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Kennedy cousin takes case to state supreme court

Michael Skakel

By Ronni Berke
CNN Producer

HARTFORD, Connecticut (CNN) -- Defense attorneys for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel are expected to urge the Connecticut State Supreme Court Tuesday to overturn a lower court ruling that transfers a 25-year-old murder case to adult court.

Connecticut Attorney Jonathan Benedict will drop the case if it is sent back to juvenile court, a source close to the case said.

Skakel, 41, was arrested in January 2000 for the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley, when they were both 15-year-old neighbors. Moxley was found bludgeoned to death with a golf club under a pine tree outside her home in the affluent Greenwich, Connecticut, community of Bell Haven.

Skakel originally was charged as a juvenile. Last January, Judge Maureen Dennis ruled the case should be transferred to adult court. Dennis said Skakel must be tried as an adult because there were no juvenile facilities available in Connecticut to accommodate a middle-aged defendant.

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Skakel appealed Dennis's decision in April. In an unusual move, both the defense and prosecution agreed to bypass the appellate court and ask the Supreme Court to rule on the case.

In juvenile court, Skakel faced a maximum sentence of four years in a rehabilitative facility, as opposed to a sentence of 25 years to life in prison if convicted as an adult.

In a separate matter, Stamford Presiding Criminal Court Judge John Kavenewsky is considering a defense motion to dismiss the case. Defense attorneys have cited a statute of limitations on non-capital murder which was in effect at the time of the killing.

The law, which was repealed by the Connecticut legislature in 1976, placed a statute of limitations on all charges not punishable by death. Connecticut did not have the death penalty at the time of the murder.

In an August hearing, Benedict argued against dismissal, saying simply that "murder is murder."