his first offense, but because he wasagain, you know whyChatman was sentenced to five years probation. You read that right. He was 19, and a judge thought it necessary to make him property of the state for half a decade.
https://www.theroot.com/black-man-found-not-guilty-of-crime-still-sentenced-to-1795475956
hlthe2b
(102,291 posts)Both cases seem absolutely ideal for intervention.
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)But, you know, these are black guys in America's criminal justice system, where injustice is a dime a dozen.
By the way, Wisconsin is getting in on this trend as well:
A jury found Damien Payne not guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm and of carrying a concealed weapon.
But he was still sent to prison for more than three years.
Thats because Payne, who got out of prison in 2010, was being supervised by the Department of Corrections at the time. As a result, he was subject to a little-known department rule that says it doesnt matter if ex-offenders on probation or parole are acquitted they can be sent back to prison based on the same allegations.
Payne, 35, said he didnt know his girlfriends gun was in the glove compartment of his car when he was pulled over in July. The jury believed him. His probation and parole agent didnt.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Stephanie Rothstein has agreed to review Payne's revocation case and decide whether the department acted erroneously, arbitrarily, capriciously and contrary to law, as his attorney, Jessica A. Klein, contends.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/2017/02/04/man-not-guilty-gun-charges-trial-but-still-sent-prison-wisconsin/97359244/
Exotica
(1,461 posts)struggle4progress
(118,294 posts)It's certainly plausible that he's being treated unfairly, but it's not true he's in jail without being convicted of a crime
GusBob
(7,286 posts)God this case again