| Blog and Media Roundup - Thursday, Feb 19, 2009; News Roundup | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 19 2009, 05:36 AM (425 Views) | |
| abb | Feb 19 2009, 05:36 AM Post #1 |
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1101062.cfm Duke officials, Trinity Heights residents meet By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun gronberg@heraldsun.com Feb 19, 2009 DURHAM -- Duke University officials stopped well short Wednesday of agreeing to calls from Trinity Heights residents for tighter policing of their neighborhood's student party house scene and a move to bring fraternities back on campus. Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta, speaking for an assortment of Duke officials who attended a meeting with residents and city leaders, promised to keep residents in the loop as campus administrators consider the proposals. But he added that he didn't "think any will be implemented exactly as described" by neighborhood activists in their request to the university earlier this year. Moneta also signaled that the Duke leadership prefers to focus on counseling students about proper behavior in off-campus neighborhoods, and on prodding landlords to deal with problem tenants. Landlords "aren't really referenced" in the neighbors' recommendations, he said, adding that Duke officials believe that's "another group we need to work with to get accountability and responsibility." Trinity Heights activists indicated at the close of the meeting that they hadn't been expecting an immediate acceptance of their proposals by Duke. A spokeswoman, Christine Westfall, said they intend to contact Duke and city officials three or four months from now to pursue the matter. "We know this is the kind of thing that takes some time to process," she said. "We see this as a long-term project and are seeking a long-term solution." Wednesday's meeting brought to a close, for the moment, a series of talks that began late last summer after a group of Trinity Heights residents sought a meeting with Duke officials to complain about renewed problems with off-campus party houses. The initial meeting led to discussions involving residents, members of Moneta's student-affairs staff, command-level representatives from both the Durham and Duke police departments, inspectors from the city's Neighborhood Improvement Services Department and various other campus and city officials. Participants agreed that the attention has produced an improvement in conditions around the party houses this school year. But residents said there are still problems, and stressed that they want a solution that doesn't require repeated effort on their part to counsel new groups of students each fall. Westfall and fellow resident Beverly Meek also emphasized that Trinity Heights leaders believe the ultimate solution is for Duke to allow fraternities to build housing on campus so they can hold social events there. With such housing not now allowed on campus, "there's a breakdown or avoidance of moving something that doesn't work in our neighborhoods to a place where it can work," Meek said. The party-house scene is "simply incompatible with neighborhood, residential life," Westfall said. "Parties that go on on weeknights until 11 [p.m.] are hard for people who put their children to bed at 8 [p.m.] and get up at 6 [a.m.]" |
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| abb | Feb 19 2009, 05:42 AM Post #2 |
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1100854.cfm No death sentences will be sought in Bailey case BY BETH VELLIQUETTE : The Herald-Sun bvelliquette@heraldsun.com Feb 19, 2009 HILLSBOROUGH -- Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall has decided not to seek the death penalty against six defendants in the kidnapping and murder of Joshua Bailey. One after another, the six defendants were escorted into the Orange County Criminal Superior courtroom, and Woodall told the judge that he did not plan to seek the death penalty in each case. Each hearing took only a minute or two before deputies then escorted the defendants, who were handcuffed and wearing the orange jail jumpsuits, back out of the courtroom. About 15 friends and family members wearing buttons with Bailey's photograph on them watched as each of the defendants entered the courtroom. Investigators believe that Bailey, of Chapel Hill, was kidnapped, driven to the home of one of the defendants who lived off Twisted Oak northwest of Carrboro, led into the woods and shot on July 29. Some of the defendants later dug up his body and moved it to another location in Chatham County. After the hearing, Bailey's family released a written statement that said: "While we do not have any particular objection to the death penalty, we also believe that it is not the only path to follow. "We are confident that Mr. Woodall has a well-developed plan to bring the ones that murdered our son to justice. We are equally confident that Orange County Sheriff's Investigator Tim Horne and SBI Agent Philip Stevens have been thorough in collecting the evidence