KENNEDY cousin MICHAEL SKAKEL’s lawyer told a panel of Connecticut judges that his client’s 20-year to life prison sentence for beating his teen neighbor to death with a golf club in 1975 was “excessive”.
Skakel’s lawyer told a three-judge tribunal his client was 15 years old at the time of the murder and should have been tried as a juvenile, receiving a maximum sentence of four years.
Skakel, who appeared in court cuffed and shackled while rocking an orange prison jumpsuit, continues to maintain his innocence.
Skakel claims to be “baffled” by the legal process and pleaded with the judges to allow “the truth” to come out.
He told the judges he prays for the slain girl’s mother every day.
The hearing today was only an appeal on the length of the Skakel’s sentence, and NOT an appeal of the murder conviction.
A prosecutor told the judges the sentence was appropriate, elaborating that Skakel could have been tried as an adult in 1975.
A decision is expected to be rendered in two months.
