Jeffrey MacDonald: Time For Truth

Convicted Murderer Says New Evidence Will Exonerate Him

(CBS) 
Three times a week, Kathryn MacDonald makes the 140-mile drive from her home outside Washington, D.C., to visit Jeffrey MacDonald at the Cumberland Federal Prison in western Maryland.

Kathryn married Jeffrey MacDonald three years ago.

At 44, Kathryn MacDonald makes her living running a small school for aspiring young actors but she has another job as well, taking care of the life Jeffrey MacDonald left behind.

She was instantly fascinated when she first read MacDonald’s story and says the more she read, the more convinced she was of his innocence. Eventually, she decided to write him in prison.

“I wrote just a little typed paragraph, you know, saying if I could be of any help, you know, please let me know. I was a very fast typist, I think I said that,” she recalls.

Jeffrey MacDonald says they grew very close very quickly, and the couple had a wedding ceremony behind bars on Aug. 30, 2002.

“People are fascinated, I think, by women who reach out to men in prison. Is there something about you that had you go that direction in your life?” Lagattuta asked.

“No. I think it's something about him,” she replied. "And that's that he doesn't belong there. He's innocent."

Now with a new wife and a new life waiting for him on the outside, MacDonald has done something he swore he would never do. He applied for parole.

“I would never go before the parole board if it required any sort of admission of guilt,” says MacDonald.

“He understands that if he does not admit his guilt it will probably harm his opportunity for parole,” says Tim Junkin, who, with his partner John Moffett, are the latest in a long line of lawyers who have been enlisted, without pay, to continue MacDonald’s fight.

In the years following the trial, using the Freedom of Information act, they discovered new information in the government files that had never seen the light of day.

“There was wax found in places in the apartment that didn't match any of the candles found in the MacDonald apartment,” Junkin says. There was skin under the fingernail of Colette MacDonald that was not turned over to the defense and black wool fiber found on the murder weapon, which couldn’t be matched, he added.

And one piece of evidence, in particular, seemed to be the needle in the haystack MacDonald had been desperately searching for: a blonde, 22-inch wig hair found at the scene.

It’s a synthetic hair the defense says is too long to match any of the children’s dolls in the house and therefore could only have come from a wig. Was it Helena Stoeckley’s wig?

“It's evidence that clearly relates to MacDonald's innocence, that supports his innocence. And the jury never heard about it,” says Junkin.

More appeals were filed based on this new-found information. In fact, MacDonald’s case has been appealed to the United States Supreme Court more than any other in history. But as far as the government was concerned, one hair and a few fibers were not enough to get MacDonald a new trial.

Now, with his appeals exhausted, this past spring MacDonald, with his wife by his side, faced the parole board, which would not be judging the evidence but the man and his remorse.

“I was seated at the end of this long table. I got to look straight and direct at him and at his wife,” recalls Robert Stevenson, who represented his sister’s family at the hearing. “I said to him, ‘My joy in you, Mr. MacDonald, is that you are the complete sociopath that you are. And that you're never going to admit what you did. And that I'm going to have the pleasure of knowing that you're going to stay here and rot in jail for the rest of your life.’ ”

Also at the hearing, a voice Jeffrey MacDonald probably assumed he would never hear again was part of the hearing: Freddy Kassab.

“In 1989, Fred Kassab, my stepfather, had made a tape knowing that he was in ill health and might not survive too long,” explains Stevenson.

Once again, Kassab’s efforts would help keep MacDonald behind bars. The board denied MacDonald’s parole request.

But MacDonald is not beaten yet and maybe never will be. Currently, DNA testing is being done on some of the hair and blood evidence from the MacDonald apartment that may give him yet another opportunity to plead his innocence.

“He just continues to fight,” says Kathryn MacDonald. "Very methodically, very thoughtfully but very patiently. And that's how we go about our lives until that day, you know, happens. But I know that it will."

“I know that he'll be back,” says Robert Stevenson. "That's why when someone said to me the other day, ‘Will this ever end?’ Sure, it'll end for me when I'm dead or he's dead."

And MacDonald is confident he will leave prison one day. “I'm positive of that. I've never wavered on that. I've had bad days, bleak moments. But I'm sure of that.”

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Jeffrey MacDonald will be eligible to reapply for parole in 2020. He will be 76 years old.