Dr Jeffrey Macdonald example essay topic

Debated as one of the most misrepresented cases in American legal history, Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald still fights for innocence. Contrary to infallible evidence, prosecution intentionally withheld crucial information aiding MacDonald's alibi. Such ratification included proof of an outside attack that would have played a major role in Jeffrey's case. Convicted for the murders of his wife and two kids, thirty-four years ago, Dr. MacDonald still endures the agony of being accused of killing his family.

Even after twenty-four years of imprisonment and several unlawful court hearings, additional documentation continues to up hold Dr. MacDonald's testimony. It happened on a rainy night on February 17, 1970 at the base of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Military police were responding to a call from Green Beret surgeon Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald, which they thought was a routine call. When the military police arrived they discovered the slaughtered bodies of MacDonald's wife, Colette, who was twenty six, and his two daughters Kimberley, five, and Kristen, two. A MP who preformed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation revived Dr. MacDonald. He told the police he and his wife stayed up drinking some orange liquor.

She went to bed and he stayed up to finish watching the Johnny Carson show. MacDonald fell asleep on the sofa. He was awakened by screams of his wife and daughters. MacDonald claimed that three men standing over the sofa started to attack him with a bladed weapon and a baseball bat. He identified the person holding the bat as a black man with an army jacket with E-6 stripes and two white men, one carrying the bladed weapon. Before he was knocked unconscious he said that there was a lady in the back with a large floppy hat, holding a candle and was saying "acid is groovy" and "kill the pigs".

When MacDonald woke back up he found his wife lying on the ground, and tried to revive her with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation with no success. He then found his daughters and tried to help them. This is when he called for an ambulance. The Army CID sent a new, inexperienced investigator named William Ivory to investigate the scene. Ivory decided after looking around the house that MacDonald made up the story of the killers. He also persuaded everyone that he was the culprit.

This meant that everyone in Ivory's chain of command was trying to prove MacDonald guilty, and not trying to prove that there were other people that committed the crimes. There was suppressed evidence in the case that showed that Dr. MacDonald did not murder his family. The prosecutor Brian Murtagh told jurors that nothing at the crime scene supported MacDonald's story of the four trespassers. When the defense asked to see the lab results, the prosecutor laid saying the documents had nothing to support MacDonald's claims. There was evidence on the body of Colette MacDonald. She was holding a brown hair in her hand, and it wasn't Dr. MacDonald's or of their two little girls.

It was reported that it was too small to be given to the government. She also had skin under her fingernails, which was lost and not reported. Colette also had some black wool in her mouth and on her shoulder. These fibers were misrepresented in court. It was told to the jury as blue fibers from his pajamas, later used to convict him. This piece of fiber was relevant because Helena Stoeckly, at the time, had a closet full of black clothes.

There was a blue fiber found in her left hand, and it could not be traced to any thing in the house. The same kind of blue fiber was found where Dr. MacDonald reported he was knocked unconscious. The evidence on Kimberly and Kristen was a hair was found under Kimberly's fingernail. It didn't match up with Dr. MacDonald and this piece of evidence was also unreported. A brown hair was found under Kristen's fingernail.

This hair didn't match the one under Kimberly's fingernail nor did it match that of Dr. MacDonald's hair. Once again the piece of evidence went unreported. These hairs should not have been kept out of the case. There was also some additional evidence that would have helped Dr. MacDonald. Blonde wig hairs were found in a brush where Jeffrey reported seeing the female. This was critical evidence in the case because the investigator William Ivory knew Helena Stoeckly used a blonde wig.

A bloody palm print was found on the bed of Dr. MacDonald's where Colette was murdered. This adult hand print did not match up with Dr. MacDonald or his wife. It was also found that it didn't match up with any one at the crime scene that morning. If all of this evidence would have been reported or not misrepresented than Dr. MacDonald wouldn't have spent all them years in prison instead of Ivory judging right away that he was guilty.

Ivory should have run tests and used the evidence to see if Dr. MacDonald was telling the truth about that night. Dr. MacDonald's trial was set in the mid 1979's. When the trial began the deck was stacked against him and nobody on his defense team knew about it. Judge Franklin Dupree, had his mind already made up that Dr. MacDonald was guilty before the trial even started. This was because Judge Dupree had a very close friend in the government that wanted to see Dr. MacDonald go down. MacDonald's attorney hired a forensic specialist to come in and look at the evidence the Judge wouldn't allow the defense to test anything.

Helena Stoeckly reported to the FBI that she was involved in the murder. She was hospitalized for depression and suicidal tendencies. She said, at the trial that she was out with her boyfriend Greg Mitchell along with some of his buddies from the base. She couldn't remember what they did from midnight to five a. m. She confessed of owning a floppy hat and a blonde wig which see burned later. She told six people about that night and one of them was a police officer who that morning heard her say "in my mind, I saw this thing happen".

Her friend was another witness who was told by Helena that she was at the MacDonald's home that night. Two other witnesses were police officers who heard her say she was present when the killings took place, and her companions decided to kill them because Dr. MacDonald wouldn't give them methadone, a drug used to help treat drug addicts. ( web murders / family /j macdonald) Judge Dupree stated that the statements were untrustworthy and she could testify. She couldn't use any statements about the murders. This was a huge set back to the defense team. The biggest matter about Stoeckly is she confessed to the prosecutor before the trial and it was never told to the defense. In 1997 the case opened back up and an expert member of a toy industry identified the synthetic hairs as wig hairs and not hairs from their kid's dolls.

Another thing they used was the hairs found under the fingernails. They used DNA testing which they didn't have when the trial first took place. Judge Fox took over the case because Judge Dupree passed away, and Judge Fox denied MacDonald the right to the testing of the hairs for DNA. This decision was overturned by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. This gave the MacDonald's team the opportunity to test the DNA.

Despite the order, the government won't hand over the evidence for the testing that it is a violation of the writ of habeas corpus. Despite all the evidence, MacDonald has been incarcerated for all these years. There is a group who is fighting to get his the evidence in front of a jury. Still believing in his innocence Jeff is filing for parole after fourteen years of eligibility. He is hoping to meet parole board criteria so he can be released on parole. This is a good case to show how it isn't always the poor, black, or Hispanic groups getting tried for something they haven't done.

It shows that a white doctor could get his life destroyed by an unfair Judge and prosecutors. Briscoe, Daren, MacDonald Wants Out. Newsweek, January 24, 2005. Vol. 145, Issue 4, p 8, 1/4 p, 1 c. Retrieved from EBSCO database on the World Wide Web: web Daren, The Green Beret Murders Haven't Given Up. Newsweek, August 30, 2004.

Vol. 144, Issue 9, p 6, 4/5 p, 1 c. Retrieved from EBSCO database on the World Wide Web: web overview. html web murders / family /j macdonald/2. html? sect = 12 The Associated Press, DNA Tests for Jeffrey MacDonald / Former Physician Seeks Evidence in 1970 'Fatal Vision's laying's. Newsday. March 24, 1999.

Retrieved from e Library on the World Wide Web: web.