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Court OKs Request in 'Fatal Vision' Case
An appeals court gave new life Friday to the defense of a former Green Beret doctor convicted of the 1970 murders of his wife and daughters, ruling that his lawyers can introduce evidence that a prosecutor threatened a witness.A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., granted a motion by Jeffrey MacDonald's lawyers to present the new evidence in Raleigh federal court. It could result in a new trial, said Hart Miles, one of MacDonald's attorneys. The defense filed the motion last month, after a former deputy U.S. marshal came forward last year to say he heard a defense witness tell a prosecutor she was in the MacDonald home in Fort Bragg, N.C., on the night of the slayings. Jimmy B. Britt, part of the security detail during MacDonald's 1979 trial, said he heard prosecutor James Blackburn tell Helena Stoeckley that he would indict her for murder if she told the same story on the witness stand. Stoeckley later testified she could not remember where she was the night of the slayings. Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-01-16 |
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