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In the absence of reasonable belief that a crime was committed, there never should have been a Special Counsel appointed. A Special Counsel is not supposed to be the equivalent of Lavrentiy Beria’s secret police, someone who finds the man and then tries to find the crime. The reason that’s so dangerous is that the federal (and state) criminal laws, in the hands of an aggressive prosecutor, can be abused. Someone who is an expert on that problem is Harvey Silverglate, a Boston civil liberties attorney who, among other things, was co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education....

This is the case that refuses to die. Forty-two years ago, the wife and daughters of a handsome young Green Beret doctor, Jeffrey MacDonald, were stabbed and bludgeoned to death at the family home in military housing at Ft. Bragg, N.C. MacDonald, now 68, is serving three life sentences for the crime, which spawned a bestselling book, "Fatal Vision," a hit TV miniseries and decades of speculation over whether MacDonald is a sadistic killer or a victim of injustice. In federal court Monday in Wilmington, N.C., the case will play out once again with all its lurid details — drug-crazed...

Sarah Palin announced on her Facebook page that Joe McGinniss, author of the infamous book Fatal Vision that chronicled the story of Jeffrey MacDonald, has rented the house right next door to hers. It seems he's chosen her has the subject of his next book. Lucky her. While she keeps the tone of her post upbeat and positive, it's clear she is disturbed to know that someone so hostile and antagonistic toward her is watching her and her family's every move. Since Palin published her post, the blogosphere has been all atwitter about this development. Many people find it creepy....

Up until now, one could merely have accused Sarah Palin’s stalker-biographer, Joe McGinniss, of unethical behavior, even journalistic malpractice. After all, McGinniss’ decision to move into a house just fifteen feet away from the family he is subjecting to hostile research struck even the hard-hearted as unusually crass and callous. It also famously prompted the construction of a fourteen-foot high screening fence by “first dude” Todd Palin, and elicited sympathy for the Palins from a number of usually less-than-sympathetic sources. But now McGinniss has outdone his already-gross behavior by telling The Today Show’s Matt Lauer that the Palin’s anguished response...

Jeffrey MacDonald, Green Beret Doctor Convicted for Slayings of Wife & 2 Daughters, Seeks New Trial In 2006, the appeals court ruled that MacDonald could seek a new trial in federal district court based on retired Deputy U.S. Marshal Jim Britt's claim that he heard prosecutor James Blackburn coerce Stoeckley into lying. Blackburn told Stoeckley she'd be charged with the crimes if she admitted to being in the MacDonald home the night of the killings, Britt said. Britt died in 2008, and Senior U.S. District Judge James C. Fox rejected MacDonald's bid for a new trial two weeks later. MacDonald's...

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- The hair of a former Army doctor convicted in the slayings of his wife and two daughters was found clutched in his dead wife's hand, according to long-awaited results of DNA testing made public Friday. Jeffrey MacDonald asked for the DNA testing in 1997, claiming it would bolster his argument that a band of crazed hippies killed his family in 1970. But federal prosecutors said Friday in a statement the testing did not find any DNA from either of the two women named by MacDonald as suspects. Both MacDonald's lead attorney, Tim Junkin, and his...

RICHMOND, Va. - Lawyers for a former Green Beret convicted in the 1970 slayings of his wife and daughters, a crime dramatized in the best seller and miniseries "Fatal Vision," say a new witness has come forward and the court should throw out his murder convictions. A former deputy U.S. marshal now says he heard a defense witness tell a prosecutor she was inside Jeffrey MacDonald's home the night of the killings, according to a motion filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Jimmy B. Britt, who was part of the security detail for MacDonald's 1979 trial, says...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Former Army doctor Jeffrey MacDonald, convicted 25 years ago of the stabbing deaths of his pregnant wife and two daughters, will seek parole but will continue to proclaim his innocence, one of his attorneys said Monday. MacDonald, eligible for parole since 1991, has declined to seek his freedom because he said he would have to admit guilt for the slayings at the family's Fort Bragg apartment Feb. 17, 1970. MacDonald remarried a few years ago and has more reasons to want a life outside of prison, said his attorney, Tim Junkin of Potomac, Md. "He doesn't have...

May 10, 2005 Panel Recommends No Parole for Green Beret Doctor Convicted of Murdering His Family The Associated Press CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) - A federal panel recommended no parole Tuesday for former Green Beret doctor Jeffrey MacDonald, whose conviction in the 1970 murders of his pregnant wife and two daughters was dramatized in the best-selling book and TV miniseries "Fatal Vision." The U.S. Parole Commission panel also recommended no reconsideration of the matter for 15 years, said U.S. Attorney Frank Whitney of the Eastern District of North Carolina. The recommendation will now be sent to the full commission. Whitney made...