next month to face piracy charges. >>> still ahead on news4, kennedy cousin michael skakel who wantsget out of prison before his term is up. tell you what the family of his victim those say about that. >>> follow news4 online, search nbc washington on facebook and twitter. never in my lifetime did i think i could walk 60 miles in 3 days. if my mom can fight and beat breast cancer, i can walk 60 miles. (woman) the fund-raising was the easiest part. people were very giving. complete strangers wanting to help. i knew someday i was gonna do this walk. if i can do this, you definitely can do this. we can do this. we can all do this together. (man) register today for the... and receive $25 off your registration fee. because everyone deserves a lifetime. >>> kennedy cousin and convicted killer michael skakel making a new request for a reduced prison sentence. he is insisting he is innocent in the 1975 killing of a woman named martha moxly. nbc's craig melvin has the story. >> reporter: a cuffed, shackled and bigger 51-year-old michael skakel still insists he's innocent. >> i didn't commit t

i have passed three sodium pent thol tests. >> reporter: a jury convicted michael skakel in 2002 for the brutal 1975 killing that shook their greenwich, connecticut, neighborhood. police say skakel, a troubled youth bludgeoned moxley to death with a golf club. both were 15 at the time. the case went unsolved for 25 years. in 2000 police arrested skakel, a nephew of ethel kennedy. moxley's mother shared her relief on "today." >> for years everyone said nothing would happen. everyone said, don't get your hopes up. but, you know, we have proved all these people have worked so long that if you stick with it you truly can find justice. >> reporter: lawyers who argued his trial was tainted by distorted media coverage and bad publicity didn't argue innocence tuesday. instead they said the trial should have happened in a juvenile courtroom with a maximum sentence of four years. >> they looked at him as having committed a murder at that age. when, in fact, according to the jury verdict he committed the murder when he was a child. >> i pray for mrs. moxley every single day. i actually pray for

michael skakel serving 20 years for the murder of martha moxie. say he beat her with a golf club near her connecticut home. both were teen-agers at the time. in court this week, skakel still insisting he's innocent. >> i actually played with her car every day, please, let the truth come out. i told mrs. moxley -- i told martha i would take responsibility for it. i would do everything. >> heather: the judge is host of "justice" right here on the fox news channel. and she joins us with more on her take. michael skakel saying he prays to her daughter for the truth to come out. is that a little scary, that he prays to her daughter? >> yeah. i think the way he says it is unusual. but i think he said all the right things when he said, look, i prayed for the mother and every day i wish the truth would come out. what this defendant did, michael skakel, on this appeal, was he said, look, judge, i've got a 13-year-old son. i have taken three polygraph tests and passed them. he's saying look, this sentence is far too excessive. he got 20 to life, as you said

. >>> kennedy cousin michael skakel is asking for a lesser sentence for the murder of his cousin in 1995entenced to 20 years behind bars for killing 15-year- old martha moxley. he is now asking the court to review the sentence. his attorney said it was too harsh, especially because skakel was 15 at the time of the crime. skakel maintains his innocence. a ruling on the review could take months. >>> a teenager pleads guilty to a murder at a glen burnie pizza shop. vincent bunker pled guilty to the first-degree misdemeanor. flores was gunned down in november 2010. three other teenagers are charged in his killing. bunker is expected to be sentenced in april. >>> a new study shows drinking a certain type of tea may help with your blood pressure. mary bubala is live now with more on this study. >> reporter: denise, if you need to lower your blood pressure, you may want to start drinking black tea. researchers find those who drink three cups of black tea a day, are able to lower their blood pressure. the black tea drinkers saw a slight drop in systolic and diastolic blood pressure. the study te

. >>> a lawyer for kennedy cousin michael skakel's wants his client's sentence reduced.icted of beating 15- year-old martha moxley to death in 1975. today, the lawyer told the three-judge panel that he was 15 at the time and would have been tried in juvenile court with a maximum sentence and would have been four years. prosecutors believe that sentence was appropriate and that he could have been tried in adult court. >>> president john f. kennedy's library has released 45 hours of recorded meetings and phone calls. they include discussions about vietnam, the events of the union, the space race, and the president's re-election campaign. they contain moments with the president's children. the library's archivist said 40 minutes were omitted because they were family discussions or issues of national security. >>> and coming up, residents make their voice heard about a plan to put cameras on school buses. >> and i would think that since the city paints this, they should know how to spill the word school. >>> an embarrassing error is made outside of a school of all places. ac

michael skakel is the nephew of ethel kennedy. he was convicted of killing his neighbor in 1975 and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. he's asking a three-judge panel to reduce his sentence since he was a teenager at the time. his lawyer argues skakel should have been tried in juvenile court where the maximum sentence is four years. the panel is expected to make their ruling in two months. >>> the final recordings president john f. kennedy secretly made in the oval office are now public. one is an eerie conversation about what would become the day of kennedy's funeral. >> monday and tuesday. >> it's a hell of a day. >> that monday, november 25, 1963, then of the day of the president's funeral. this statement among 45 hours of private recordings. they include discussions about the conflict in vietnam, soviet relations, the space race, and even how to use color television to attract attention to the democratic national convention. >>> 6:26. 41 degrees. ahead, the message to maryland students to make sure this never happens aga

. >>> convicted murderer and kennedy cousin michael skakel is seeking a reduction in his 20 years to fe in prison. the son kennedya -- kennedy's widow. skakel insists he was innocent. skakel has tried for years to get his sentence reduced but hasn't been successful. >>> the final batch of secret tapes of john f. kennedy have been released. the tapes are fascinating and even a little spooky. >> reporter: nearly 50 years after jfk's death, the final release of his personal recordings. 45 hours of tape, chronicling the end of his presidency up to two days before the asasination. >> reporter: president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time. >> three days before dallas, a particularly ominous note. and at one point, he makes a haunting reference to the day on which his funeral would be held. [ inaudible ] >> reporter: the tapes were a secret from even his closest aides. they documented kennedy's private meetings and phone calls, with in-depth discussions about things of the day, including the 1964 election, u.s. soviet relations and the vietnam war. [ inaudible ] >> reporter: th

. >>> kennedy cousin michael skakel wants a reduction of his prison sentence.e was found guilty in the 1970 murder of 15-year-old. his attorneys argue he was just 15 when the murder was committed and should have been tried in juvenile court. the victims' families say they want skakel locked up for life. >>> a new mexico man held in solitary confinement for two years has won of the largest civil rights settlements involving an inmate. a federal jury awarded him $22 million for violation of his constitutional rights. he was arrested in 2005 for a dwi. his attorneys say he was tossed in solitary without being prosecuted or seeing a judge. all charges against him have been dismissed. >>> right now, hundreds of thousands of egyptians are rallying in cairo's tahrir square to mark one year since the uprising there. islamists and their liberal rivals are gathering on opposite sides of that square. the two groups are divided over just how much authority the military should have since long-time ruler hosni mubarak was removed from power. the. the ousted president still o