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 HARTFORD — More than 40 years after 15-year-old Martha Moxley was found beaten to death near her home in Greenwich, Conn., a lawyer for the man convicted in the killing laid out a litany of reasons that his client, Michael C. Skakel, “did not get a fair shake” during his 2002 trial. 
 
 Mr. Skakel, a relative of the Kennedy family, was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 20 years to life. But he was released from prison after 11 years in 2013, when a judge ruled that his lawyer at the time, Mickey Sherman, had not provided an adequate defense and that Mr. Skakel should be retried. 
 
 On Wednesday, state prosecutors said that Mr. Skakel, 55, did not deserve a new trial and that his conviction should be reinstated. Defense lawyers argued that the 2013 decision should stand. 
 
 Hubert Santos, a lawyer for Mr. Skakel, told a panel of six Connecticut Supreme Court justices that Mr. Skakel’s older brother, Thomas Skakel, was the most likely perpetrator of one of the state’s most notorious crimes. “The weight of the evidence is that Tommy Skakel killed Martha Moxley,” Mr. Santos said. “That’s what Greenwich police believed for 10 years.” 
 
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 But the police did not have enough evidence to charge Thomas Skakel with the crime, Mr. Santos said. 
 
 On Wednesday, a now-familiar cast of characters surrounding the case convened in a courtroom to rehash arguments about the believability of witnesses, timelines, alibis and a lack of physical evidence linking Michael Skakel to the murder. ||||| HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel’s conviction for a 1975 murder was the result of a myriad of poor decisions by his trial lawyer, who failed to tell jurors that his brother might have committed the killing, Skakel’s appellate attorney told the Connecticut Supreme Court on Wednesday. 
 
 Outside the courtroom, Skakel’s cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeated previous statements he has made about evidence showing two other men killed teenager Martha Moxley, who was bludgeoned to death with a golf club in the wealthy Greenwich neighborhood where she and the Skakel family lived at the time. 
 
 Prosecutors went before the state’s highest court Wednesday to argue that Skakel’s 2002 murder conviction should be reinstated. 
 
 Skakel, 55, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, had been sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. But a judge in 2013 ordered a new trial after finding that defense attorney Michael Sherman failed to adequately represent his client. 
 
 Skakel, now free on $1.2 million bail, sat next to Kennedy Jr. in the gallery of the courtroom during the arguments. Skakel declined to comment. 
 
 It’s not clear when the court will issue its decision. 
 
 Prosecutor Susann Gill told the justices that Sherman, who has defended his work, did a competent job investigating and trying the case, and that Skakel’s appellate lawyers have not met the high burden under case law to prove ineffective counsel. She also stood by the state’s position that there was “substantial” evidence that Michael Skakel killed Martha Moxley. 
 
 Gill noted that Sherman put together a defense team that included other lawyers and several investigators. 
 
 “This was far from a slipshod defense,” Gill said. “This was a well-planned … well-thought-out defense. Mr. Sherman pulled in a lot of resources and presented a coherent defense.” 
 
 “DID NOT GET A FAIR SHAKE” 
 
 Hubert Santos, Skakel’s appellate lawyer, said Sherman made numerous poor decisions, including not focusing on Skakel’s older brother, Thomas Skakel, as a possible suspect. 
 
 “This defendant did not get a fair shake,” Santos told the court. “The weight of the evidence is that Tommy Skakel killed Martha Moxley.” 
 
 Santos also said Michael Skakel had an alibi on the night of the killing at 10 p.m., the time that he said evidence shows Moxley was killed. He cited testimony that Michael Skakel and some relatives left the neighborhood at about 9:30 p.m. to go to his cousin’s house 20 minutes away to watch a Monty Python movie. 
 
 Santos accused prosecutors of moving the time of the killing to an undetermined time between 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 30, 1975, and 5:30 a.m. the next day, in response to Skakel’s alibi. Prosecutors deny that. 
 
 LACK OF EVIDENCE 
 
 Santos also said there was no forensic or physical evidence linking Michael Skakel to the killing. 
 
 Thomas Skakel’s attorney has previously said that his client had nothing to do with the slaying. 
 
 Thomas Skakel was an early suspect in the case, because he was the last person seen with Moxley. Santos said Thomas Skakel admitted to investigators hired by his father that he had a sexual encounter with Moxley in which he unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them down between 9:30 and 9:55 p.m. on the night of the killing. Moxley was found dead the next day with her pants pulled down. 
 
 “I WANT HIM BACK IN JAIL” 
 
 But prosecutors have said that highlighting Thomas Skakel’s relationship with Moxley actually would have bolstered their argument that Michael Skakel killed her in a jealous rage. 
 
 Michael Skakel, who like Moxley was 15 years old at the time of the killing, had admitted to two women that he was aware his brother had sexual contact with Moxley the night of the murder and told one woman that is what triggered it, prosecutors wrote in court documents. But prosecutors say the trial defense rightly decided not to focus on Thomas Skakel because there wasn’t sufficient evidence. 
 
 After the hearing, Moxley’s mother, Dorthy Moxley, 83, said the appeal process has been frustrating. 
 
 “I’ll just be glad when it’s over,” she said. “I want him back in jail.” 
 
 Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ||||| FILE- In this April 18, 2013 file photo, Michael Skakel listens to his former defense attorney Mickey Sherman testify at Skakel's habeas corpus hearing at Rockville Superior Court in Vernon, Conn. The... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE- In this April 18, 2013 file photo, Michael Skakel listens to his former defense attorney Mickey Sherman testify at Skakel's habeas corpus hearing at Rockville Superior Court in Vernon, Conn. The... (Associated Press) 
 
 HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — In a stunning reversal, the Connecticut Supreme Court on Friday overturned Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel's murder conviction in the 1975 bludgeoning death of a girl in wealthy Greenwich. 
 
