Jeffrey MacDonald, Green Beret convicted of murdering family in 1970, gets new hearing in murder case

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

Jeffrey MacDonald, at Cumberland federal prison in Maryland.

/ Josh Gelman

(CBS/AP) WILMINGTON, N.C.- More than 40 years after the murders of his pregnant wife and two daughters, former Green Beret Jeffrey MacDonald is getting another chance to try to prove his innocence in the case that was the basis for the book "Fatal Vision."

"48 Hours": Jeffrey MacDonald: Time For Truth

MacDonald is asking a judge to grant him a new trial. The hearing began Monday in a federal courtroom in Wilmington, with MacDonald's attorney saying if jurors in 1979 could have considered two new types of evidence in case, they would have found him not guilty.

Prosecutors chose not give an opening statement.

MacDonald is serving three life sentences for the 1970 murder of his pregnant wife, Colette, and their daughters, Kimberley and Kristen.

MacDonald's lawyer plans on concentrating on two bits of evidence - hairs that don't match MacDonald or his family's DNA and a statement from Jimmy Britt, a deputy U.S. marshal when the case was tried.

When those two things are considered with the rest of the evidence, "you would conclude no reasonable juror would find Jeffrey MacDonald guilty," defense attorney Gordon Widenhouse said.

And now, a book by acclaimed filmmaker and author Errol Morris says MacDonald was telling the truth all along.

Morris - whose 1988 movie "The Thin Blue Line" helped win freedom for a man wrongfully convicted of murdering a police officer - told Rita Braver of "CBS Sunday Morning" that DNA evidence not available at the time of MacDonald's trial now points to his innocence.

The first witness of the hearing was Wade Smith, who is testifying about Britt's statement. MacDonald's lawyer said that Britt heard prosecutor Jim Blackburn threaten Helena Stoeckley, a troubled local woman whom MacDonald had identified as one of the attackers.

A previous MacDonald attorney has said Stoeckley was prepared to testify she was in the MacDonald home the night of the murders until Blackburn threatened to charge her with the slayings. She later testified she couldn't remember where she was that night.

Lawyers expect the hearing could last up to two weeks.

MacDonald was in a tan prison jumpsuit for the hearing. He was shackled at the ankles, but not the wrist.

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by TommyGodfrey September 20, 2012 10:55 AM EDT: You are correct, they were'nt Hippies, but personel from Psyops that MacDonald refused to treat.

I don't know if Helena was there or not. She was a sergent and Kathy Perry was the pawn that did the dirty work. In her confession, Helena knew no details that wasn't echoed in the papers. However, Kathy did, she just got a few of the insignificant details wrong. However, Kathy was extremely psychotic - Not Helena who was a star Gov't witness that sent at least 100 of their competition to prison; Reply to this comment


by gabby1997 September 17, 2012 10:57 PM EDT: The core evidence got him convicted. The pajama top, fibers, the impressions on the bed sheets, the surgical gloves, the bloody footprint in his wife's blood...all of this fit like a glove and told what really happened.; Reply to this comment


by eddiethekid September 17, 2012 6:43 PM EDT: It's time for Jeff MacDonald to get another trial. The army botched the case from the very beginning, and then the civilian courts got involved and didn't do much better, except that they were able to convince a jury that Jeff MacDonald had to be guilty simply because he was the only suspect the federal government focused on. It's almost as if he was being punished for surviving.; Reply to this comment

by mcpepper111 September 17, 2012 6:39 PM EDT

Exactly - I couldn't agree more. So basically these 4 "insane hippies" killed this one family and then stopped? Oh, and kept it a secret for over 40 years, by not telling another living soul? And it's pretty convenient that the only person that can be blamed is dead. The bottom line is that Jeff MacDonald is a narcissist and will NEVER admit he did it, so he's basically spent the last 43 years living in denial. Jeff, if you read this you should understand one thing; getting out of jail is not going to convince anyone of your innocence. In fact, you will lose the one thing you have going for you - sympathy of a few. You will never have the acceptance nor the life you once had. It's over.

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by booker59 September 17, 2012 9:16 PM EDT: Personally, if it were me I'd still want to get out.

by 4MostCoach September 17, 2012 4:32 PM EDT

Sorry Jeffrey MacDonald...but in a million years no jury would EVER believe that you were innocent. It is convenient (if not sad) that you are practically the only person still alive from the whole case, but it changes nothing. Juries are admonished to COMMON SENSE. So let's review:

A house full of butchered people - your two beautiful girls (2yo & 4yo), stabbed dozens of times, clubbed in the head...the youngest stabbed on the front of her body the FLIPPED OVER and stabbed another 20 or so times, your 6 month pregnant wife clubbed and stabbed to shreads...and you: a nick in the flesh below your chest and a knock on the head that didn't even cause a concussion - yet, supposedly it rendered you unconscious for long enough for this carnage to go on in your little house - and the walls to be written on in blood...A green beret - you have special forces training & were a strong young man (even stronger, I suppose by all the amphetamines they know you were on back then,) but a few mysterious junkies got the best of you with a pajama shirt over your head? all for the sole purpose of massacring the women in the house. Helena Stokely was a known schizophrenic with a nasty herion addiction, YOU were/are a liar & murderer who will deservedly die in jail.

CBS give me a break! Don't start giving this egomaniac press. he knows he's guilty, he gets off on this crap. Ridiculous.

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by SF811 September 23, 2012 7:31 PM EDT: AMEN!! I couldn't have said it better myself!


by kimren60 September 17, 2012 3:38 PM EDT: So they were beaten with a 2x4 and stabbed with an ice pick and all he got was a puncture under his rib...ok.; Reply to this comment