United States News
See other United States News Articles
Title: Appeals court backs MacDonald on review of new evidence Subject of best seller, 'Fatal Vision')
Source:
fayobserver.com
URL Source: http://fayobserver.com/articles/2011/04/19/1088025?sac=Mil
Published: Apr 20, 2011
Author: Drew Brooks
Post Date: 2011-04-20 08:08:43 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 8642
Comments: 16
A federal appeals court has sided with convicted killer Jeffrey MacDonald, ordering a second review of his claims of newly discovered evidence. MacDonald, a former Army surgeon at Fort Bragg who is serving three life sentences for killing his pregnant wife and their 5-year-old and 2-year-old daughters in 1970, is seeking relief based on evidence that he says exonerates him. In an opinion filed Tuesday, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated an earlier opinion by a U.S. District Court and ordered that court to reconsider the evidence. MacDonald's lawyers have argued that their client should receive a new trial based on two pieces of evidence that were not available during his 1979 trial. The first is testimony from a retired U.S. marshal that said a prosecutor coerced and threatened a witness to make her lie in the original case. That marshal has since died. The second is DNA testing ordered in 1997 that MacDonald's lawyers say absolves him because it shows he was not the source of hairs found at the murder scene, including those taken from under the fingernails of one of his daughters. U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding said the opinion would be studied by government lawyers in Raleigh and Washington before his office decides how to proceed. "Our office remains committed to defending the unanimous guilty verdict reached by the trial jury after a seven week trial in 1979, which has withstood numerous previous legal challenges by MacDonald," he said. MacDonald has always maintained his innocence and has appealed his convictions several times. He has repeatedly said a group of hippies killed his family in their home on Fort Bragg. He has been in federal prison since 1982, after an appeal he won was overturned. MacDonald, who was 26 when his family died, is now 67. The MacDonald case was the basis for a best-selling book and television miniseries, "Fatal Vision." No opinion expressed In granting the additional review in U.S. District Court, the appeals court said it did so "without expressing any view on the proper ultimate disposition of either claim." The appeal had been before the court since 2008, when the U.S. District Court dismissed MacDonald's case after determining it did not have the jurisdiction to consider the DNA evidence. In their opposition to MacDonald's appeal, lawyers for the U.S. government argued that the evidence listed by MacDonald actually reinforces his conviction. In a court filing from July 2010, lawyers said the testimony from the former marshal was unreliable and that the DNA evidence had no value. Government lawyers said the hairs were found with numerous threads from MacDonald's pajama top and his own hair and on a bedspread contaminated with dog hair. "MacDonald's DNA claim does not call into question any forensic evidence introduced by the government at trial," the government argued. "Moreover, the DNA test results do not in any way impugn the compelling forensic evidence that demonstrated the falsity of MacDonald's version of events on the night of the murders and showed that he was the only possible criminal agent." Staff writer Drew Brooks can be reached at brooksd@fayobserver.com or 486-3567.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: A K A Stone (#0)
Could you make this in the title look like this: (Subject of best seller, 'Fatal Vision') Just a small typo, but that should be separate from the title. Thanks.
I met McDonald shortly before his family was murdered,and he was a very hostile and angry man that came across as a ego-maniac. I had no trouble at all believing he was guilty once I had a few minutes to think about it,and this was before the trial and the evidence was presented. I had gone to see him about wheezing and coughing,and he ranted and raved at me about smoking and told me that if I didn't quit I would be dead within 6 months. I had just came back from VN and asked him in a sarcastic tone of voice (big surprise,huh?) if he thought that just MAYBE having double bronchitis from laying down to sleep on the wet ground in the pouring rain in the mountains of VN MIGHT have something to do with the cough and wheeze. I thought he was going to stroke out. This was only a month or so before his family was murdered,and he was close to losing control.
"I adore John McCain, support him 100 percent and will do everything I can to support his reelection. As everyone knows, I was honored and proud to run with him. And Todd and I were with him in D.C. just a week ago." (Sarah Palin,Dec 2009) ************************************ DID Palin say or write these things or not? (Me) I don't know or F ing care. (Mad Dog posted on 2009-12-26 16:36:33 ET,post # 105 http://libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=5510&Disp=114#C114)
Interesting to hear your perspective on this. I was at the end of my first enlistment when this trial was going on. If he is guilty I hope he stays where he is. That was a horrible crime. I bet you never thought you'd see this guy in the news again. He must want out real bad by now to be fighting so hard still aftar all these years.
I agree. I think he felt tied down by his wife and children,and his time in the army was coming to a end and he would then be free to be the rich,handsome,young doctor on the town. If only he weren't tied down with that damn family,that is! Even on Bragg nobody was really buying the "Hippies did it!" defense.
