STORY: "Former Green Beret Surgeon Jeffrey MacDonald Says There’s Evidence He Didn’t Kill His Family: ‘I Am Innocent,’ by Nicole Weisensee Egan, published by People Magazine, on January 18, 2017.
GIST: "For the past 47 years,
Jeffrey MacDonald’s account of what happened the night his entire family was murdered has stayed the same. So has the case against him, built largely on blood-type testing —
he, his wife and two children all had different blood types — that seems
archaic by today’s standards. But since his 1979 conviction, MacDonald has painstakingly gathered a
body of evidence — some of which was suppressed by prosecutors — via
Freedom of Information Act requests that he believes prove him right. “I
am innocent,” he says in an exclusive jailhouse interview
in this week’s issue of PEOPLE magazine. “I did not murder my family. I
have always told the truth about what happened that night. On Feb. 17, 1970, MacDonald’s pregnant wife, Colette, and their two
daughters, Kristen, 2, and Kimberley, 5, were slaughtered in their
bedrooms. While the Army cleared him of the crimes in 1970 after a six-week
long Article 32 hearing, MacDonald, now 73, was convicted by a federal
jury in 1979 and sentenced to three life terms in prison. On January
26, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on his
“actual innocence” claim, a legal term that makes it exceedingly
difficult to undo a conviction. The new evidence includes: DNA testing of unidentified hairs found
beneath Colette’s body, under Kristen’s fingernail and on her bedspread
on the bed where she was murdered that do not match MacDonald; numerous
confessions by police informant Helena Stoeckley and boyfriend Greg
Mitchell, who are now deceased; and statements from now-deceased federal
marshal Jimmy Britt, who says he heard then-prosecutor Jim Blackburn
threaten to arrest Stoeckley if she testified at MacDonald’s trial that
she was at the scene of the killings. (Blackburn has denied Britt’s
allegation.) Other evidence his attorneys say was withheld from the defense at
trial that points to intruders includes: wax drippings of three
different types of candles found at the home that did not belong to any
candles the MacDonald’s owned; long, blonde synthetic wig hairs found in
a hairbrush next to the phone in their apartment; black wool fibers
found on the mouth and bicep area of Colette and one of the murder
weapons that were not matched to any fabric in the home; numerous
unidentified fingerprints, palm prints and footprints at the crime scene
that did not match MacDonald or his family, as well as other evidence
MacDonald’s defense says was lost or destroyed due to what they say was
the government’s “inept handling” of the crime scene. Through the years, MacDonald has amassed some high-profile supporters, including some of the top forensic experts in the world. “I believe that the story that Jeffrey MacDonald related that evening
and ever since is correct,” says world-famous forensic pathologist
Cyril Wecht, who has studied all the autopsy reports, physical evidence and trial testimony. “The multiple and extensive injuries inflicted on Mrs. MacDonald and
the two children and all the other things that were done at the
house…depicts the involvement of two or more people,” Wecht says.........Other prominent supporters include Barry Scheck, co-founder of
The Innocence Project, the
North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, and
C. Ronald Huff,
a high-profile criminologist at the University of California, Irvine,
who has been studying wrongful convictions for the past 30 years. “I believe that Dr. MacDonald did not murder his family and that this
will ultimately be regarded as one of the most egregious miscarriages
of justice in the modern era,” says Huff. "
See the entire story at:
http://people.com/crime/former-green-beret-surgeon-jeffrey-macdonald-says-theres-evidence-he-didnt-kill-his-family-i-am-innocent/
See also related Wrongful Conviction Blog pos - Jeffrey MacDonald actual innocence appeal - at the link below: "Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald, the former Green Beret surgeon who was
first cleared in the murders of his pregnant wife and two daughters and
then convicted in 1970, will have what may be his final chance at
overturning his conviction after spending the past 36 years in prison
for a crime that many experts now believe he did not commit. Oral
arguments before a federal appeals court will commence on January 26.
The crime took place prior to the use of DNA analysis and new DNA
evidence and a lot of other evidence, including evidence of
prosecutorial misconduct, flawed forensic testimony, and botched crime
scene analysis, provides powerful support for his story that intruders
killed his family in what was in some ways similar to the “Manson
family” murders in that same era. People Magazine investigative reports
will culminate in its major cover story, available on newsstands on
Friday, January 20. Here is a link to the People Magazine digital story
today that precedes the cover story."
https://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2017/01/18/jeffrey-macdonald-actual-innocence-appeal/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the
Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my
previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put
considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith
and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic
pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses
on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please
send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest
to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy;
Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;