and building the case against the accused." Woodall said after the hearings that he carefully considered whether to seek the death penalty against each of the defendants but felt it would be better to try to get convictions that would lead to sentences of life without parole. The defendants, all from the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area, are: Brian Gregory Minton, 18; Jacob Alexander Maxwell, 18; Brandon Hamilton Greene, 26; Ryan Ladar Davis Lee, 21; Jack Johnson II, 20; and Matthew Alan Johnson, 19. Matthew Johnson is alleged to have been the one who fired the shot that killed Bailey. During Wednesday's hearings, Lee asked that the judge set a $50,000 bond in his case. His attorney, Glenn Gerding, told Judge Allen Baddour that after listening to tape recordings of witness statements and reading over the evidence in the case, it appeared that Lee's participation was minimal. Woodall opposed a $50,000 bond and said that Lee was among five of the defendants who gathered at Minton's home and pitted the sixth defendant, Matthew Johnson, against Bailey. "The group got together allegedly at the home of Brian Minton in a garage," Woodall said. "There was a meeting. There was a concern that some members of the group may have been talking to police about their involvement of drugs or that they had cheated them out of money from the drugs." The focus of the meeting was Matthew Johnson and Bailey, Woodall said. "Matt and Josh were pitted against each other to determine who was not loyal," he said. "The group of five or six made a determination that Josh Bailey was the one not loyal to the group." The six defendants bound Bailey, took him into the woods, made him stand in a depression in the ground caused by an uprooted tree, Woodall said. Matthew Johnson fired the fatal shot, Woodall said. In deciding whether to seek the death penalty, Woodall had to consider who fired the shot, and why, and the others' role in the killing. "That is one of the things that was taken into consideration," Woodall said. "I think it will be a complex case because there's going to be a lot of evidence, and there will be a large number of witnesses in this case who have different parts of the story to tell." In the case of Lee, Baddour set a bond at $1 million and told him that if he is able to post the bond, he is not to have contact with any of the other defendants or Bailey's family. He also set a curfew for him. The other defendants did not ask that bond be posted in their cases. |
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| abb | Feb 19 2009, 05:45 AM Post #3 |
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/state/6-1100589.cfm NC man once accused of murder marks end of ordeal By MARLON A. WALKER : Associated Press Writer The Associated Press Feb 19, 2009 GOLDSBORO, N.C. -- James Johnson's plea Monday to a felony charge in connection with the death of a 17-year-old Wilson girl marked the end of his legal ordeal surrounding the case. Johnson entered an Alford plea to a misprision of a felony charge, meaning he does not admit guilt but acknowledges prosecutors may have enough evidence to convict him. No judgment goes on his record. But he and his family said the battle with the legal system that wrongly jailed him more than three years continues for anyone who may face what's taken him nearly five years to overcome. "We can't let it end there," said Johnson's father, Arthur Johnson. "If you just say it's over because of Monday, by Tuesday you're right back where you started from." Brittany Willis, police said, was kidnapped at gunpoint on June 28, 2004, from a shopping center parking lot. Authorities found the 17-year-old's body the next day at a construction site. She had been raped and shot twice. Then-16-year-old Kenneth Meeks showed up to the Johnson family home the night of Willis' murder in a sport utility vehicle James Johnson said he didn't recognize. From there, the two drove to the construction site where the girl had been killed. Johnson was shown the teen's body. But after he told authorities of what he'd been told and saw, the finger was pointed back at him. He was jailed more than three years on murder, rape and kidnapping charges in Willis' death. Meeks eventually was sentenced to life without parole in Willis' death. He later recanted his story to authorities that James Johnson had a part in the slaying, going as far as to write the local paper with the information. Johnson's charges were eventually dropped in September 2007, but a special prosecutor given the case charged Johnson with accessory after the fact for his role in the incident. The prosecutor claimed Johnson wiped his fingerprints off Willis' vehicle. "I was tired of the court system," Johnson, now 22, said at a prayer vigil marking the end of his nearly 5-year ordeal. "Even if it was a 99-percent chance I'd get off, that one percent ... scared me. I've already seen (my family) through glass for three-and-a-half years." He said he intended to fight the charges to the end, but fear of going back to the same place he