Jeffrey R. MacDonald

Jeffrey R. MacDonald (born in 1952) is a former United States Army Green Beret surgeon, convicted in 1979 of the 1970 murders of wife Colette MacDonald (née Stevenson), 26, and daughters Kimberly, 5, and Kristen Jean, 2, at Fort Bragg, NC. Sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison. He won on direct appeal in 1980 on Constitutional grounds (speedy trial). Conviction re-instated by U.S. Supreme Court in March 1982. Denied writ of Habeas Corpus in 1984, 1991 and 1997. Currently incarcerated at Cumberland Federal Correctional Institution in Maryland.

MacDonald claimed that in the early morning hours of 17 February' 1970, a group of "drug-crazed hippies" entered his home at 544 Castle Drive, Fort Bragg, NC, and slaughtered his family while they slept, attacking him and leaving him with head contusions, knife and icepick wounds, and a punctured lung. However, Army investigators claimed that blood and fiber evidence found in the apartment pointed to MacDonald himself as the killer, and effectively disproved his account of intruders. A six-week hearing presided over by Army Col. Warren V. Rock found the charges against MacDonald to be "not true." MacDonald left the Army in late 1970.

An FBI reinvestigation of the case from 1971–74, along with the efforts of MacDonald's father-in-law Alfred Kassab (Colette's step-father), led to the re-opening of the case and indictment of MacDonald in January of 1975. The trial took place in July of 1979. The prosecution's case revolved around a hypothetical murder scenario, buttressed by specific blood, fiber and other physical evidence, and the complete absence of forensic evidence corroborating MacDonald's account of the crime. MacDonald and his attorneys were unable to counter the prosecution's physical-evidence claims, nor provide any substantive proof of MacDonald's story, and MacDonald himself performed very poorly under cross-examination. The jury therefore found him guilty of two counts of second-degree murder, and one count of first-degree murder. Judge Franklin T. Dupree sentenced MacDonald to three consecutive life terms in prison, the harshest sentence allowable under the law at the time.

In the years following the trial, MacDonald endeavored to prove his innocence, employing a large number of attorneys, investigators, and supporters to help his cause. It was discovered that Judge Dupree, whose behaviour in the courtroom during the trial had been openly pro-prosecution, had had a personal relationship with a former U.S. Attorney who had handled the MacDonald case in the early 1970s. It was also discovered that prosecutors had withheld or suppressed certain items of forensic evidence which might have supported MacDonald's account of the crimes. Some of the physical-evidence claims made by prosecutors at trial were found to be highly questionable, if not entirely false. Other evidence and witness testimony which might have helped MacDonald were disallowed by the judge at trial. Various instances of prosecutorial malfeasance have been documented and alleged in the years since MacDonald's conviction; none, however, have been sufficient to vindicate MacDonald in either the courts or the public mind.

In 1983, author Joe McGinniss published a book called "Fatal Vision," which offered a detailed account of the case history, as well as the author's theory of why MacDonald had committed the murders. McGinniss postulated that MacDonald's use of an amphetamine-laced diet drug, combined with certain personality traits, had caused him to suffer a "psychotic break" on the night of the murders. The 1984 made-for-TV miniseries based on the book helped cement this theory in the public mind. McGinniss, however, had no factual basis for the theory and was sued by MacDonald for fraud in 1987; the case ended in a mistrial and was settled out-of-court.

In 1995, authors Jerry Allen Potter and Fred Bost published a book called "Fatal Justice," which offered a point-by-point rebuttal of the prosecution's case, as well as the theories of Joe McGinniss, using information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from the government's own case files. The book purported to show that MacDonald did not receive a fair trial in 1979 (and was probably innocent of the murders, though that was not the authors' thesis), but like "Fatal Vision," its objectivity and accuracy have been questioned, and the book failed to put to rest lingering questions about the case.

In October 1997, after a long series of legal defeats, MacDonald was granted the right to perform DNA tests on some of the surviving biological material from the crime scene. Due to legal maneuvering by prosecutors, testing did not begin until June 1999, at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. As of September 2004, the tests have not been completed. MacDonald, his attorneys and supporters contend that the results will corroborate the presence of intruders in the MacDonald home on the night of the murders, clearing the way for a new trial. MacDonald himself continues to proclaim his innocence after more than 22 years in prison.

Prosecutors have maintained their position that the physical evidence in the case overwhelmingly demonstrates that Jeffrey MacDonald, and only Jeffrey MacDonald, committed the murders.

The MacDonald case has become a highly controversial and polarizing issue in American criminal justice.