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CNN Live Today

New Trial for Skakel?

Aired September 08, 2003 - 11:00   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Could it be a Perry Mason moment for Michael Skakel? His attorneys are making plans today to seek a new trial for the cousin of the famous Kennedy clan. Of course you'll remember a Connecticut jury connected Skakel with the golf club murder of Martha Moxley. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. That would have seemed to close the book of the 1975 murder case, but now after 28 years of silence, a new voice has emerged, an informant claiming that Martha Moxley was actually killed by two of his buddies from the Bronx, and not by Skakel. Oddly enough, as if we didn't need another twist, the source is a cousin of NBA star Kobe Bryant, who of course faces his own legal troubles.
Lynne Tuohy, criminal justice correspondent for "The Hartford Courant," broke the story, and she joins us from Hartford this morning.

Lynne, good morning.

Well, this is a doozy. This one is so hard to believe. Kobe Bryant's cousin, the key to what they say is changing around the Michael Skakel verdict. How did this even come about?

LYNNE TUOHY, "HARTFORD COURANT": Well in a very odd and surprising way, at just a routine hearing last week to disperse reward money by prosecutors for some of their witnesses, the defense says, put the brakes on here, we have new evidence that will suggest that Michael Skakel did not commit this murder. Instead, we have a man who was a classmate of Skakel's, as well as several other men, at the Brunswick school in Greenwich, who is prepared to say that two of his friends killed Martha Moxley.

KAGAN: And so the basic theory is that these two guys from the Bronx allegedly met Martha Moxley at a church festival on the morning of her murder.

TUOHY: No, not on the morning of her murder, but in the weeks previous to that. They had met her fleetingly. They were in the company of Tony Bryant. They did not attend the Brunswick school themselves, but Bryant now represents that they would go to Bell Haven, where the murder occurred, and party with him and with some of the people who live in Bell Haven, and that they were there the night of murder with him.

Now, he says he parted company when they started some crazy talk about getting a girl caveman style, also says that they were carrying a golf club they picked up off of the Skakel lawn, because they were just sort of roaming with a bunch of people there. Now interestingly, Daryn, in all of the police reports and interviews done after the murder no one has mentioned seeing these kids.

KAGAN: Well, and the big question, too, is where has this account been during these years, especially during the high-profile Skakel trial?

TUOHY: The representation is that two friends of Tony Bryant's, both tried to bring his version of events to the attention of the prosecution and Skakel's former defense attorneys, and that no one would listen, and possibly in part because they wouldn't reveal the names of their friends, Tony Bryant's name. So no one paid much heed to this story, and Bryant himself for whatever reason, refused to come forward. He did not come forward even at this time. Defense investigators tracked him to his home in Miami, Florida, confronted him,and he supposedly has done a 90-minute videotaped interview with them, spilling out the whole story.

KAGAN: And so now the push will come for this new trial. When we will hear if that's granted.

TUOHY: They haven't even filed a petition yet for the new trial. That's supposed to come sometime later this week or next week. We should be getting more details at that time about the nature of Bryant's claims, the names of men he is pointing the finger at. We're in a wait-and-see mode.

KAGAN: Well, there's a lot to see. We will await it along with you. Lynne Tuohy, thank you for that. Good scoop.

TUOHY: Thank you, Daryn.

KAGAN: Appreciate you coming on.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 8, 2003 - 11:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Could it be a Perry Mason moment for Michael Skakel? His attorneys are making plans today to seek a new trial for the cousin of the famous Kennedy clan. Of course you'll remember a Connecticut jury connected Skakel with the golf club murder of Martha Moxley. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. That would have seemed to close the book of the 1975 murder case, but now after 28 years of silence, a new voice has emerged, an informant claiming that Martha Moxley was actually killed by two of his buddies from the Bronx, and not by Skakel. Oddly enough, as if we didn't need another twist, the source is a cousin of NBA star Kobe Bryant, who of course faces his own legal troubles.
Lynne Tuohy, criminal justice correspondent for "The Hartford Courant," broke the story, and she joins us from Hartford this morning.

Lynne, good morning.

Well, this is a doozy. This one is so hard to believe. Kobe Bryant's cousin, the key to what they say is changing around the Michael Skakel verdict. How did this even come about?

LYNNE TUOHY, "HARTFORD COURANT": Well in a very odd and surprising way, at just a routine hearing last week to disperse reward money by prosecutors for some of their witnesses, the defense says, put the brakes on here, we have new evidence that will suggest that Michael Skakel did not commit this murder. Instead, we have a man who was a classmate of Skakel's, as well as several other men, at the Brunswick school in Greenwich, who is prepared to say that two of his friends killed Martha Moxley.

KAGAN: And so the basic theory is that these two guys from the Bronx allegedly met Martha Moxley at a church festival on the morning of her murder.

TUOHY: No, not on the morning of her murder, but in the weeks previous to that. They had met her fleetingly. They were in the company of Tony Bryant. They did not attend the Brunswick school themselves, but Bryant now represents that they would go to Bell Haven, where the murder occurred, and party with him and with some of the people who live in Bell Haven, and that they were there the night of murder with him.

Now, he says he parted company when they started some crazy talk about getting a girl caveman style, also says that they were carrying a golf club they picked up off of the Skakel lawn, because they were just sort of roaming with a bunch of people there. Now interestingly, Daryn, in all of the police reports and interviews done after the murder no one has mentioned seeing these kids.

KAGAN: Well, and the big question, too, is where has this account been during these years, especially during the high-profile Skakel trial?

TUOHY: The representation is that two friends of Tony Bryant's, both tried to bring his version of events to the attention of the prosecution and Skakel's former defense attorneys, and that no one would listen, and possibly in part because they wouldn't reveal the names of their friends, Tony Bryant's name. So no one paid much heed to this story, and Bryant himself for whatever reason, refused to come forward. He did not come forward even at this time. Defense investigators tracked him to his home in Miami, Florida, confronted him,and he supposedly has done a 90-minute videotaped interview with them, spilling out the whole story.

KAGAN: And so now the push will come for this new trial. When we will hear if that's granted.

TUOHY: They haven't even filed a petition yet for the new trial. That's supposed to come sometime later this week or next week. We should be getting more details at that time about the nature of Bryant's claims, the names of men he is pointing the finger at. We're in a wait-and-see mode.

KAGAN: Well, there's a lot to see. We will await it along with you. Lynne Tuohy, thank you for that. Good scoop.

TUOHY: Thank you, Daryn.

KAGAN: Appreciate you coming on.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com