Jeffrey R. MacDonald should be set free by Supreme Court

Fatal Vision' doctor denied new trial in family triple murder
ArmyTimes.com-Dec 21, 2018

4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a federal judge's 2014 ruling rejecting a new trial. On Friday, the 4th Circuit court upheld that ruling.

MacDonald's latest appeal was based on three hairs found at the crime scene that did not match the family's DNA and a statement from a deputy U.S. marshal who accused the prosecution of intimidating a witness. A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit agreed with the lower court judge that the new evidence does not warrant a new trial.

"Simply put, we cannot say that the new evidence ... considered with all the other evidence, would be sufficient to establish by clear and convincing evidence that no reasonable factfinder would have found him guilty of the murders of his wife and daughters," Judge Robert King wrote for the panel in the unanimous ruling.
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The killings became known as the "Fatal Vision" case, the title of a 1983 true-crime book MacDonald asked author Joe McGinniss to write to show that he was innocent. Instead, McGinniss became convinced of MacDonald's guilt.

MacDonald is serving three consecutive life sentences.

His lawyer, Hart Miles, called the ruling "devastating news," but said MacDonald "will continue to fight for his freedom."

"He continues to maintain his innocence and wants to express his sincere thanks to all the supporters who have stood by him," Miles said in a statement.

The 4th Circuit overturned MacDonald’s convictions in 1980, ruling that the nine-year delay to bring him to trial violated his right to a speedy trial. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision in 1982, and MacDonald was returned to prison.

MacDonald’s attorneys argue there was ample evidence of intruders: 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’s or his family’s and other evidence they say was lost or destroyed due to what they say was the government’s “inept handling” of the crime scene. (Among this other evidence, they say, was skin recovered from underneath Colette’s fingernail and Jeff’s pajama bottoms.)

MacDonald's latest appeal was based on three hairs found at the crime scene that did not match the family's DNA and a statement from a deputy U.S. marshal who accused the prosecution of intimidating a witness. A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit agreed with the lower court judge that the new evidence does not warrant a new trial.

"Simply put, we cannot say that the new evidence ... considered with all the other evidence, would be sufficient to establish by clear and convincing evidence that no reasonable factfinder would have found him guilty of the murders of his wife and daughters," Judge Robert King wrote for the panel in the unanimous ruling.

DNA test results released by the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory on March 10, 2006, showed that neither Stoeckley's nor Mitchell's DNA matched any of the tested exhibits. A limb hair found stuck to Colette's left palm matched MacDonald's DNA profile. It also matched hairs found on the bedspread from the master bed and on the top sheet of Kristen's bed. A hair found in Colette's right palm was sourced as her own. Three hairs, one from the bedsheet, one found in her body outline in the area of her legs, and one found beneath Kristen's fingernail did not match the DNA profile of any MacDonald family member or known suspect.[52]

this is the theory of the crime

The Army's Criminal Investigation Division (CID) did not believe MacDonald's version of events, and, as Army investigators studied the physical evidence, they found that it did not seem to support the story told by MacDonald. The living room, where MacDonald had supposedly fought for his life against three armed assailants, showed few signs of a struggle apart from an overturned coffee table and knocked over flower plant.[9] In addition to the lack of damage to the inside of the house, fibers from MacDonald's torn pajama top were not found in the living room, where he claimed it was torn. Instead, fibers from the pajama top were found under Colette's body and in both Kimberly and Kristen's bedrooms. One fiber was found under Kristen's fingernail.[10] The murder weapons were found outside the back door. They were a kitchen knife, an ice pick, and a 3-foot long piece of lumber; all three were determined to have come from the MacDonald house. The tips of surgical gloves were found beneath the headboard where "pig" was written in blood; they were identical in composition to a supply MacDonald kept in the kitchen.

The MacDonald family all had different blood types — a statistical anomaly that was used to theorize what had happened in their house. Starting with the assumption that they were the only four people bleeding in there, investigators theorized that a fight began in the master bedroom between MacDonald and Colette, who possibly argued over Kristen wetting his side of the bed while sleeping there. Investigators speculated that the argument turned physical as she probably hit him on the forehead with a hairbrush, which resulted in his head wound concussion. As he retaliated by hitting her, first with his fists and then beating her with a piece of lumber, Kimberly, whose blood and brain serum were found in the doorway, may have walked in after hearing the commotion and was struck at least once on the head, possibly by accident. Believing Colette dead, MacDonald carried the mortally wounded Kimberly back to her bedroom. After stabbing her (whose blood was discovered on his pajama top which he said he had not been wearing while in her room), he went to Kristen's room, intent on disposing of the last remaining potential witness. Before he could do so, Colette, whose blood was found on Kristen's bed covers and on one wall of the room, apparently regained consciousness, stumbled in, and threw herself over Kristen. After killing both of them, he wrapped Colette's body in a sheet and carried it back to the master bedroom, leaving a smudged footprint of her blood on his way out of Kristen's room.[11]

CID investigators then theorized that MacDonald attempted to cover up the murders, using articles on the Manson Family murders that he'd found in an issue of Esquire in the living room. Putting on surgical gloves from a medical supply in the hallway closet, he went to the master bedroom, where he used Colette's blood to write "pig" on the headboard. He laid his torn pajama top over her dead body and repeatedly stabbed her in the chest with an ice pick. He then took a scalpel blade from the supply closet, went to the adjacent bathroom, and stabbed himself once. Finally, he used the telephone to summon an ambulance, discarded the weapons out the back door, disposed of the surgical gloves and scalpel blade, and lay by Colette's body while he waited for the military police to arrive.

On April 6, 1970, Army investigators interrogated MacDonald. Less than a month later, on May 1, the Army formally charged him with the murder of his family.[12]