AFP, NEW YORK:  Connecticut’s top court reinstated Friday the murder conviction of a nephew of the slain Robert F. Kennedy over the beating death of a 15-year-old girl more than four decades ago.
In a 4-3 decision, a divided Connecticut Supreme Court ordered a lower court to reject an appeal by Michael Skakel, a nephew to Kennedy through the late attorney general’s widow Ethel.
Defense attorney Hubert Santos did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Skakel was found guilty in 2002 of murdering Martha Moxley when both were just 15 years old in 1975.
But Skakel was released in 2013 on $1.2 million bail after a judge granted him a new trial based on claims that he was inadequately represented by his attorney at the time.
The Connecticut high court, however, concluded that Skakel’s trial attorney “rendered constitutionally adequate representation.”
Moxley’s body was found under a tree after a pre-Halloween party on the Skakel family’s Belle Haven estate.
There were no witnesses to the murder and no hard forensic evidence. A golf club used in the murder was later traced to a set once owned by Skakel’s late mother.