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CNN Live Today

Witnesses Contradict Each Other in Skakel Trial

Aired May 24, 2002 - 11:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In Connecticut, one of Michael Skakel's ex-classmates is on the stand this morning in his murder trial. CNN's Deborah Feyerick has been at the courthouse in Norwalk all along. She is still there this morning. Let's check in with her to see how things are going.

Morning, Deborah.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning, Leon.

Well, it boils down to this. Who is telling the truth? Is it the classmates who have been called by prosecutors, one of whom says he heard Michael Skakel say, "I did it," in connection with the Moxley murder. Or is it the classmates that we've heard from recently called by the defense, four of whom say they never heard Michael Skakel confess, no badly how badly he was beaten at this rehab school.

Well, some of the most powerful testimony came when the jury was out of the courtroom. It concerns a classmate by the name of John Higgins. He is the one who testified that he heard Michael Skakel say, "I did it." Well, a witness, Angela McFillin, said that John Higgins was an opportunist, someone who would embellish the truth in order to make himself look good, making other people look bad.

The defense is trying to paint this man out as a liar, but the judge said, you can't good there. You can't have one witness call another witness a liar. It is simply against the rules. The defense is trying to make the point that if John Higgins did have this confession, this "I did it," that he was the kind of person that would definitely have run to a staff member or supervisor and let them know about it.

Now there is also a second witness from the -- second classmate that the defense is trying to knock down. He is the one who heard, apparently heard Michael Skakel say, "I'm a Kennedy. I'm going to get away with murder." Well, apparently this all happened during a conversation in which the classmate, Greg Coleman, saw Skakel with a stereo, and he said, boy, you get away with murder. That is when Michael is supposed to have made the statement that he did.

Well, Angela McFillin broke that down. She said Michael Skakel had just run away. He was being kept on a stage, he was being guarded the whole time. There is no way that he had a stereo up there, and she says she never saw a stereo up there. So that sort of undercuts the validity of that testimony, and if you are wondering how somebody can recall 27 years later whether someone had a stereo, well, she described it, summing it up, saying, it was very traumatic. There are sometimes things you never forget -- Leon.

HARRIS: Boy, that is interesting, because there are so many things that would be impossible to remember -- that, in that long span of time. The jury is going to have a lot of work cut out for it.

Deborah Feyerick, thank you very much.

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