says he was wrongly held for more than three years pushed him to accept the plea agreement. He had been released in September 2007 when a judge reduced his $1 million bond. Johnson was barely an adult when he was jailed on murder charges in July 2004. Now, he says, he plans to use his story to help other teens going down the wrong road. "Being in jail, I realized some of the traps some of the young brothers fall into," he said. "I want to give them an outlet. I want to open their eyes." The Rev. William Barber, president of the state chapter of the NAACP, said Wednesday more needs to be done to prevent prosecutors from wrongly targeting innocent people. "The James Johnson case was never a case about the Willises versus James Johnson," Barber said. "The case was about James Johnson versus an arrogant system of injustice." NAACP officials spent Wednesday morning telling stories of others who had been convicted in North Carolina. Some, like Alan Gell, had been sentenced to die for crimes they were later found to have not committed. Gell was acquitted in 2004 of a 1995 killing after it was revealed prosecutors had withheld key evidence during his original trial. A complaint with the State Bar is still in progress against Wilson County assistant district attorney Bill Wolfe, whom the Johnsons have accused of prosecutorial misconduct. Barber has said he's hoping the NAACP's national office will assist them in fighting what he sees as injustices in the state's legal system. "People keep saying 'let's heal' from this experience. For them, that means let's scab over the bigger problem," Barber said. "Until the system is willing to call itself out, it's not over." |
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| abb | Feb 19 2009, 05:57 AM Post #4 |
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http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20264477&BRD=1379&PAG=461&dept_id=162905&rfi=6 Unfortunately for Rodriguez and the Yankees, his answers on Tuesday won't make the questions go away. No, this won't stop the Selena Roberts' of the world from coming after him, and hard at that. Of course, we're still waiting for Roberts to apologize to the Duke lacrosse players, whom she had tried and convicted right from the start when she was a columnist at the New York Times. |
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| abb | Feb 19 2009, 06:01 AM Post #5 |
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http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6664428 Eve Carson murder suspect due in court Wednesday, February 18, 2009 | 8:06 AM Special hearing on state charges still on hold By Tamara Gibbs GREENSBORO (WTVD) -- One of two suspects charged in the murder of UNC Student President Eve Carson will return to federal court next week. According to court documents filed Tuesday evening, Demario Atwater will be arraigned on February 25 in Greensboro because of a revised federal indictment that now includes kidnapping charges and allegations of torture. If convicted of federal kidnapping, carjacking, murder and firearm charges, Atwater faces the possibility of a federal death sentence. Lawrence Lovette, Jr. was 17 at the time of the shooting, making him ineligible for the death penalty. Police have said Atwater and Lovette kidnapped Carson near her home on the UNC Campus on March 5, 2008. The suspects are accused of holding Carson inside her SUV while driving to various ATMs to make cash withdrawals. Federal prosecutors believe Carson was shot at least four times before a final fatal shotgun blast to the head at the hands of Atwater. Federal court documents suggest Carson was killed to prevent her from identifying her alleged attackers. Atwater and Lawrence Lovette, Jr. are both facing first-degree murder charges in Orange County where the crime was committed. A special hearing in the case has yet to be scheduled. Attorneys for Lovette and Atwater want access to records that are traditionally kept confidential. Defense attorneys are interested in the Crime Stoppers report related to the case, specifically the identity of callers who received a financial reward for information, according to prosecutors. The attorneys are also seeking access to a gang information database. It allows law enforcement to exchange confidential information about suspected gang members. But, a judge would have to determine whether specific information should be turned over to Lovette and Atwater’s defense team, said Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall in an interview last November. |
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| abb | Feb 19 2009, 08:08 AM Post #6 |