 The high court issued a 4-3 ruling that Skakel's trial attorney failed to present evidence of an alibi. The same court in December 2016 had reinstated Skakel's conviction after a lower court ordered a new trial, citing mistakes by the trial attorney, Mickey Sherman. 
 
 It wasn't immediately clear if prosecutors will subject Skakel to a new trial. A spokesman for Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane said prosecutors were reviewing the new ruling. He declined further comment. 
 
 Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel Kennedy, was convicted of murder in 2002 in the death of Martha Moxley in 1975 when they were teenagers. He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, but was freed on $1.2 million bail after serving 11 years behind bars when the lower court overturned his murder conviction in 2013. 
 
 The case has drawn international attention because of the Kennedy name, Skakel's rich family, numerous theories about who killed Moxley and the brutal way in which she died. Several other people, including Skakel's brother Tommy Skakel, have been mentioned as possible killers. 
 
 The slaying took place in the exclusive Bell Haven section of Greenwich where Martha and Skakel were neighbors. At trial, prosecutors said Skakel was angry with Martha because she had spurned his advances while having a sexual liaison with his brother Tommy. 
 
 Skakel's appellate lawyer, Hubert Santos, had asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its 2016 ruling, resulting in Friday's decision. 
 
 "We're elated that our argument was vindicated," Santos said Friday. "It was a good decision because it was spot on the law." 
 
 Santos argued that Sherman made poor decisions, including not focusing on Skakel's brother as a possible suspect and failing to attempt to contact an alibi witness. Santos said Skakel was several miles away from the crime scene on Oct. 30, 1975 watching a Monty Python movie with friends when Moxley was bludgeoned with a golf club. 
 
 Santos also has said there was no physical evidence or eyewitnesses linking Skakel to the killing. 
 
 Sherman has defended his work, and state prosecutors have argued he did an adequate job. The Associated Press left a message with him Friday seeking comment on the ruling. 
 
 Conservative Justice Peter Zarella wrote the majority opinion when the highly divided Supreme Court reinstated Skakel's conviction in a 4-3 ruling in December 2016. Zarella left the court at the end of 2016 to return to private practice. 
 
 When the Supreme Court ruled Friday, the panel included the same justices that ruled in 2016 — minus Zarella. It included Justice Gregory D'Auria, a former lawyer in the state attorney general's office named to the court last year. D'Auria was in the majority decision Friday. 
 
 The high court's reversal of a previous ruling is highly unusual, legal observers said. 
 
 Writing for the majority Friday, Justice Richard Palmer said Skakel was prejudiced in the case by Sherman's failure to obtain alibi testimony from witness Denis Ossorio. 
 
 "Without Ossorio's testimony, the state was able to attack the petitioner's (Skakel's) alibi — a complete alibi for the time period during which it is highly likely that the victim was murdered — as part of a Skakel family conspiracy to cover up the petitioner's involvement in the victim's murder," Palmer wrote. 
 
 In a dissent, Justice Dennis Eveleigh noted that the exact time of the killing was never established and a medical examiner's report concluded it likely happened sometime between 9:30 p.m. and 4:30 or 5:30 the next morning. 
 
 "I believe that the majority fails to consider the well-established rule that, as a matter of law, an alibi defense is no defense at all when it is reasonably possible that the crime was committed outside of the alibi period. That is certainly the case here," Eveleigh wrote. 
 
 Moxley's brother, John Moxley, told the AP that he was disappointed with the ruling and that it was too soon to say what the family would want next in the case. 
 
 "I don't know what the next steps are. My mom is getting older. I just don't think she has the strength to go on with this," said Moxley, 59. 
 
 He said he would not trade places with Skakel for anything. 
 
 "He'll be in jail for the rest of his life," Moxley said. "He may not be physically in jail. He may be walking the streets, but he'll be in hell at some point." 
 
 ____ 
 
 Associated Press writer Michael Melia contributed to this report.
– More than 40 years ago, 15-year-old Martha Moxley was found beaten to death near her home in the exclusive community of Belle Haven in Greenwich, Conn. On Wednesday, the lawyer for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, who was convicted in 2002 of murdering her, told a panel of six Connecticut Supreme Court justices that his client "did not get a fair shake," the New York Times reports. The justices must decide whether Skakel, 55, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, was denied his right to a fair trial. "The weight of the evidence is that Tommy Skakel killed Martha Moxley," attorney Hubert Santos told the court, referring to Michael Skakel's older brother, who had been a prime suspect in the 1975 murder. It's the third time the Supreme Court has heard arguments in the case, the Hartford Courant reports. Santos contends that Skakel's previous lawyer failed to provide an adequate defense. In 2013, he convinced a lower court justice that Skakel likely would have been acquitted if not for tactical errors by Michael Sherman (who was later sent to prison for dodging federal taxes). Since then, Skakel has been free on $1.2 million bail, per the AP. On Wednesday, prosecutor Susann Gill argued that Skakel had received a "well-planned, well-thought-out defense," which included four lawyers and several investigators. “This was far from a slipshod defense,” she said. Moxley's mother, Dorthy, who was in court, says she is convinced Michael Skakel killed her daughter. "I'm sure Michael is the young man who swung the golf club," she told reporters. "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind about that," adding, "Michael got a fair trial." If the justices agree with Santos, prosecutors must decide whether to retry Skakel, per the Courant. If they rule for the prosecution, he will likely go back to prison.