Posted on 12/14/2005 6:51:18 PM PST by Howlin
RICHMOND, Va. Dec 14, 2005 — Lawyers for former Green Beret doctor Jeffrey MacDonald told a federal appeals court that his convictions in the 1970 murders of his pregnant wife and two daughters should be thrown out after a new witness surfaced.
A former deputy U.S. marshal now says he heard a defense witness tell a prosecutor she was in the MacDonald home in Fort Bragg, N.C., the night of the murders, according to a motion filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The motion seeks the appeals court's permission to present the new evidence to the U.S. District Court in Raleigh.
Jimmy B. Britt of Apex, N.C., part of the security detail for MacDonald's 1979 trial, said he heard prosecutor James Blackburn tell the witness, Helena Stoeckley, 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.
Britt 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.
"I am currently 67 years of age and felt compelled to clear my conscience and come forward with what I witnessed, as I decided I could not shoulder the burden any longer," Britt said in the affidavit.
The MacDonald case was dramatized in the best-selling book and TV miniseries "Fatal Vision."
His lawyers said in their motion that the newly discovered evidence "consists of facts that unquestionably demonstrate egregious government misconduct of the most disturbing sort, actions that amount to a clear constitutional violation."
Blackburn denied the allegation in the appeal. "It's absolutely not true. It blows my mind that he thinks she told us that," Blackburn told The Wall Street Journal. A message left by The Associated Press at a telephone listing for James Blackburn was not immediately returned.
MacDonald, 62, is serving three consecutive life sentences in a federal prison near Cumberland, Md., for the murders of Colette MacDonald, 26, and their daughters Kimberley, 5, and Kristen, 2. He has always claimed that a group of intruders entered their apartment and stabbed and clubbed his family to death in an attack that left him seriously injured.
This was also the front page of the Wall Street Journal today which I didn't have a chance to read. Hopefully it's still on the floor of my office tomorrow morning.
Because, as we all know, the "bushy-headed stranger" whom no one has ever seen before or since, did it.
*rolls eyes*
This is VERY confusing to me.
I was stunned to hear that man say that on national TV, even though I've heard it mentioned before.
But the "new" Mrs. MacDonald was not truthful; Jeffrey MacDonald didn't spend nine days in ICU from wounds he received.
Man, from that show, it sounds like this could get REALLY ugly!
What a bunch of hooey.
But I thought he/she was involved in the Laci Peterson disappearance.
I didn't see it anywhere but as I recall, the woman Helena Stoeckley has since died. That makes this hearsay, and likely inadmissable.
Heard on the news or what?
The brother was on CNN talking to Larry King about it. If you catch the replay, it was towards the end of the show.
I think she died in the 80's, didn't she?
I read the book. Normally, I don't read such books, but somehow I happen to read this one. This guy wasn't convicted on some flimsy house of cards. He did it.
Sorry, yes on Larry King Live tonight.
Oh my goodness --- I'll have to watch the replay. Thnaks.
Did that phone call surprise you as much as it did me? I'm still shaking my head.
And then the other Jim Blackburn (who is admittedly as crazy as a loon) attacked Cyril Wecht!
His fee's just went up and X42i isn't worried about the competition.
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