Jeffrey Macdonald

WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Federal prosecutors on Wednesday attacked new evidence presented by convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald, turning to witnesses who challenged a claim by a former deputy U.S. marshal that others may have killed MacDonald's family in 1970. The former marshal, Jimmy Britt, said in sworn statements in 2005 that a key witness in the MacDonald case told him she was at MacDonald's home at Ft. Bragg, N.C., the February night his pregnant wife and daughters were murdered.

A seven-day hearing in federal court in North Carolina for convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald has concluded, 33 years after the former Army doctor was found guilty of killing his pregnant wife and two young daughters in 1970. In closing arguments in Wilmington, N.C., late Tuesday, MacDonald's lead lawyer asked a federal judge to vacate his conviction based on new evidence . Gordon Widenhouse said that any jury hearing the new evidence would find the former surgeon not guilty.

WILMINGTON, N.C. - A disgraced former federal prosecutor testified Wednesday that he never threatened a key witness at the 1979 murder trial of convicted killer Jeffrey MacDonald - a crucial defense allegation in a federal court hearing on new evidence that MacDonald says could prove he did not kill his wife and two daughters in 1970. James Blackburn, who led the successful prosecution of MacDonald, denied under oath that he had told a witness he would charge her with murder if she testified that she and others were at MacDonald's home at Ft. Bragg, N.C., the night of the killings.

WILMINGTON, N.C. - Did the lead prosecutor in the federal murder trial of Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald 33 years ago intimidate a key defense witness whose testimony might have led to MacDonald's acquittal instead of conviction? Lawyers for MacDonald, who is serving three life sentences for killing his pregnant wife and two young daughters in 1970, have made that argument at a new hearing in the 42-year-old case. They say prosecutor James Blackburn threatened Helena Stoeckley, a heroin addict who claimed she was among four intruders at MacDonald's house at Ft. Bragg, N.C., the night of the killings.

A seven-day hearing in federal court in North Carolina for convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald has concluded, 33 years after the former Army doctor was found guilty of killing his pregnant wife and two young daughters in 1970. In closing arguments in Wilmington, N.C., late Tuesday, MacDonald's lead lawyer asked a federal judge to vacate his conviction based on new evidence . Gordon Widenhouse said that any jury hearing the new evidence would find the former surgeon not guilty.

WILMINGTON, N.C. - Did the lead prosecutor in the federal murder trial of Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald 33 years ago intimidate a key defense witness whose testimony might have led to MacDonald's acquittal instead of conviction? Lawyers for MacDonald, who is serving three life sentences for killing his pregnant wife and two young daughters in 1970, have made that argument at a new hearing in the 42-year-old case. They say prosecutor James Blackburn threatened Helena Stoeckley, a heroin addict who claimed she was among four intruders at MacDonald's house at Ft. Bragg, N.C., the night of the killings.

WILMINGTON, N.C. - For 42 years, Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald has clung to his story : Four intruders, including a woman in a floppy hat, killed his wife and two young daughters one night in February 1970. In federal court Monday, MacDonald's lawyers offered new evidence they say bolsters their client's story and will prove that he was wrongfully convicted of stabbing and bludgeoning his family to death inside their home at Ft. Bragg, N.C. MacDonald, now 68, was an Army doctor assigned to U.S. Special Forces when his wife, Colette, and daughters Kimberley, 5, and Kristen, 2, were murdered in a case that became the basis for a bestselling book, "Fatal Vision," and a hit TV miniseries.

WILMINGTON, N.C. - Lawyers for convicted killer and former Army doctor Jeffrey MacDonald continued to offer evidence Tuesday that they say suggests intruders were in his house the night his pregnant wife and two daughters were killed in 1970. MacDonald, now 68, is serving three life sentences for the killings, but has maintained that four intruders, among them a woman in a floppy hat, knocked him unconscious and committed the brutal murders at Ft. Bragg, N.C. The killings became the basis for a bestselling book, "Fatal Vision," and a hit TV miniseries.  On the second day of a federal hearing on new evidence, the brother of the late Helena Stoeckley, who the defense says was the woman in the floppy hat, testified that she confessed to being at the MacDonald house the night of the murders.

WILMINGTON, N.C. - 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...

Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald is locked in solitary confinement in Terminal Island Federal Prison at San Pedro. But MacDonald, convicted of the 1970 slayings of his wife and two small daughters, is hardly silent--or even alone. He's using his status as a celebrity convict to plead his innocence publicly via the airwaves. Petitioning for a new trial this winter (and due for a parole hearing in 1991), he's conducting a desperate series of interviews on TV and radio, albeit "with misgivings," he said.

WILMINGTON, N.C. - His ankles are shackled as he shuffles into the courtroom, looking older than his 68 years after half a lifetime in prison. He wears white socks and shower sandals, baggy pants, and a drab tan pullover stamped with the words "Inmate New Hanover County," the temporary home for federal prisoner number 0131-177. His thinning silver hair is worn in a choppy prison-barber cut. Jeffrey MacDonald, the Army doctor imprisoned for life for killing his family, is back in federal court to seek exoneration 42 years after the crime.

WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Federal prosecutors on Wednesday attacked new evidence presented by convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald, turning to witnesses who challenged a claim by a former deputy U.S. marshal that others may have killed MacDonald's family in 1970. The former marshal, Jimmy Britt, said in sworn statements in 2005 that a key witness in the MacDonald case told him she was at MacDonald's home at Ft. Bragg, N.C., the February night his pregnant wife and daughters were murdered.

WILMINGTON, N.C. - A disgraced former federal prosecutor testified Wednesday that he never threatened a key witness at the 1979 murder trial of convicted killer Jeffrey MacDonald - a crucial defense allegation in a federal court hearing on new evidence that MacDonald says could prove he did not kill his wife and two daughters in 1970. James Blackburn, who led the successful prosecution of MacDonald, denied under oath that he had told a witness he would charge her with murder if she testified that she and others were at MacDonald's home at Ft. Bragg, N.C., the night of the killings.

WILMINGTON, N.C. - Lawyers for convicted killer and former Army doctor Jeffrey MacDonald continued to offer evidence Tuesday that they say suggests intruders were in his house the night his pregnant wife and two daughters were killed in 1970. MacDonald, now 68, is serving three life sentences for the killings, but has maintained that four intruders, among them a woman in a floppy hat, knocked him unconscious and committed the brutal murders at Ft. Bragg, N.C. The killings became the basis for a bestselling book, "Fatal Vision," and a hit TV miniseries.  On the second day of a federal hearing on new evidence, the brother of the late Helena Stoeckley, who the defense says was the woman in the floppy hat, testified that she confessed to being at the MacDonald house the night of the murders.

WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Jeffrey MacDonald, a Green beret doctor convicted of the 1970 murders of his pregnant wife and two young daughters, was back in federal court Monday for a hearing on new evidence his lawyer says will prove that MacDonald is innocent. MacDonald, now 68, was granted the hearing based on defense contentions that newly tested DNA points to other suspects, and that sworn statements by a former federal marshal will show that prosecutors threatened a crucial witness whose testimony could have exonerated MacDonald.

WILMINGTON, N.C. - For 42 years, Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald has clung to his story : Four intruders, including a woman in a floppy hat, killed his wife and two young daughters one night in February 1970. In federal court Monday, MacDonald's lawyers offered new evidence they say bolsters their client's story and will prove that he was wrongfully convicted of stabbing and bludgeoning his family to death inside their home at Ft. Bragg, N.C. MacDonald, now 68, was an Army doctor assigned to U.S. Special Forces when his wife, Colette, and daughters Kimberley, 5, and Kristen, 2, were murdered in a case that became the basis for a bestselling book, "Fatal Vision," and a hit TV miniseries.

WILMINGTON, N.C. - His ankles are shackled as he shuffles into the courtroom, looking older than his 68 years after half a lifetime in prison. He wears white socks and shower sandals, baggy pants, and a drab tan pullover stamped with the words "Inmate New Hanover County," the temporary home for federal prisoner number 0131-177. His thinning silver hair is worn in a choppy prison-barber cut. Jeffrey MacDonald, the Army doctor imprisoned for life for killing his family, is back in federal court to seek exoneration 42 years after the crime.

Lawyers for a former Green Beret convicted in the 1970 slayings of his wife and daughters, a crime dramatized in the bestseller and miniseries "Fatal Vision," say that a new witness has come forward and that the court should throw out his murder convictions. A former deputy U.S. marshal says he heard a defense witness tell a prosecutor that she was at Jeffrey MacDonald's home on the night of the killings, according to a motion filed with the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Jimmy B.