Exclusive: A Family's Defense

In exclusive interviews with anchor Lesley Stahl, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Skakel brothers David, Stephen and John break their silence regarding the murder of Martha Moxley.

For nearly 30 years.

Those prayers were finally answered after four days of deliberations, 27 years after the murder of her daughter Martha.

For the Moxleys, it was the end of a long ordeal. "You know, this is Martha's day," says Dorthy Moxley. "This is truly Martha's day."

There is no doubt in her mind that Michael committed this crime. But for the family of convicted murderer Michael Skakel, it was the lowest moment in their long ordeal.

"For us, this trial has felt like a witch hunt," says David Skakel, Michael's brother. "For our family, grieving has coincided with accusation. Michael is innocent."

"I know there is no way on earth he could have done this," says younger brother, Stephen Skakel. "And I will fight with the last breath in me to get him free."

Tonight, for the first time, three members of the Skakel family -- Stephen and his brothers John and David -- are talking publicly about the brother they know. With Michael's appeal scheduled for this fall, his brothers have decided to go public.

Stephen will never forget the moment the jury returned its verdict against his brother. "I looked down at the floor, and you know, my whole world had been shattered," he remembers.

"Our brother Michael's been stolen from us," adds David.

"He's innocent," says John. "I know that."

"We have coped with nearly 30 years of false accusations against our family. And as such, my brother, who I know to be innocent, now sits in jail. We are going to fight until he is freed and re-united with his son."

But they are not alone in their conviction. Robert Kennedy Jr., Michael's cousin, is also speaking out.

"I know Michael Skakel, and I know he didn't commit the crime," he says. "And you know people are going to dismiss that and say, 'Well, of course he's defending his cousin.' But the facts speak for themselves."

Kennedy, a former prosecutor and now a professor of law at Pace University, spent several months re-examining the conviction of his cousin. His findings were recently published in The Atlantic Monthly.

"That's why I took the time to put together this piece," says Kennedy. "I'm utterly convinced that he did not do the crime."

For the Skakels, it's almost ironic that a Kennedy has come to their brother's defense. But they believe it was the "Kennedy connection" that put them in the spotlight to begin with.

The TV miniseries, "Murder in Greenwich," is just the latest in a parade of books, articles and TV dramatizations about Martha Moxley's murder -- led by writer Dominick Dunne and disgraced policeman-turned-writer Mark Fuhrman.

When Michael first emerged as a suspect, both Dunne and Fuhrman referred to him as a Kennedy cousin. "I think you have a lot of problems with lots of power and money and politics," says Fuhrman.

The Skakel brothers are the nephews of Ethel Skakel-Kennedy, who married Robert Kennedy in 1950.

"The Skakel family were as powerful and as rich as the Kennedys," says Dunne. But the Skakel brothers disagree with that statement.

"Dominick Dunne calls us all a bunch of rich snobs," says Stephen. "But he was the only one that I saw coming to court every day in a limousine."

"These comments are coming from people who don't know us, and who have never even quizzed us on our lives or asked us or really seen us for who we are," adds David.

The brothers say they live modest lives. Stephen has worked for a humanitarian aid group for 11 years. David works as a county recycling manager. And John sells insurance.

But once upon a time, the Skakels were millionaires, living a life of wealth and privilege. Their father, Rushton Skakel, had inherited a fortune from the family mining company.

"It was a different time back then, a whole different life," remembers John.

Thirty years ago, the family lived in the exclusive Belle Haven section of Greenwich, Conn.

"It was a fairly well-to-do area," remembers Stephen. "It was a very friendly, open neighborhood. There were lots of children. It was a wonderful place to grow up."

A cloud cast a shadow over those happy times for this family of six boys and a girl when they lost their mother to cancer.

"I remember my father said, 'Your mother has died. If you want to go to your room and cry, that's fine.' And it was never discussed again," says Stephen. "He was just as traumatized as we were."

