Ruling could reopen "Fatal Vision" case

RALEIGH, N.C. — 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 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., the night of the slayings.

Jimmy Britt, part of the security detail during MacDonald's 1979 trial, said he heard Prosecutor James Blackburn tell Helena Stoeckley 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.

Blackburn, who has denied making the remark, did not return a call Friday. But last month, he said Stoeckley "never told us she was there."

MacDonald, 62, whose case was told in the book and TV miniseries "Fatal Vision," is serving three consecutive life sentences for the murders of Colette MacDonald, 26, and their daughters Kimberley, 5, and Kristen, 2.