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http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/ Rumblings in Raleigh From comments: More grim news from Executive Editor John Drescher in Raleigh. More lay-offs...size and number to be determined by the boys at the head office based on a MONETARY number only, meaning firings until a certain level of money is obtained. Salary cuts, at this time not sure if it will be across the board, above a certain pay grade, or percentage of how much you make. Not one but a two week furlough (fancy word for a SECOND pay cut. Lay-offs are to be on the level of the September 2008, which means in all probability 20-30 more in the newsroom. The policy will be last hire first fire. Looking for some voluntary buyouts but there is no guarantee this will save anyone else's job. Worst case scenario apparently losing the Monday and Tuesday features section. And cutting even more pages from the news and sports sections. |
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| abb | Feb 19 2009, 08:12 AM Post #7 |
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http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2009/02/19/News/Ac.Agenda.To.Highlight.Financials-3638217.shtml AC agenda to highlight financials Brodhead, Lange, Trask to speak at closed session By: Julia Love Posted: 2/19/09 When top administrators explain Duke's financial situation to the Academic Council, they will do so behind closed doors. At today's meeting of the Academic Council, President Richard Brodhead, Executive Vice President Tallman Trask and Provost Peter Lange will discuss current and future budget issues with faculty members in an executive session, said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public relations and government affairs. "This is part of the consultation process that the leadership is going through as the University evaluates issues and options for the next couple of years," Schoenfeld said. "There are issues that the president and the provost and the executive vice president want to discuss with the faculty as part of the deliberative process-not so much for a vote but for reaction and feedback." The discussion is closed to students and media because administrators will solicit faculty feedback on budgetary proposals that have not yet been finalized, Schoenfeld said. "We're discussing things with the faculty that we're not prepared to discuss with the entire community," Lange said. "These are our faculty leaders, and we want them to be informed.... It's an executive session for good reason." Schoenfeld said administrators are seeking input from every part of the University to inform their budgetary proposals, noting that the feedback will be presented at the Board of Trustees' meeting Feb. 27. "This is very early in the budget process," he said. "Pretty much everybody within the University who has responsibility for managing budgets is providing input and guidance.... Those discussions are especially important this year." Duke's top brass have made the rounds at policymaking bodies' meetings in recent weeks. Lange spoke to Campus Council for the first time in four years Feb. 12, detailing how funding for building projects has been impacted by the financial crisis. Trask explained Duke's financial strategy at a Duke Student Government meeting Feb. 4, emphasizing that academics will remain Duke's top priority and students should not expect to see any "extraordinary changes" to tuition and fees. Craig Henriquez, professor of computer science and co-director of the Center for Neuroengineering, said he thinks the closed session will enable administrators to give faculty a clearer picture of the University's financial situation. Henriquez, who is a candidate to become chair of the assembly, noted that safeguarding academic funding will be one of the Academic Council's most important objectives in the coming year. "I think everybody is wondering what's going to happen. We know the economy is not great, and it's impacting us not only in terms of internal University funding but also externally in terms of grants and things that support research," he said. "At this point, I think we know that there are going to be cutbacks, and I guess the question is where those cutbacks are going to be targeted.... There's hope and an expectation that there's still a prioritizing of the academic mission of the University." |
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| abb | Feb 19 2009, 08:14 AM Post #8 |
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http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2009/02/19/News/Duke-To.Act.On.OffEast.Disturbances-3638226.shtml Duke to act on off-East disturbances Trinity Heights report suggests police patrols, education efforts By: Carmen Hernandez Posted: 2/19/09 In response to a report made by Trinity Heights residents, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta, announced that Duke will take steps to help curb disruptive behavior by students living off campus. Duke's response to the report came in a community meeting held in Asbury United Methodist Church Wednesday night following months of negotiations with the Trinity Heights Neighborhood Association. The meeting was attended by residents, students, city officials and Duke officials. "We take seriously the collaboration with the neighborhood associations and with the city to try to find a way we can ensure reasonable living opportunities for our students