Unable to cope with raising seven children on his own, Rushton hired a nanny, and then, in October 1975, a live-in tutor named Ken Littleton. Littleton was a football coach and, as Stephen remembers, "pretty much a loner."

The day after Littleton took up residence in the Skakel home, Martha Moxley, the Skakel's pretty next-door neighbor, was found murdered.

"Martha was an extremely popular, attractive girl. Typical teenager in the best sense of the word," says Levitt. "I became an old man doing this case. My kids weren't even born when I started this. They are 18 and 20 years old at this point."

Levitt is now writing a book on the case he began following after Martha's death on Oct. 30, 1975 – the night before Halloween.

"Martha does not return home and her mother, obviously, is concerned," remembers Levitt. "And she starts making calls at about 1 a.m. that night. The police now are called that morning by Mrs. Moxley and they start searching."

Martha was found the next day, beaten to death with a golf club. In fact, she was so severely beaten that the golf club is shattered into four pieces.

This was the first clue the police had to go on.

"It turned out that the day the body was found, police found a golf club that matched the murder weapon inside the Skakel home," says Levitt. But at the time, he says it wasn't enough to arouse their suspicions.

Their first hypothesis, according to Levitt, was that no one from Greenwich could have done this -- it was too brutal a crime. It was assumed that some hitchhiker, perhaps off the thruway, came in, somehow eluded the guards at Belle Haven and committed the crime.

The investigation began by establishing the likely time of Martha's death. To do this, Greenwich police consulted forensic expert Dr. Michael Baden.

"It was our opinion that the time of death, based only on stomach contents, was somewhere between 9:30 and 10 o'clock," says Baden.

The police then established who had been with Martha that night. According to Levitt, Martha arrived at the Skakel house around 9 p.m. with some friends. She got into the Skakels' Lincoln, which was parked in the driveway, and sat between Michael and his older brother, Tommy. A short time later, the Skakels say, Martha got out of the car with Tommy, while Michael and a few others drove off.

Around 9:15 p.m., Michael went with his older brothers (Rushton Jr., John and his cousin, Jimmy Terrian) back to Terrian's house. During the time of Martha's murder, John Skakel remembers being at the Terrians' house, and watching the U.S. premiere of "Monty Python's Flying Circus."

"At 10 p.m., Michael was eight miles away with myself, my brother Rushie and Jimmy Terrian," says John.

Meanwhile, back at the Skakel home, what goes on between Martha and Tommy is sort of playful -- pushing back and forth with sexual overtones. Her friends are so embarrassed they leave.

Tommy tells the police that he last sees Martha at 9.30 p.m. that night when she leaves to go home. But Martha never makes it home.

Tommy is seen shortly after 10 p.m. with the tutor, Littleton, who is unpacking and watching "The French Connection" on TV.

Everyone the Greenwich police interviewed, everyone who saw Martha that night had an alibi. In fact, Michael Skakel's alibi was so strong, he was not considered a suspect.

Several weeks passed before investigators turned their attention to the person they believed was the last to see Martha alive: Tommy Skakel. After his last meeting with Martha, Tommy said he went inside to write a paper on Abraham Lincoln. The police later found out that no teacher at Tommy's school had ever assigned the paper. By late fall, according to Levitt, they were "focusing on Tommy with a vengeance."

"It was shock and disbelief," remembers Stephen. "He said he didn't do it. And I know he didn't do it."

Tommy Skakel lived under a cloud of suspicion for years. Now married with children, he is the only family member who refused to talk with 48 Hours Investigates. In the end, police never charged him, partly because of his alibi that night.

"The problem with Tommy as a murder suspect is that if this happened at 10 o'clock, Tommy's alibi is Ken Littleton," says Levitt.

With no new leads, the investigation went cold. But Dorthy Moxley never gave up hope: "We knew it had to be one of the boys, either Tommy or Michael. The murder weapon came from that house and that was the last place she was seen."