Judge Gary White of Stamford Superior Court set bail at $ 1.2 million, ordering Mr. Skakel not to leave the state without permission and to wear a tracking device so his movements can be monitored. The bail hearing came after another judge ruled last month that Mr. Skakel did not receive a fair trial because his first lawyer, Mickey Sherman, had not represented him effectively, depriving him of his constitutionally guaranteed right to counsel.
As Judge White made his announcement, friends and relatives of Mr. Skakel burst out in applause. Mr. Skakel, dressed in a suit and blue tie, tapped his chest as he walked out of the courtroom.Shortly after 2 p.m., he emerged from the basement of the courthouse, overjoyed, embracing supporters in enthusiastic bear hugs. He stood silently while his lawyer spoke to the throng of reporters outside before being whisked away in a waiting car.
His brother John Skakel, who lives in Portland, Ore., provided bank checks to cover the bail.
It was the latest twist in a case that has fascinated the public and confounded investigators since 1975, when the battered body of a 15-year-old girl named Martha Moxley was found beneath a tree in her family’s backyard, pieces of a broken 6-iron golf club by her side.
Mr. Skakel, now 53, was also 15 at the time of the murder, and the two were neighbors in a town that has long been a bastion of wealth and privilege. At different times, both Mr. Skakel and his brother, Thomas, were suspected of killing Ms. Moxley. But it was more than a quarter of a century before Mr. Skakel was tried and convicted. In 2002, he was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
The judge who ruled last month, Thomas A. Bishop of Superior Court in Rockville, wrote in a scathing 136-page decision that Mr. Sherman failed to show an attention to detail, lacked a coherent strategy and “was in a myriad of ways ineffective.” Those failures, he wrote, led to a “conviction that lacks reliability.”
After the ruling, Mr. Skakel’s current lawyer, Hubert J. Santos, filed a motion for his client to be released on bail. In a later hearing, Judge Bishop decided that the question of whether to grant bail belonged with the criminal court in Stamford, where Mr. Skakel will be retried if the state decides to go forward with another prosecution.
From the outset, the case has attracted national media attention, offering a potent mix of power, money and sex. It inspired a made-for-television movie, and became a staple for tabloids and an unending source of interest for true-crime writers, particularly Dominick Dunne.
Mr. Skakel is the nephew of Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, and the link to one of America’s most famous families further fueled interest in the case.
Mr. Skakel’s trial in 2002 lasted three weeks and revealed tawdry details about his life as a young man, including his drinking and his drug use. In his defense, Mr. Skakel acknowledged that on the night of the murder, he had climbed a tree and masturbated while trying to look into Ms. Moxley’s bedroom.
During the trial, the prosecution painted Mr. Skakel as an emotionally disturbed young man who was consumed with guilt after the killing, prompting confessions and suicide attempts. In one particularly vivid example cited in court documents, a man employed by the family as a gardener described how Mr. Skakel once tried to jump off the Triborough Bridge after saying that “he had done something very bad, and that he needed to get out of the country, and that he had to kill himself.”
Mr. Skakel has always publicly maintained his innocence.
Throughout the trials and appeals, Mr. Skakel’s family has fought fiercely on his behalf, spending millions of dollars in various bids to win his freedom.
On Thursday, the prosecutors did not object to the setting of bail, just the amount. Mr. Santos suggested $ 500,000; John Smirga, the lawyer for the state, recommended a number closer to $ 2 million. Among the factors he wanted the judge to consider were the brutality of the murder, the personal resources, character and mental condition of the defendant.
Mr. Santos dismissed the notion that his client could flee if he wanted to, given the notoriety of the case. “His is the most recognized face in America,” he said. “So he’s not going anywhere.”
At a news conference outside the courthouse on Thursday, Ms. Moxley’s mother, Dorthy, and brother, John, expressed disappointment at the decision but confidence that Judge Bishop’s decision to overturn the conviction would be reversed by the state’s appeal.
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