US Judge Startles Legal Watchers By Overturning A Unanimous Verdict: Is This Hellmann Part Deux?

Comments

Pete, wouldn’t Sherman’s duty to competently-defend require him to insist that Skakel tell Sherman him the truth of what really happened?

Suppose Skakel had told Sherman that he was guilty?  Wouldn’t that justify Sherman’s M.O., now alleged to have lacked sufficient zeal?

Doesn’t attorney-client privilege now prevent Sherman from justifying his original M.O.?

This sure is a protracted and well documented case. The judge issued a 136 page report on his decision to require a new trial which comes down heavily on Skakel’s side.

Many think he was too hard on Mickey Sherman who may have fumbled a few points but who had a dog of a client that Mickey may have thought was lying through his teeth. .

The only thing hard to find online is a shot of the Moxley’s original house. Martha’s father didnt last very long after she died; they say that the murder broke his will to live. Her mother sold the house years ago and moved to new Jersey.

Now in her early 80s, she is still tenacious and tireless, a one person band.

Skakel has few of the addled groupies that Knox is plagued with; here’s betting the judge would NOT have sprung him if lots of those loonies were applying pressure. Here are three long documents which help to get a handle on the case.

http://www.truejustice.org/ee/documents/perugia/Moxley_case_timeline.pdf

http://www.truejustice.org/ee/documents/perugia/Moxley_Skakel_arrest_warrant.pdf

http://www.truejustice.org/ee/documents/perugia/Moxley_secret_meeting.pdf

Hi Cardiol:

You raise an incredibly interesting point. Mickey Sherman testified in the hearing in Connecticut that he essentially did what was agreed.

The things he was “instructed” to do by Skakel and didnt were very minor, the main one being to not challenge two jurors who might - might - have had prior bias against.

It looks like Sherman was hired to sway public opinion rather than argue the fine points of the law, maybe because all of the Skakel family and team perhaps though he had dropped himself in it way too far.

What Skakel told various people at various times about his role in Martha’s death was astonishing. It reads like Sollecito’s “catch me if you can” backpatting only on steroids.

I did come across the judge’s 136 page report and read a lot of it but I didnt keep the link and couldnt download it. If anyone finds it, could you let us all know?

It read a bit too much like Judge Hellmann to me!  It would be interesting to get some other takes.

Google Street View doesnt work on Walsh Lane which is within a private compound. Put this in Google Earth Search to see the area from above:

41° 0’33.93"N   73°38’6.38"W

This marker is directly above the former Moxley house, which has been rebuilt and re-landscaped and the former trees among which Martha was attacked are all gone.

The Skakel house can be seen above it, diagonally to the left across the road.

I read the Mark Fuhrman book, “Murder in Greenwich” years ago and it depicted a troubled Skakel family with Tommy and Michael running amok with poor supervision. Michael’s jealousy at Tommy’s easy success with girls was the sad tinderbox that needed only the match of young, naive Martha.

IIRC, Martha Moxley had only recently moved to the Greenwich neighborhood from California. She was trying to adjust and fit in and was too young and foolish to realize the danger of flirting with these unstable guys. In my old-fashioned dreams it seemed nobody was using much sense with late night parties and unchaperoned women roaming with no clue.

Michael Skakel looked a bit below par in intelligence. IIRC he told one of his groups in some expensive rehab that he killed Martha. The Kennedy name scared everyone and was the clout that drove the political push, probably to re-try the case.

Poor attorney Sherman, he couldn’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Don’t all clients feel their lawyer has “failed” them if he can’t get them off murder charges? These sick perps are lucky anybody will launch a defense for them. RIP Martha Moxley.

What a bunch of crazies - they do sound like spoiled rich kids with no sense of morals - and where was the parental supervision of these 15 year olds, especially Michael who sounds like he was either on drugs or had definite psychological problems for some time?  Wandering around the neighborhood looking in windows at night? 

