Michael Skakel, a Kennedy relative, was tried again last month for the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley, after being in prison for 11 years. On Thursday, he was released on $1.2 million bail, but will have to remain in the state of Connecticut and wear a tracking bracelet.
Many family members and friends were relieved to see Skakel freed, but relatives of Martha Moxley were less pleased. Her brother John commented after the decision: “We stand behind the state. We are confident that Judge Bishop’s decision will be overturned. But if there is another trial we will be here for that, too.”
Skakel’s family members called his imprisonment “a terrible wrong,” and added that they “look forward to Michael being vindicated and justice finally being served.”
The court ruling came as a surprise to some though, and prosecutors pointed out that in addition to shaky evidence, Skakel’s motive for murdering Moxley was believeable. “His drug-addled mental state, coupled with the infuriating knowledge that his hated brother Tommy had a sexual liaison with Martha, and the fact that Martha spurned his advances, triggered the rage which led him to beat her to death with a golf club,” prosecutor Susann Gill wrote.
