Judge orders retrial for Michael Skakel, Kennedy nephew

 
A high-profile murder case involving one of America's most well-known political families took a dramatic turn Wednesday when a Connecticut judge ordered a new trial for Michael Skakel, the nephew of Robert and Ethel Kennedy.

Skakel, who has spent more than a decade behind bars, is accused of killing 15-year-old neighbor Martha Moxley with a golf club in 1975. Twenty-seven years after her death, in 2002, he was convicted and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

For years, Skakel fought unsuccessfully for his conviction to be overturned. But a judge gave Skakel, 53, a chance for a fresh start Wednesday, ruling that the defense during his 2002 trial had been inadequate.

John Smriga with the State's Attorney's Office in Bridgeport said an appeal is planned, but he provided no further details.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Skakel's cousin, described the judge's order as a "blessed event."

"I think everybody who knows Michael's overjoyed with it," Kennedy told CNN's "AC360."

In a lengthy opinion Wednesday, Connecticut Appellate Judge Thomas Bishop ruled that defense attorney Michael "Mickey" Sherman's representation of Skakel was "constitutionally deficient."

15-year-old Martha Moxley died in 1975.

"The defense of a serious felony prosecution requires attention to detail, an energetic investigation and a coherent plan of defense (capably) executed," Bishop wrote in his decision. "Trial counsel's failures in each of these areas of representation were significant and, ultimately, fatal to a constitutionally adequate defense."

Skakel's new attorneys had argued that Sherman failed to adequately represent him in court.

Sherman said Wednesday that he was happy for his former client.

"I've always believed in Michael's innocence," Sherman told CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin.

CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin called the order a "shocking development," saying the case "was brilliantly litigated by the prosecutors."

The judge's ruling raises a number of questions: What's next in the high-profile case? Will Skakel be released on bail? And will prosecutors push forward with a new trial, nearly four decades after the alleged slaying?

In his decision, Bishop wrote that Skakel's conviction would be set aside, ruling that a new trial should be the next step in the case.

  Photos: Kennedy family tragedies

Toobin: Conviction ruling is 'unusual'

"A defendant's constitutional right to adequate representation cannot be overshadowed by the inconvenience and financial and emotional cost of a new trial," he said.

But so many years after Moxley's death, that may be easier said than done.

"Now it is going to be very difficult to try him again, so that's why the prosecutors, I think, are going to do everything in their power to get this conviction reinstated without having to go back to court," Toobin said.

Moxley's body was found after a night of partying with Skakel, his older brother Tommy and other teenagers in an affluent gated community in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Skakel also was 15 at the time of the murder.

The 1993 best-selling novel "A Season in Purgatory" is based on the case.