as well as reasonable high quality of life for the neighborhood," Moneta said. Most of the recommendations of the Trinity Heights Task Force report, drafted at their last meeting in November, were not completely met or discussed, but Moneta told residents that he would follow up with progress on the recommendations in a few months. The recommendations made in the residents' report included implementing Duke University Police Department patrolling of off-campus fraternity houses, adopting a zero-tolerance policy for off-campus fraternity parties, increasing efforts to educate students on proper behavior and building fraternity homes on Central Campus. "We want to get to a place where we won't be woken up at night or have broken bottles on our driveways," said Trinity Heights resident Christine Westfall, who requested the initial meetings with Duke officials to discuss complaints. "At the same time we want to continue to enjoy living with students in neighborhoods." Instead of taking some of the report suggestions, Moneta said Duke would attempt to address the problem by hosting off-campus housing receptions for students living off campus, easy online complaint forms for residents to report off-campus fraternity disturbances, educational tools for students regarding residential laws, door-to-door efforts to educate students and a housing fair in January for property managers and neighborhood associations. He handed out a memo to residents outlining these suggestions. "[The memo] does not necessarily follow the recommendations line by line, but frankly I think we have accomplished far more than those recommendations require," he said. Sophomore Andrew Brown, Duke Student Government vice president for Durham and regional affairs, attended the meeting to represent the student voice on the issue. He expressed disagreement with the zero-tolerance policy adoption recommendation made in the report, which would subject students to fines and citations for bad behavior on their first offense. He added that communication was key to improve student-resident relationships. "In terms of the zero-tolerance policy for Duke Police, frankly I think sometimes there are better things that the police should be doing instead of staking out houses," he said. City Council member Mike Woodard said he wants to bring the problem to the attention of property owners and landlords. "They really have been missing from these conversations over the last six or seven moths," he said. "We need to find ways to get them to the table as we continue to talk." |
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| chatham | Feb 19 2009, 08:35 AM Post #9 |
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I am guessing that they will be talking about some serious retrenchment options in certain majors to cut costs. The requirements for larger grant applications to the NIH and NSF will be strongly suggested. Lots of overhead money brodhead can use to buy wine with those grants. |
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| Quasimodo | Feb 19 2009, 09:09 AM Post #10 |
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Where is the "hypocrite" smiley?? |
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| Quasimodo | Feb 19 2009, 09:11 AM Post #11 |
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I'll bet my bottom dollar they omitted talking about the biggest example of civil rights violations in NC in the past 50 years... |
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| Quasimodo | Feb 19 2009, 09:15 AM Post #12 |
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Is he talking about how they handled the lax case?? (insert sarcasm smiley) |
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| ~J~ is in Wonderland | Feb 19 2009, 07:29 PM Post #13 |
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~J~ is in Wonderland
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http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1411762.html Judge orders RDU to pay legal fees for newspaper lawsuit A federal judge has ordered the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority to pay $195,000 in legal fees and costs to four newspaper companies that won a lawsuit to overturn the airport’s ban on newspaper vending boxes. U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle ruled in November that RDU violated the First Amendment protection of freedom of the press when it refused to allow the coin vending boxes. He sided with The News & Observer, the Durham Herald Co., The New York Times co. and Gannett Co., which publishes USA Today. RDU says its 10 million yearly visitors have enough access to newspapers sold at airport newsstands and bookstores. The airport has filed notice of appeal and will ask the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse Boyle’s ruling. In a second ruling issued Wednesday, Boyle told the airport authority to pay the newspapers $194,827.89 in legal fees and expenses, plus other costs that will accrue during the appeal of the case. RDU, a public airport operated by local governments in Wake and Durham counties, also has spent several hundred thousand dollars fighting the newspaper lawsuit. |
