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CNN Live Today
Kendall Coffey Discusses Skakel Sentencing
Aired August 29, 2002 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Court is going to get under way any moment now in Norwalk, Connecticut. Michael Skakel enters what could be the most important day of his life. Skakel is expected to testify in his own sentencing hearing and ask for leniency of the 1975 beating death of his teenage neighbor.
Our Deborah Feyerick has been following the proceedings, and she joins us now with the very latest.
Good morning -- Deb.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there, Leon.
That's really the big question: What is Michael Skakel going to say? What is the point he wants to make to the judge before finding out what his sentence is. Today, he is going to have a chance it address the court. It is likely that that's exactly what he is going to do. This comes after what really was a very difficult day yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK (voice-over): Michael Skakel headed back to a high security prison. He had changed out of the dark suit he wore in court and back into his khaki prison uniform. It was an emotional day for the 41-year-old Kennedy cousin as he listened to the mother of Martha Moxley, the girl he's convicted of beating to death with a golf club, tell the judge how much she missed her child and how she felt Skakel should get the maximum sentence.
DOROTHY MOXLEY, MARTHA'S MOTHER: We were sentenced to a life without Martha and so I think, you know, it's just fitting that Michael is sentenced to a life without his little boy, also. He will, you know, he'll be able to be out of jail and get back into his son's life, where Martha will never come back.
FEYERICK: Skakel choked up as Dorothy Moxley and her one surviving child, John Moxley, spoke. But Skakel's tears were heaviest when his own friends described how much of an impact he had on their lives.
DAVID BANGSBERG, SKAKEL FRIEND: We're dealing with a very worthy person here, with a profound sense of humanity and compassion. And the Michael Skakel that I know is incapable of doing what allegedly he is being charged with.
FEYERICK: The judge received dozens of letters from Skakel's family and friends, all asking for leniency. One letter from cousin Robert Kennedy, Jr. describes how Skakel, a former alcoholic, helped Kennedy get sober two decades ago. The judge will Crusader the letters and statements in deciding Skakel's prison sentence.
Skakel was defeated earlier in the day when the judge denied his lawyers' motions to toss out the jury's guilty verdict and get a new trial. Judge John Kavanewsky saying he was not persuaded by defense arguments.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Three Skakel supporters are expected to speak to the judge today, again pleading for leniency. And then that's when it is likely that Michael Skakel will stand up and speak on his own behalf. He did not testify at trial and he has said very little, although back about two years ago, early on in this whole procedure, he did at one point say to Mrs. Moxley, I feel your pain, but I didn't do it -- you've got the wrong guy.
The judge is going to go over the sentencing guidelines. The big unknown, Leon, is how Michael Skakel will be sentenced. Will the judge see him as a 15-year-old teenager, as he was the night Martha Moxley died, back in October 1975, or will the judge see him more as a 41-year-old adult who has really been able to have a life and live the last 20 years of his life? The defense team making strong arguments as to why Michael Skakel should receive leniency -- Leon.
HARRIS: Deborah Feyerick, in Norwalk, Connecticut. Thank you very much. We will get back to you in just a bit.
Now we want to turn to get some legal perspective on this case, and for that, we turn to Kendall Coffey, former U.S. attorney better known for his representation for such famous clients as Al Gore and Elian Gonzalez. He joins us now from Miami once again.
Good to see you again, Kendall.
KENDALL COFFEY, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Good morning, Leon.
HARRIS: Twenty-four hours ago, we were talking about the possibility of this Skakel getting another trial or some sort of, I guess another shot at least because of this sketch that popped up yesterday. It turns out that that argument didn't hold any water.
COFFEY: The judge apparently rejected it, saying that the defense could have, should have, would have maybe found it earlier because it was mentioned in police reports. It is not unusual for judges to focus on a procedural reason like that. But I think the bottom line is if the judge had thought that that sketch would have changed outcome of the trial, which is the legal standard, he would have done something to consider a new trial. He didn't. He doesn't think that sketch would have made a difference.
HARRIS: So now the posttrial motions are out of the way. Let's talk about the emotions of the courtroom and what to expect today. We are expecting Skakel to get up and testify today. As I heard the reports this morning, he actually shed some tears while he was in court yesterday. If you were advising him, and if you think there is any likelihood that he could do so, should he get up there and say that he was sorry?
COFFEY: Well, he is going to say not that he was sorry, and in a way that really limits how effective he can be, because for a defendant to get up in sentencing, the effective thing that the judge looks for, that the victims look for, is to say I'm sorry, I did it, I acknowledge, I repent. He is not going to do that. And from that perspective, it seems unlikely that he can say anything other than, you know, he feels terrible for the Moxley family, but he didn't do it. So to express sympathy and pain while withholding what I think is the most important thing from the victims in the court's standpoint, which is acknowledgement, doesn't do a defendant a whole lot of good in this situation.
HARRIS: That being the case, and if you don't expect to hear him say that sort of thing, what do you expect this judge to do, and how quickly would you expect this judge to act?
COFFEY: Well, you were talking about moments ago. The big question here is is the judge going to see him as 15-year-old, as he was at the time of the crime, with various extenuating circumstances or as 41-year-old who committed a horrible crime and has spent most of life avoiding justice. I think the judge is going to see him as the jury did, which is as a murderer who spent, in effect, so many years avoiding the consequences of a terrible crime. I think the judge, despite the many compelling submissions that are being made on his behalf, is going to sentence him at the high end of the available sentencing range.
HARRIS: So you think the judge has his mind made up already and we should see something happen today?
COFFEY: I think that there is everybody possibility the judge is going to rule today. When a case goes back 27 years, everybody in the most urgent way possible, from the victim's standpoint, wants closure. And I think in the judge's mind, the victims are going to weigh very heavily this morning and this afternoon.
HARRIS: Kendall Coffey, in Miami. We hope we can keep you around today as well just in case we get a chance to come back and talk to you some more about these developments in the courtroom in Norwalk, Connecticut. Take care.
COFFEY: Thanks, Leon.
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