She had been struck several times in the head with a Toney Penna golf club -- so ferociously that the club had shattered into multiple pieces -- and then stabbed in the neck with the broken shaft the club's handle and part of the shaft had vanished. (Kennedy Jr., 2003, Martha Moxley section, ¶ 1)
From evidence retrieved from the autopsy, police determined Moxley's murder occurred at approximately10:00 P.M..
On July 10, 1998, 23 years after Moxley's murder, "Connecticut authorities convened a one-man grand jury consisting of Judge George Thim. The state's attorney Jonathan Benedict took over the Moxley case and began a multimillion-dollar effort to convict Michael Skakel" (Kennedy Jr., 2003, Mark Fuhrman section, ¶ 5). Until this time, Greenwich police and state investigators considered Ken Littleton as the primary suspect for the murder of Moxley (Fuhrman, cited in Kennedy Jr., Mark Fuhrman section, ¶ 7). According to prosecutors' arguments, Skakel, in a jealous, drunken rage, killed Moxley after he saw his older brother kiss her. At that time, however, Skakel loved Francine Ziminsky, a family friend, and did not know any romance between Moxley and his brother even existed. Skakel's alibi conflicted with the time of Moxley's death, reported as 10:00 P.M. For Skakel's accusers to be correct, the evidence regarding the time of Moxley's death had to be skewed, by moving it up. To counter this concern, albeit, Fuhrman asserted, contrary to the medical examiner's assertion establishing Moxley's time of death to have occurred at the time when Skakel could not have committed it, that food may remain in a person's stomach as long as six hours, allowing for the murder to have possibly past the time of Skake's alibi (Kennedy Jr., 2003).
Various members of Skake's family speculated that strong evidence did not point to Ken Littleton, but to Franz Wittine, a previous Skakel gardener. None of Skake's family imagined Michael would be charged or convicted of Moxley's crime. During Skakel's trial, one witness held a three-ring binder which contained almost three decades' worth of police information related to Littleton, along with a summary of the state's case against him. Kennedy Jr. (2003) asserts that information in this binder could have proved valuable to Skakel'defense, however, the was not placed in evidence, nor marked as an exhibit (Kennedy Jr., Mickey Sherman section, ¶ 7) Kennedy Jr. reports he grew up with a reverence for the American justice system, and considered it almost infallible. He stated he learned, however, the truth of the words of Michael Baden, New York's former chief medical examiner: "Notorious crimes have to be very carefully prosecuted because it is so easy to get a conviction without physical evidence. This is the very time to be more cautious, not less cautious, so that a bad decision isn't made..." (Kennedy Jr., 2003, Michael Skakel section, ¶ 7). Juries make mistakes. A skilful prosecutor may persuade an honest jury to convict a person who is actually innocent. This fact has been recently, repeatedly confirmed by a number of DNA exonerations of death-row inmates. During the last 10 minutes of the trial, culminating in Skakel's conviction, Benedict presented a sophisticated, poignant multimedia display that "superimposed Michael's statements, out of context, on gruesome pictures of Martha's slain body" (Kennedy Jr., Michael Skakel section, ¶ 6). Numerous legal analysts later criticized this fabricated evidence to be prejudicial and deceptive.
Lori Caldwell, Lori. (2004) recounts details of a not so publicized case in: "Gun missing as evidence, so Gary man acquitted." Due to the disappearance of a handgun as evidence, Aaron Allen, 22, was acquitted of a weapons charge in court.
Allen had reported been riding in a car the police stopped March 26, 2003. Allen claimed the missing.22-caliber revolver the police found under the car seat did not belong to him. As there was no gun; there was no case. Highlights from another case, with results posted on Newsday's Website, "Complete coverage: Limo crash" (2007) portray how missing evidence could potentially damage a case and result in a guilty person not being convicted. Ultimately the case of a Martin Heidgen, a drunken driver, who killed two people when he drove down a highway the wrong way, ended with Heidgen being convicted. During the course of the conviction, as the following points note, concerns regarding evidence caused the family of the youngest victim, Katie Flynn, seven-years-old, unnecessary heartaches.
May 30, 2007 report notes that, following Heidgen's conviction, Katie's parents verbalized their support for a proposed law relating to imprisoning drunken drivers who seriously injured and/or killed people. Katie's parents, however, did not share, however, the obvious painful experiences regarding evidence for the case of their daughter's death, including "inadmissible evidence" a jury forewoman later reported she and other jurors relied on for their verdict to vote to convict Heidgen of murder. During the course of this trial, "legal wrangling over murder suspect Martin Heidgen's blood" occurred,...
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