Post by Maggie on Jan 17, 2006 9:25:05 GMT -5
Witness comes forward after 25 years
RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- An appeals court has given new life to the defense of a former Green Beret doctor convicted of the 1970 murders of his wife and daughters, ruling that his lawyers can introduce evidence that a prosecutor threatened a witness.
A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, granted a motion Friday by Jeffrey MacDonald's lawyers to present the new evidence in Raleigh federal court. It could result in a new trial, said Hart Miles, one of MacDonald's attorneys.
"I think it's the biggest development in the case since the trial," Miles said.
The defense filed the motion last month, after a former deputy U.S. marshal came forward last year to say he heard a defense witness tell a prosecutor she was in the MacDonald home in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on the night of the slayings.
Jimmy B. Britt, part of the security detail during MacDonald's 1979 trial, said he heard prosecutor James Blackburn tell Helena Stoeckley that he would indict her for murder if she told the same story on the witness stand. Stoeckley later testified she could not remember where she was the night of the slayings.
Blackburn, who has denied making the remark, did not immediately return a call Friday seeking comment.
"She never told us she was there," Blackburn told The Associated Press last month. "I don't know why this man is coming forward 25 years later. I don't know what his motivation is, but he's simply mistaken."
MacDonald's wife, Kathryn, said she and her husband were "just overwhelmed" with the news, which she gave him in a brief telephone call Friday afternoon to the federal prison in Maryland where he is held.
"It's astonishing, wonderful," she said from her home in Columbia, Maryland. "It's given me back my faith that truth means something -- truth means everything -- and I know Jeff feels the same."
Lead attorney Tim Junkin said MacDonald's team will ask the federal court to vacate the conviction.
MacDonald, whose case was dramatized in the best-selling book and TV miniseries "Fatal Vision," responded to the ruling in a statement posted on a Web site devoted to exonerating him.
"We are grateful for the court's fair and thoughtful consideration, and are exhilarated that we will now be able to present all the evidence amassed since trial that demonstrates actual innocence," MacDonald said in the statement.
MacDonald, 62, is serving three consecutive life sentences in a federal prison for the murders of Colette MacDonald, 26, and their daughters Kimberley, 5, and Kristen, 2. He has argued that intruders killed his family in an attack that left him seriously injured.
According to MacDonald, one of the attackers was a woman with a long blond wig and floppy hat. He said he heard her say, "Acid is groovy, kill the pigs." Stoeckley, who died in 1983, fit the description, according to court papers.
Britt, now 67, said in an affidavit that he kept quiet for more than 25 years out of a sense of duty to people he worked with, but the secret eventually became too much to bear.
Britt said Stoeckley's interview with Blackburn was not the first time he heard her say she was in the MacDonald home the night of the murders. She told him the same story as he drove her from Greenville, South Carolina, to Raleigh for the trial and even described a hobby horse in the home, he said in the affidavit.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.
RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- An appeals court has given new life to the defense of a former Green Beret doctor convicted of the 1970 murders of his wife and daughters, ruling that his lawyers can introduce evidence that a prosecutor threatened a witness.
A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, granted a motion Friday by Jeffrey MacDonald's lawyers to present the new evidence in Raleigh federal court. It could result in a new trial, said Hart Miles, one of MacDonald's attorneys.
"I think it's the biggest development in the case since the trial," Miles said.
The defense filed the motion last month, after a former deputy U.S. marshal came forward last year to say he heard a defense witness tell a prosecutor she was in the MacDonald home in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on the night of the slayings.
Jimmy B. Britt, part of the security detail during MacDonald's 1979 trial, said he heard prosecutor James Blackburn tell Helena Stoeckley that he would indict her for murder if she told the same story on the witness stand. Stoeckley later testified she could not remember where she was the night of the slayings.
Blackburn, who has denied making the remark, did not immediately return a call Friday seeking comment.
"She never told us she was there," Blackburn told The Associated Press last month. "I don't know why this man is coming forward 25 years later. I don't know what his motivation is, but he's simply mistaken."
MacDonald's wife, Kathryn, said she and her husband were "just overwhelmed" with the news, which she gave him in a brief telephone call Friday afternoon to the federal prison in Maryland where he is held.
"It's astonishing, wonderful," she said from her home in Columbia, Maryland. "It's given me back my faith that truth means something -- truth means everything -- and I know Jeff feels the same."
Lead attorney Tim Junkin said MacDonald's team will ask the federal court to vacate the conviction.
MacDonald, whose case was dramatized in the best-selling book and TV miniseries "Fatal Vision," responded to the ruling in a statement posted on a Web site devoted to exonerating him.
"We are grateful for the court's fair and thoughtful consideration, and are exhilarated that we will now be able to present all the evidence amassed since trial that demonstrates actual innocence," MacDonald said in the statement.
MacDonald, 62, is serving three consecutive life sentences in a federal prison for the murders of Colette MacDonald, 26, and their daughters Kimberley, 5, and Kristen, 2. He has argued that intruders killed his family in an attack that left him seriously injured.
According to MacDonald, one of the attackers was a woman with a long blond wig and floppy hat. He said he heard her say, "Acid is groovy, kill the pigs." Stoeckley, who died in 1983, fit the description, according to court papers.
Britt, now 67, said in an affidavit that he kept quiet for more than 25 years out of a sense of duty to people he worked with, but the secret eventually became too much to bear.
Britt said Stoeckley's interview with Blackburn was not the first time he heard her say she was in the MacDonald home the night of the murders. She told him the same story as he drove her from Greenville, South Carolina, to Raleigh for the trial and even described a hobby horse in the home, he said in the affidavit.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.