I can’t understand why no DNA was found on the murder weapon.  Awful for that girl and her parents.  Hope they can solve the case - I was sure it was Michael until reading that part that Thomas was ‘involved in a sexual encounter’ with Martha while Michael was in the tree.  So strange. Obviously some of the friends had been lying too - they should come clean now about the ‘party’ at the cousin’s house etc.

This letter from a friend paints a different picture of Michael though.  http://marthamoxley.com/impact-RFK/index4.html

Theoretically, Sherman could be reported to the Connecticut Law Licensure Board for misconduct but I very, very, much doubt that anyone would be so brazenly misguided as to lodge such a complaint.

If that happened, Sherman might request to be heard In Camera so that he could circumvent the Attorney-Client Privilege issue.

If Sherman had actually done what he is now accused of negligently Not-Doing, he would still be ‘condemned’ by the FOS.

P.S. Not to drift too-far OT, the false accuser of the Duke Lacrosse (DL) Team, has just been sentenced to jail for the murder of one of her “Boy-Friends”.
The DL Case was an inspiration for TJMK.
It left a corrupt State’s Attorney still-Disbarred in its wake.
The falsely-accused players were Officially declared to be not only Not Guilty, but actually Innocent. They are still stigmatized in some circles.

The DL Case left too many Duke-PC-extremists relatively-unharmed, but also stigmatized.

I just went to the Amanda Knox web site and scrolled down to the “Is Amanda Knox Guilty?” It’s at ‘Debate.org’

The left hand column is for guilty while the right is for innocent. Reading it just makes you wonder who the people on the right are? they just regurgitate dismissed and proven wrong facts as though just by repeating them makes them right.

Example   “Knox is a victim of terrifying mob prejudice.” etc: They trot out all the old nonsense about a huge conspiracy as though the Italian Government plus the Italian Judiciary are implicated in a mass cover up and thereby hate all Americans.

I find this level of stupidity to be terrifying in and of itself. People like these apologists get the Armed forces into wars ala George Bush because they believe what they are told with no thought to doing any research themselves.

Tomorrow is 25 November and the start of the final important court hearings in the case against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.

Will Yummi and Mason2 be attending court again?

Justice for Meredith.

Hi Thudering, sure, we will have court reporting on the summations on Monday and Tuesday; the next sessions are 16 and 17 December.

Hi Pete.

Could you remind us which days are which, please?

25 November - Prosecution
26 November - Maresca
16 December - Knox Defense
17 December - Sollecito Defense

??

Is that correct?

Hi Thundering.

Yes, we are told this is the tentative order. There has been a tendency for the sessions to be short with the last not going beyond the lunch hour, but the prosecution and each defense may each take a full day.

We can look forward to seeing how the defenses get out of the bind they are in. They have lost big on the DNA and Aviello (who at the Hellmann appeal was their witness not the prosecution’s).

So what really is left for them? Seems like what we posted in January 2011 prior to Hellmann still applies to them.

What is the biggest headache for the defenses?

That their areas of appeal, already circumscribed by Judge Hellman, could all explode in their faces? The low-credibility witnesses Alessi and Aviello? The limited DNA retesting? The re-examination of the witness in the park who had no cause to make anything up?

Or that Rudy Guede gets totally ticked off by Alessi’s claims that Rudy Guede said he did it with one or two others, and so Guede tells the court all that REALLY happened?

No, it looks to us that the defenses’ biggest headache by far is that the court of final appeal in Rome (the Supreme Court of Cassation, which is superior to the Perugia appeals court and will hear the second and final appeal) has ALREADY accepted that Rudy Guede’s sentencing report of January 2009 holds up.

And that all three of them attacked Meredith.

Hi Grahame

That report is very interesting. Not Knox’s wisest move, that website, it is like shooting fish in a barrel and makes her look more guilty not less.

There seems to be a tendency for conspiracy groups to get both more extreme and smaller; I guess the two are related. A few nudge public opinion - more now think something unexplained happened in the death of President Kennedy - but it merely leads to a general erosion of trust in public institutions (just when we really need them) and apathy rather than firm action.

Yes.  What is left for them?

More Jessica Rabbit stories?

