Michael Skakel Won't Be Retried In Martha Moxley Murder Case

GREENWICH, CT — Prosecutors decided not to retry the case of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel in the 1975 Greenwich killing of 15-year-old Martha Moxley during a hearing held Friday morning in Stamford, according to several media reports.

Chief State's attorney Richard Colangelo said during the hearing the state cannot prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt due to the amount of time that has passed and the deaths of a number of witnesses, the Hartford Courant reports.

Colangelo is expected to enter a nolle in the case, which would result in a dismissal in 13 months, the Hartford Courant reports.

Colangelo discussed the case's long history, which included multiple appeals, and noted 17 of the more than 50 witnesses in this case are now dead, News 12 CT reports.

Moxley's brother, John, who was present for the hearing, said to reporters after the hearing he and his mother were at peace with the state's decision.

"I don't think Michael Skakel is the devil," Moxley said to reporters. "I think that he did something in a fit of jealous rage...his life will never be the same, and mine will never be the same. I wouldn't want to walk a mile in his shoes."

He also confirmed he remains convinced Skakel is the person responsible for his sister's death.

Skakel, the nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel Kennedy, was convicted of murder in 2002 and sentenced to prison. He was later freed in 2013 on $1.2 million bail after a judge overturned his conviction. The judge said Skakel's trial lawyer failed to adequately represent him, and he was released after serving 11 years in prison, according to reports.

Skakel's attorney, Stephan Seeger, said after Friday's hearing prosecutors had made the right decision and his client could finally move on with his life, according to News 12 CT.

Seeger also told reporters after the hearing the decision to noelle comes on the heels of "a lot of discussion" and does not come as a "legal epiphany."

"It shouldn't dawn on the state today that they didn't have enough evidence," Seeger said to reporters. "They've known that for a long time, and yet they continued to press the case even as recently as last year."

The high-profile case has been the focus of a number of books, television news segments and decades worth of media stories.

According to the Greenwich Time, Moxley was beaten to death with a golf club on Oct. 30, 1975, exactly 45 years prior to Friday's hearing. Her body was found the following day under a tree on her family's Greenwich estate.

Though the case went unsolved for decades, Skakel was ultimately arrested in 2000, the Greenwich Time reports. He was sentenced to prison in 2002 and served time behind bars until his conviction was overturned in late 2013.