By Ken Adachi <Editor@educate-yourself.org>
http://educate-yourself.org/jm/deputymarshalpegsblackburn08mar06.shtml
March 8, 2006

A stunning new development has occurred in the Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald case: A former deputy U.S. Marshal, Jimmy B. Britt, has filed an affidavit with the North Carolina, Wake County courthouse on November 3, 2005, wherein he states that he was witness to a conversation between Helena Stoeckley and state prosecutor James Blackburn in Blackburn's office on the eight floor of the Federal Courthouse at 310 New Bern Avenue in Raleigh, North Carolina during the trial of Jeffrey MacDonald in 1979. According to Britt's statement, Blackburn conducted an interview with Helena Stoeckley and in the course of that interview, Stoeckley revealed to Blackburn many things relating to the MacDonald murder scene including details of the MacDonald home such as the rocking horse with the broken spring (only known to crime scene investigators) in order to prove to Blackburn that she was at the murder scene. She told Blackburn that she and others were in MacDonald's home on the night of the murders and that they had gone to the MacDonald home to 'get drugs'. After Stoeckley gave Blackburn the history of her time spent in MacDonald's home, Blackburn told her:

"If you testify  before the jury as to what you have told me or said to me in this office, I will indict you for murder."

Blackburn directly threatened Stoeckley with murder prosecution if she told the truth concerning the events that occurred in the MacDonald home in the early morning hours of February 17, 1970. For a state prosecutor to intimidate, threaten, or coerse a witness to withhold or change testimony in order to suit the state's case is obvious obstruction of justice, but to prosecute a man for murder when direct witness testimony has been presented that implicates others as responsible for the crime, is prosecutorial malfeasance at its worst.

Attorney Wendy P. Rouder was a clerk to MacDonald defense attorney Bernie Segal in 1979 when she was sent to see Helena Stoeckley at the Journey's End Motel in Raleigh on the weekend of August 18, 1979. Stoeckley told Rouder in her motel room that she was in the home of Dr. MacDonald on the night of the murders and that she could name the people who killed MacDonald's family. When Rouder asked Helena why she was telling her this when Stoeckley had just denied her involvment on the witness stand, Helena responded: "I can't, I'm afraid". Rouder asked Helena why she was afraid and had expected Helena to say that she feared retribution from the other cult members involved, but was surprised to hear that Helena was fearful of "those damn prosecutors sitting there". She then added: " They'll fry me".

A colleague of Jimmy Britt, retired U.S. marshal Lee W. Tart, has also submitted an affidavit in which he affirms that Jimmy Britt had told him about the Stoeckley/Blackburn conversations in 2003 while traveling on a trip together to Oxford, Mississippi.

Additional affidavits were also presented to the court from people who were acquainted with Greg Mitchell prior to his death in 1982. Mitchell had admitted to his participation in the MacDonald murders to a number of people including Everett Morse, Bryant Lane, and Donald Buffkin. Despite Mitchell's reputation for dangerous behavior at the time of the killings, he eventually came to feel remorse in later years and was burdened with the guilt of the murders and seeing MacDonald taking the rap for his crimes. Mitchell told his friend Bryant Lane that he was high on four different drugs when "things got bad", and that 'you don't realize what you're doing' when you are so high on drugs." Lane also reported that Mitchell had told him that Jeff MacDonald was simply 'lucky' because the group ' didn't know what they were doing' and 'didn't mean to kill anyone'.

MacDonald's defense attorneys filed a 50 page motion to vacate MacDonald's sentence "based on newly discovered evidence" with the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Fourth Circuit. Of course, Brian Murtaugh (undoubtedly known as Tomas de Torquemada  in an earlier life), and his fellow persecutors at the Justice Department filed a 50 page motion in opposition to MacDonald's motion, but thankfully, Judge James C. Fox, Senior U.S. District Judge of the Eastern District of North Carolina, Western Division, on January 27, 2006 saw no justification for denying MacDonald's 'relief' and ordered the U.S. Attorney to file "his answer, motion, or other response" before March 30, 2006.

Is it possible that Jeffrey MacDonald, after 26 years of unjust imprisonment, could finally be set free or get a new trial?

Miracles do happen. Stay tuned.

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