There was no murder. He took a wrong turn onto a dirt road and the failed to navigate a turn onto a wooden bridge with no guard rails. The car went over and flipped under water. Kennedy escaped, Kopechne did not. Kennedy attempted to rescue Kopechne but was unsuccessful. Where Kennedy failed and was criticized was how he proceeded to handle the situation afterwards. He was charged with leaving the scene of the accident and received a suspended sentence of 2 months in jail. No evidence has ever been provided to suggest that this was anything other than an unfortunate traffic accident -- despite claims by right-wing nuts who would suggest otherwise for their own political purposes. Other politicians who have used poor judgement in vehicles include President Bush and Vice President Cheney with DUI offenses, and First Lady Laura Bush who killed a friend in a traffic accident. And there are nearly a hundred other politicians who were not as lucky as Kennedy, Cheney or the Bushs and were killed in their traffic accidents.

[quote] Other politicians who have used poor judgement in vehicles include President Bush and Vice President Cheney with DUI offenses, and First Lady Laura Bush who killed a friend in a traffic accident. And there are nearly a hundred other politicians who were not as lucky as Kennedy, Cheney or the Bushs and were killed in their traffic accidents. [/quote] Wow...this is just bad, and plain awful for you to type something like this. Equating Kennedy's actions to any of the above people. Kennedy was enjoying a day of partying and drove off a bridge and killed a girl...then did not report it for over 10 hours, until after he knew he was busted because the police had discovered his mom's car with the dead body in it. You could say he was shaken from the accident, expect for a few of the unshaken men also came back to the scene with Ted later on, and they did not report the accident either...what were the hiding? What were they covering up? In your "other politicans" example, there were no such occurances and Laura Bush's as an example is obviously completely different too, since she wasn't drunk and it was immediately reported...and Laura Bush is not an elected official anyway. Your defense of Ted Kennedy is ridiculous...his actions were despicable and it should have at the very least immediately ended his political career, and I do not know how anybody that has spent even 10 minutes looking into the Chappaquiddick story can think otherwise. No doubt Ted has had a tough life, loosing both brothers to murder, but this does not excuse his own actions.

He's a Kennedy? Seriously, drunk driving wasn't taken all that seriously then. A drunk driving death was considered an accident. However, the fact that he was able to swim across the channel and walk home calls his drunkenness into question. The fact that Mary Jo Kopechne was his recently assassinated brother's secretary just makes it all the more weird. I think the real answer was that he was a Kennedy.

Ted Kennedy is now serving his sentence. His current condition can help his victim's remaining family no that he can suffer like she did. And the citizens of MA should be punished for reelecting this coward every term.

US currency bought and paid for your life is worthless than worthless pieces of paper nice to know is it not.

Probably for much the same reasons that the Bu$h/Cheney Cabal never will: Too many folks with too much power, and too little ethics.

Justice came 40 years later.

Ted Kennedy was never brought up on murder charges, because it wasn't murder. At most, he could have been charged with manslaughter, however, the evidence of this was largely insufficient. There was also no evidence, and no way to prove that Kennedy was intoxicated at the time of the accident. Instead, he was charged with leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury, and received the minimum sentence (two months) which was then suspended by the judge. This was likely because of his clean record in addition to his wealth/power.

The Last of the Kennedy Dynasty … may he go “fast!” As soon as his cancer was detected, I noticed the immediate attempt at the "canonization" of old Teddy Kennedy by the mainstream media. They are saying what a "great American" he is. I say, let's get a couple things clear and not twist the facts to change the real history. 1. He was caught cheating at Harvard when he attended it. He was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him. 2. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. Oops! The man can't count to four! His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (a step up from bootlegging liquor into the US from Canada during prohibition), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure he served in Europe, not Korea, where a war was raging. No preferential treatment for him! (like he charged that President Bush received). 3. Kennedy was assigned to Paris , never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. Imagine a person of his "education" NEVER advancing past the rank of Private! 4. While attending law school at the University of Virginia , he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark. Yet his Virginia driver's license was never revoked. Coincidentally, he passed the bar exam in 1959. Amazing! 5. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash, and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally intoxicated. The results of those tests remained a "state secret" until in the 1980's when the report was unsealed.. Didn't hear about that from the unbiased media, did we? 6. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts . At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur's keys to his Oldsmobile limousine, and offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond. 7. He swam to shore and walked back to the party, passing several houses and a fire station. Two friends then returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him what he already knew - that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning and by then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying, Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car. The Kennedy family began "calling in favors", ensuring that any inquiry would be contained. Her corpse was whisked out-of-state to her family, before an autopsy could be conducted. Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne and he didn't call police because he was in a state of shock. It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident, Kennedy's "political enemies" have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick. He pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS. Kopechne's family received a small payout from the Kennedy's insurance policy, and never sued. There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy's family paid their attorney's bills ... a "token of friendship"? 8. Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years, but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, and funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors and is widely held as the "standard-bearer for liberalism". In his very first Senate roll, he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries.. 9. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of an increase in immigration, up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Not to mention the pious grilling he gave the last two Supreme Court nominees, as if he was the standard bearer for the nation in matters of "what's right". What a pompous ass! 10. He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than "great American". "A blonde in every pond" is his motto. Let's not allow the spin doctors make this jerk a hero -- how quickly the American public forgets what his real legacy is. Keep this going for truth, justice and the American way!