STAMFORD, Conn. — Attorneys for Michael Skakel, a Kennedy relative serving 20 years in prison for the 1975 murder of a 15-year-old girl, are scheduled to begin presenting evidence Tuesday that they hope will compel a judge to grant Skakel a new trial.

Activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Skakel's first cousin, is expected to be one of the first of about 20 witnesses who may be called on Skakel's behalf during a civil proceeding before Superior Court Judge Edward Karazin.

Kennedy is expected to set the stage for what the petitioner's legal team has characterized in court papers as "newly discovered evidence" that two men admitted killing Martha Moxley on Oct. 30, 1975, during the pre-Halloween "Hell Night" popular among youths in the exclusive Greenwich enclave of Belle Haven.

The men, identified in court papers as "A" and "B," were implicated in 2003 by Gitano "Tony" Bryant, a cousin of NBA star Kobe Bryant.

A friend of Tony Bryant, Crawford Mills, approached Kennedy with information after The Atlantic Monthly published Kennedy's 15,000-word rant about the prosecution of Skakel and Kennedy's displeasure with the way defense attorney Michael Sherman conducted the defense.

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A jury convicted Skakel, 46, of murder on June 7, 2002, following a month-long trial that drew national media attention. Nearly a year later, Kennedy and an investigator who had worked for Sherman tracked down Bryant and obtained a statement about the night Martha was bludgeoned with a golf club and stabbed in the neck with the club's broken shaft.

Bryant, who lives in Florida, is expected to assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refuse to testify. If he does, Skakel's lawyers are expected to introduce a tape of an August 2003 interview with a member of the defense team in which Bryant implicates two former friends.

Bryant said "A," a tall, strong 15-year-old who had a "thing" for the pretty blond girl with a wide smile, indicated that he "wanted to go caveman on her" and "he said he was going to have her," according to Skakel's petition for a new trial. Bryant claimed that he left "A" and "B" and returned home, but both boys still had golf clubs from the Skakel's lawn that they used as walking sticks when Bryant left them.

The defense also claims Bryant recalled that the day after Martha's partially nude body was discovered lying face-down under a large tree branch, "A" said, "I got mine," and "B" said, "We did what we had to do."