Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo Jr. said at a brief hearing at Stamford Superior Court that there just wasn’t enough evidence for a retrial. He said he reinvestigated the case and identified more than 50 potential witnesses, but 17 of them were dead.
“The state cannot prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Colangelo told Judge Gary White.
Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel Kennedy, did not speak during the hearing or outside the court.
Moxley’s brother John said he still believes Skakel killed his sister but he and their mother, Dorthy, now 88, are at peace with the decision not to seek a second trial.
Skakel was arrested in 2000, convicted of murder in 2002 and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. Several appeals followed. After serving the prison time, he was freed in 2013 on $1.2 million bail after a lower court judge overturned his conviction, saying his trial lawyer failed to adequately represent him.
The state Supreme Court reinstated the conviction in a 4-3 ruling in 2016. But the justice who wrote the decision retired soon afterward and a new justice sided with Skakel in a highly unusual 4-3 opinion in 2018 that overturned the conviction. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the state’s appeal last year.
— Associated Press
EDUCATION
Actress reports to prison in college scam
Authorities say “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin has reported to a federal prison in California to begin serving her two-month sentence for her role in the college admissions bribery scandal.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Boston said Friday that Loughlin was being processed at the federal lockup in Dublin, Calif.
“The parties recently agreed that the defendant can report to prison on October 30, 2020, instead of on November 19, 2020. The defendant has further agreed that, during her two month sentence, she will not seek an early release from prison on COVID-related grounds,” prosecutor said in a statement.
Under the Bureau of Prisons’ coronavirus protocols, Loughlin will be screened and tested for the virus and will be placed in quarantine for 14 days.
The low-security prison in Northern California houses 874 inmates and had two positive coronavirus cases among inmates, as of Friday morning, federal statistics show.
In August, Loughlin was sentenced to two months and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, got five months for paying half a million dollars in bribes to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as rowing recruits.
Prosecutors said Giannulli didn’t report to prison with Loughlin on Friday.
Plea deals worked out with the celebrity couple call for Loughlin to pay a $150,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service, and Giannulli to pay a $250,000 fine and perform 250 hours of community service.
— Associated Press