Trial
In June 1998, a rarely invoked one-man grand jury was convened. In June 2000, Michael Skakel, now a 40-year-old divorced father of one, was indicted for Moxley's murder. His alibi was that at the time of the murder he was at his cousin's house. During the trial the jury heard part of a taped book proposal, which included Michael Skakel speaking about masturbating in a tree on the night of the murder—possibly the same tree under which Moxley's body was found the next morning. In the book proposal Skakel did not admit he committed the murder. Prosecutors took words from the book proposal and overlaid them on graphic images of Moxley's dead body in a computerized, multimedia presentation shown to jurors during closing arguments. In the audiotape, Skakel said that he was afraid he might have been seen the previous night "jerking off", and he panicked. Though the jury heard the whole tape, during the closing arguments the prosecutor did not play the portion of the audiotape where Skakel said "jerking off", giving the impression that he was confessing to the murder.
Michael Skakel was convicted for Moxley's murder on June 7, 2002, and was given a sentence of 20 years to life in prison.
The prosecutors' use of the multimedia presentation during closing arguments was included in Skakel's initial appeal and the judge ruled, "The state engaged in appropriate and effective advocacy by using trial exhibits to highlight certain evidence and inferences.... Just as the state should not be deprived of its most valuable evidence unless there is a compelling reason to do so, the state should not be prohibited from making its best arguments. The state's use of audio and photographic exhibits during argument was a matter of effective advocacy. The state did not, as defendant claims, distort the evidence in any respect. By placing certain exhibits next to defendant's words, or by displaying two related exhibits simultaneously, the state was making explicit the inferences it was asking the jury to draw. This is the job of an advocate...."
Read more about this topic: Martha Moxley
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