"I adore John McCain, support him 100 percent and will do everything I can to support his reelection. As everyone knows, I was honored and proud to run with him. And Todd and I were with him in D.C. just a week ago." (Sarah Palin,Dec 2009) ************************************ DID Palin say or write these things or not? (Me) I don't know or F ing care. (Mad Dog posted on 2009-12-26 16:36:33 ET,post # 105 http://libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=5510&Disp=114#C114)
We had a Diane Downs locall claim a bushy haired man shot her kids before she leisurely drove them to the hospital at a time i her life her boy friend wanted to leave her because she had kids too. (Ann Rule, Small Sacrifices, was the book on that one.) So he's not the first to blame the damn hippies for doing something. I know back then Jane Fonda, Holly Near and others had been in Fayetteville for a "Free the Army" show. Perhaps that had helped his thought process on who to blame for these horrible murders.
I don't know who Holly Near was,but if Jane Fonda was a hippie,I was a astronaut.
"I adore John McCain, support him 100 percent and will do everything I can to support his reelection. As everyone knows, I was honored and proud to run with him. And Todd and I were with him in D.C. just a week ago." (Sarah Palin,Dec 2009) ************************************ DID Palin say or write these things or not? (Me) I don't know or F ing care. (Mad Dog posted on 2009-12-26 16:36:33 ET,post # 105 http://libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=5510&Disp=114#C114)
The extent of the wounds to his family are staggering when you add them all up.
I hear you knockin...go back where you been....
rotfl...and Patti Hearst was a victim....(eyes rolling)
I hear you knockin...go back where you been....
Holly Near is a famose (here anyway) lesbian folk singer who could of been famose had she hid her sexual orientation and not started Redwood Records to promote her music and that of other artists who were talented but were having trouble breaking into the biz.
Of the Stockholm Syndrome, yes. It is a syndrome where to stay sane a victim started identifying with their oppressors and captors.
I know what stockholm syndrome is, Mike. And sorry, thats pure unadulterated bullshit. She was a spoiled little rich girl that had big time daddy issues.
I hear you knockin...go back where you been....
Not everyone does, so I made my post understandable to more people seeing it, relax. We sure are defensive here, aren't we? Actually, she was a spoiled rich brat who did not have the mental tempering to withstand the insanity and stress of being kidnapped for political reasons.
She was a spoiled rich brat...still is today.
I hear you knockin...go back where you been....
I'm not easily shocked,but it's shocking to even think a man is capable of doing that to his own children. Or even somebody else's children. Yet we all know it happens every day.
"I adore John McCain, support him 100 percent and will do everything I can to support his reelection. As everyone knows, I was honored and proud to run with him. And Todd and I were with him in D.C. just a week ago." (Sarah Palin,Dec 2009) ************************************ DID Palin say or write these things or not? (Me) I don't know or F ing care. (Mad Dog posted on 2009-12-26 16:36:33 ET,post # 105 http://libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=5510&Disp=114#C114)
How many of us would have at the age she was kidnapped? Rich girl or poor boy?
"I adore John McCain, support him 100 percent and will do everything I can to support his reelection. As everyone knows, I was honored and proud to run with him. And Todd and I were with him in D.C. just a week ago." (Sarah Palin,Dec 2009) ************************************ DID Palin say or write these things or not? (Me) I don't know or F ing care. (Mad Dog posted on 2009-12-26 16:36:33 ET,post # 105 http://libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=5510&Disp=114#C114)
The extent of the wounds to his family are staggering when you add them all up. I'm not easily shocked,but it's shocking to even think a man is capable of doing that to his own children. Or even somebody else's children. Yet we all know it happens every day. Yep. The extend and ferocity of the attacks indicate a very strong emotional element usually, but not always, associated with family killings. Just add up the wounds...then try to mimick the physical action required to inflict them.
I hear you knockin...go back where you been....
Subject of best seller, 'Fatal Vision')
#2. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
#3. To: sneakypete (#2)
#4. To: Ferret Mike (#3)
If he is guilty I hope he stays where he is. That was a horrible crime.
#5. To: sneakypete (#4)
#6. To: Ferret Mike (#5)
I know back then Jane Fonda, Holly Near and others
#7. To: sneakypete (#2)
met McDonald shortly before his family was murdered,and he was a very hostile and angry man that came across as a ego-maniac.
#8. To: sneakypete (#6)
I don't know who Holly Near was,but if Jane Fonda was a hippie,I was a astronaut.
#9. To: sneakypete (#6)
#10. To: Badeye (#8)
"rotfl...and Patti Hearst was a victim...."
#11. To: Ferret Mike (#10)
Of the Stockholm Syndrome, yes. It is a syndrome where to stay sane a victim started identifying with their oppressors and captors.
#12. To: Badeye (#11)
"I know what Stockholm syndrome is, Mike."
#13. To: Ferret Mike (#12)
Actually, she was a spoiled rich brat who did not have the mental tempering to withstand the insanity and stress of being kidnapped for political reasons.
#14. To: Badeye (#7)
The extent of the wounds to his family are staggering when you add them all up.
#15. To: Ferret Mike (#12)
Actually, she was a spoiled rich brat who did not have the mental tempering to withstand the insanity and stress of being kidnapped for political reasons.
#16. To: sneakypete (#14)
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]