I look forward to the next few court hearings.

The good news is that over on PMF Hugo and The Bard report that serious Editors in London are wisening up to the PR Campaign and have been reading (and taking notes from) McCall’s splendid Wiki.

Apparently they a) knew nothing about the PR Campaign - good grief, what have they been doing! and b) believed all the stories - serious Editors??

Roll on Judgment Day.

P.S. What was that book that Bongiorno handed Knox at the end of the Hellmann appeal?

@Peter Quennell

“Not Knox’s wisest move”

She is getting typical American advices that are likely to be counterproductive. I feel sad for her. She is pouring money in the wrong pot.

In the US, both the judges and juries are expected to be unprepared. As if they are hearing the story for the first time. It is not so in the Europe and the people are more aware.

And that includes everybody.

@Peter Quennell

Also compare RS moves that are very strategic. Far better than Amanda’s!

Note the three points:

1. Did not challenge evidences
2. Did not blame others; did not accept any blame
3. He played the suffering card.

In the case you have cited above, even RJ Kennedy’s charm wore off over time. But those days- 40 years back- were really terrible.

Americans will complaint that it is anti-americanism, but basically it is poor strategy when it comes to AK.

Hi Cardiol

Hopeful and Believing know more than I about Martha Moxley’s case - although it happened only half an hour from where I live and I know Greenwich quite well, I dont know that part of Greenwich (south of the I-95 freeway) and had so much work I wasnt then following any murder cases.

However I was reading to see if I could agree with you that Mickey Sherman could have been a subject for discipline.  His worst action seems to have been to not drag more info into the trial about the strange teacher Littleton who had a history of mental problems and attacks on women.

Here is someone who argues hotly that Littleton did it (a bit too dogmatically for me): http://surftofind.com/ken  I doubt our psychologists would find a bipolar disorder so murderous, and he would not be the only scapegoat who was smeared. 

But it is also remarked in the Moxley forums that the well connected, high profile Sherman was hired by Michael Skakel’s father in the first place to make the family look good (well, look better) and limited him in some ways.

Both may have decided Michael did it. Kind of the Greenwich Bongiorno? The police do seem to have done most thing right and looked at every main suspect before zeroing in on Michael, but were really stonewalled by the Skakels.

Believing’s link above to something about all the Skakel family’s slaughter of animals on a huge scale for enjoyment didnt make me think he is “kind, gentle and humane”. 

Here is the link again http://marthamoxley.com/impact-RFK/index4.html

yes…the clearest association with bipolar states is a greatly increased risk of suicide. There are different figures for this risk, -and for attempted suicide also,- but it is recognised that the risk over the general population is substantially more.
i also lost a friend, a talented artist, through suicide from exactly this.

Hi Pete,

Could Sherman have been a subject for discipline?

Logically, yes, because anyone can file a complaint to the Disciplinary Body (DB), and the DB is obliged to respond.

DBs, being composed of Lawyers, are inclined to dismiss complaints about their colleagues, especially complaints which may well be invalid.

However many are not invalid so some formal investigation may be necessary, with an explanation of the findings.

In this case Judge Bishop ruled that Sherman’s performance was so inadequate that he ordered a new trial, and released Skakel, on bail.

Such alleged inadequacy could definitely justify a DP complaint.

You believe that Sherman’s deficiency was minor, and presumably should be dismissed. I agree.

My point is contained in my original Comment.

I was merely running with the fact that Attorney/Client privilege (ACP) could conceal Sherman’s valid reasons for his original MO and assist a guilty person to manipulate his way to freedom.

The fact that Skakel’s father hired Sherman and paid his bill has consequences, relevant to ACP, and to Conflict-of-Interest, interesting to me, but maybe not to the purpose of TJMK.

Where next:

Or to next entry Italy’s Anti-Mafia Winning Push In Co-operation With FBI Is Headed By Arturo De Felice, Who Was…

Or to previous entry Like Amanda Knox, Jodi Arias Forgets, Sings, Jokes, And Does Headstands In Interrogation Context