Tuesday, March 21, 2006 · Last updated 9:58 a.m. PT

Skakel to appeal to Supreme Court

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

STAMFORD, Conn. -- An attorney for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel said Tuesday she would appeal his murder conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Connecticut Supreme Court refused to resconsider the case.

Skakel, 45, is serving a sentence of 20 years to life for his 2002 conviction in the 1975 beating death of his Greenwich neighbor, Martha Moxley, when the two were teenagers.

Skakel appealed his conviction to the Connecticut Supreme Court last year, arguing among other things that the statute of limitations had expired when he was charged in 2000. The court unanimously rejected that appeal in January.

The motion for reconsideration had asked the court to review its decision, which overturned a 1983 precedent. The court denied the motion last week.

Attorney Hope Seeley said Tuesday she would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, also has a petition for a new trial pending in Superior Court in Stamford. That petition is based on a claim by Gitano "Tony" Bryant implicating two of his friends in Moxley's murder. Bryant is a cousin of basketball star Kobe Bryant.