Allegations of Prosecutorial Suppression and New Forensic Evidence in the Jeffrey MacDonald Murder Trial

4.2.12 WC: 191694 For example, Helena Stoeckley testified to the jury that she could not remember where she had been on the night of the murders. MacDonald's attorneys tried to introduce the testimony of six witnesses - - including a police officer - - to whom she had previously admitted that she was in the MacDonald house with her friends that night. Since testimony about Stoeckley's prior ad-missions would technically constitute "hearsay" - - that is, testimony by one witness about what another witness had said outside the courtroom - - the judge ruled that the jury could hear about Stoeckley's hearsay admissions only if [corroborating evidence showed] that they [were] ‘trustworthy.’ " The judge—who was also unaware of the handwritten lab notes—ruled that there was no "physical evidence" that corroborated Stoeckley's admissions; therefore, her admissions were not trustworthy. Had he been aware of this corroborating evidence, he would have been obligated to allow the hearsay admissions into evidence. Thus, the jury never learned that there was hard, scientific evidence of intruders in the house-or that a woman matching MacDonald's description of one of the intruders had actually admitted to six different people that she and her friends, not Jeffrey MacDonald, were the killers. Moreover, in 2005, the former Deputy Marshall, Jim Britt, who was in charge of escorting Helena Stoeckley to the courtroom came forward and told MacDonald’s lawyer the following: Jim Britt avers that he personally witnessed Helena Stoeckley state to James Blackburn [the prosecutor] that she and others were present in the MacDonald home on the night of the MacDonald murders and that they had gone there to acquire drugs; Jim Britt further avers that he witnessed and heard James Blackburn, upon hearing this, directly threaten Helena Stoeckley, telling her that if she so testified in court he would indict her for first degree murder. This threat caused her to change her testimony, as the next day, when called to the witness stand by the defense, Stoeckley claimed to have amnesia as to her whereabouts from midnight until 5 a.m. the night of the MacDonald murders -- the precise time-frame during which the crimes occurred. James Blackburn never disclosed to the court or defense counsel what Helena Stoeckley admitted to him in Jim Britt's presence. On the contrary, Blackburn, at a critical juncture in the trial, advised the court that Stoeckley, when he interviewed her, denied having any knowledge of the MacDonald family, the MacDonald home, or involvement in the MacDonald murders. Blackburn even went so far as to elicit from Stoeckley, through leading questions before the jury, testimony that was contrary to what she had told him during his interview of her the day before in the presence of Jim Britt. Finally new DNA and forensic testing has revealed three specimens that did not match any of the people in the house, as well as unidentified hairs under the fingernails of the victims. This new and suppressed evidence corroborates Stoeckley’s original account that she remembers being in the house and participating in the murders. Had the trial judge known about this corroboration, he would surely have allowed Stoeckley’s earlier statements to be heard by the jury. 197 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017284