MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP) — A lawyer for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel told a panel of Connecticut judges his client's 20-year to life prison sentence for killing his teen neighbor in 1975 was excessive.
Skakel was convicted in 2002 of beating 15-year-old Martha Moxley to death with a golf club in wealthy Greenwich.
Skakel's lawyer told a three-judge panel Tuesday that Skakel was 15 at the time and would have been tried in juvenile court where the maximum sentence would have been four years.
Skakel maintained his innocence and said he was "baffled" by the legal process and pleaded with the judges to allow "the truth" to come out.
Prosecutors said the sentence was appropriate and pointed out he could have been tried in adult court in 1975.
The judges did not immediately rule.
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