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| ~J~ is in Wonderland | Feb 19 2009, 07:32 PM Post #14 |
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~J~ is in Wonderland
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F-bomb surprises players — sort of North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough wasn't surprised to hear that coach Roy Williams dropped the F-bomb on Wednesday night — just that it happened during his post-game press conference. "Oh, man,'' the senior said, growing wide-eyed and a bit red-faced when told his coach had used the expletive he usually replaces with frickin,' friggin' or 'flippin.' "I've definitely heard it more than you guys,'' Hansbrough said. "It's usually once every other ballgame, he drops it in the huddle, and we know he means business then. But I think he may beat himself up over that because he usually counts how many cuss words he says in the huddle and in practice. "When he gets really mad in practice he says, 'Now, that's four cuss words, and I didn't plan on saying any today.'" Williams was talking about his team's failure to execute the full-court press after it beat N.C. State when he said: "We stink." Asked why they stink, Williams responded: "If I knew the answer to that do you think we'd still be [expletive] stinkin'?" After nervous laughter in the room, Williams apologized for using the curse word. "I can't believe I said that," Williams said. "I only say that on the golf course." The press conference was being broadcast live on both the Tar Heel Radio Network and Wolfpack-Capitol Sports Network. Told of his coach's word choice, senior forward Danny Green seemed as stunned as Hansbrough. "I don't really want to comment on coach's comments,'' Green said. "But if he gets mad, if you get him mad enough, and he keeps trying to tell you something over and over, he'll say some funny words — but it's usually not the F-bomb as much ... but flippin', frickin'." Asked if he thought Williams should run after practice as punishment, Green said no: "I don't think that will happen. Next to his name it says 'head coach,' so he gets to do whatever he wants to do. So I don't think we'll be making him run; he's the guy that makes us run." http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow/f-bomb-surprises-players-%E2%80%94-sort-of |
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| ~J~ is in Wonderland | Feb 19 2009, 07:35 PM Post #15 |
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~J~ is in Wonderland
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http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4574512/ Appeal filed in 'Fatal Vision' murder case Attorneys for an Army doctor convicted almost 30 years ago in the slayings of his wife and two daughters at Fort Bragg have filed an appeal asking for the case to be sent back to District Court. The paperwork was filed late Thursday with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. Jeffrey MacDonald was convicted in 1979 of the Feb. 17, 1970, murders of his pregnant wife, Collette, and their two daughters, Kimberly and Kristin. He is serving a life sentence in prison at a facility in Cumberland, Md. MacDonald has maintained his innocence, claiming a group of drug-crazed hippies broke into his home and attacked his family. The case inspired two books, "Fatal Vision" and "Fatal Justice," and a television miniseries that carried the name of the first book. MacDonald’s attorney Hart Miles said the appeal could open the door to get a new hearing about evidence uncovered since the conviction, including witness statements and particularly DNA evidence. “What we found was some unsourced hair in very significant places – most significantly under Dr. MacDonald’s youngest daughter’s – Kristen’s – fingernails and also on her bedspread,” Miles said. Miles says that DNA did not match his client or any other member of his family. MacDonald remains optimistic that he will one day clear his name, Miles said. Since his conviction, MacDonald has filed numerous appeals, arguing new evidence and prosecutorial misconduct should allow him to have a new trial. In November 2008, a federal judge denied a motion by MacDonald’s attorney seeking a new trial on the grounds that MacDonald failed to prove that new evidence he purported to have in the case would have convinced jurors to acquit him. In 2006, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to give the case another look after a retired U.S. marshal swore in an affidavit that woman told him she was in MacDonald's Fort Bragg home on the night of the murders. The marshal also said he heard the woman make the same claim to federal prosecutor Jim Blackburn and that Blackburn threatened to indict her for murder if she made the claim on the witness stand. Blackburn has denied the allegations. The retired marshal, Jim Britt, died last year. |
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