Free Republic

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- The hair of a former Army doctor convicted in the slayings of his wife and two daughters was found clutched in his dead wife's hand, according to long-awaited results of DNA testing made public Friday. Jeffrey MacDonald asked for the DNA testing in 1997, claiming it would bolster his argument that a band of crazed hippies killed his family in 1970. But federal prosecutors said Friday in a statement the testing did not find any DNA from either of the two women named by MacDonald as suspects. Both MacDonald's lead attorney, Tim Junkin, and his...

Jeffrey MacDonald, Green Beret Doctor Convicted for Slayings of Wife & 2 Daughters, Seeks New Trial In 2006, the appeals court ruled that MacDonald could seek a new trial in federal district court based on retired Deputy U.S. Marshal Jim Britt's claim that he heard prosecutor James Blackburn coerce Stoeckley into lying. Blackburn told Stoeckley she'd be charged with the crimes if she admitted to being in the MacDonald home the night of the killings, Britt said. Britt died in 2008, and Senior U.S. District Judge James C. Fox rejected MacDonald's bid for a new trial two weeks later. MacDonald's...

Up until now, one could merely have accused Sarah Palin’s stalker-biographer, Joe McGinniss, of unethical behavior, even journalistic malpractice. After all, McGinniss’ decision to move into a house just fifteen feet away from the family he is subjecting to hostile research struck even the hard-hearted as unusually crass and callous. It also famously prompted the construction of a fourteen-foot high screening fence by “first dude” Todd Palin, and elicited sympathy for the Palins from a number of usually less-than-sympathetic sources. But now McGinniss has outdone his already-gross behavior by telling The Today Show’s Matt Lauer that the Palin’s anguished response...

The appointment of a well-respected ex-Navy lawyer to oversee war-crime trials is being seen in military legal circles as a sign the Obama administration might reverse its decision to bring Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to New York for a civilian trial. At the same time, a pending speedy-trial ruling in a second terror case in New York could give Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. an escape route through which he could switch the trial of Shaikh Mohammed (KSM) from federal court back to a military system set up by former President George W. Bush and Congress. In February, the White...

THEY were the words that launched one of the darkest episodes in Scottish history, remembered and resented to this day.• Clan Campbell murdered Clan MacDonald in Glencoe in 1692 Now the original handwritten order for the massacre at Glencoe "to fall upon the rebels ... and put all to the sword under seventy" goes on show in Edinburgh this week. Sent to Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, in 1692, the simple 20-line letter triggered the murder of 38 members of the MacDonald clan and is the centrepiece of an exhibition of cultural "treasures" at the National Library of Scotland. It is...

As Obama passes his first 100 days in office, I find myself sad that we liberals have less and less to complain about. Guantanamo Bay is closing, good health care policy is in the works, and I no longer have nightmares about McCain invading my living room on top of an elephant as if he were a Carthaginian emperor. Nonetheless, liberals in 2009 still have more things to complain about than Holden Caulfield would, holding a broken Miley Cyrus record. One such complaint is homosexuality in America. This week's "gay controversy" surrounded Miss California and her Twitter-quarrel with Perez Hilton....

(Note: David MacDonald is a Christian singer/artist who recently revealed that prior to his conversion he had been heavily involved in the gay lifestyle. Read his testimony here: www.GayTestimony.com) I hate to quote statistics, but Canada's largest gay paper XTRA recently reported that, "A group of six Canadian queers is taking on homophobia in Canada's healthcare system by filing a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission." Gens Hellquist, one of the complainants, is the executive director of the Canadian Rainbow Health Coalition. She explained at length her concerns about the health status of homosexual men and women in Canada,...

True, Palin brings traditional political strengths—such as gun enthusiasm and a pro-life record—to the ticket. Her fight against self-dealing in Alaskan politics counters the inside-the-Beltway corruption that damaged the Republicans in the 2006 elections. And her stance on drilling for Alaskan oil admirably bolsters the Republican Party platform on energy issues. But admit it, fellow conservatives: none of these attributes pushed her over the top. Your enthusiasm for her is driven in large measure by the fact that the McCain camp has beaten the Democrats at their own game, and in so doing, driven Obama’s moment of glory off the...

C-SPAN2 (Book TV) airing a Manhattan Institute immigration panel featuring conservative heavy hitters Heather MacDonald, Victor Davis Hanson, and Steven Malanga, coauthors of The Immigration Solution. Panel was taped on 10/29/07 and reairs on Sunday at 2 a.m. and at noon, ET. Program is one hour.

August 19, 2006, 1:35 a.m. TruthtellingHeather Mac Donald is right. By Michael Novak Heather Mac Donald is perfectly right to demand of Christianity the open display of its truth claims, and to ask that its evidence for these claims be placed on the table, as she has recently in a piece in The American Conservative and in a thread on NRO’s "The Corner." Christians have tried to follow that path since the writings of the earliest centuries — Origen, Cyril of Alexandria, St. Augustine, and legions of others. Christians were a persecuted minority for three centuries. They did not overcome...

RICHMOND, Va. - Lawyers for a former Green Beret convicted in the 1970 slayings of his wife and daughters, a crime dramatized in the best seller and miniseries "Fatal Vision," say a new witness has come forward and the court should throw out his murder convictions. A former deputy U.S. marshal now says he heard a defense witness tell a prosecutor she was inside Jeffrey MacDonald's home the night of the killings, according to a motion filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Jimmy B. Britt, who was part of the security detail for MacDonald's 1979 trial, says...

May 10, 2005 Panel Recommends No Parole for Green Beret Doctor Convicted of Murdering His Family The Associated Press CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) - A federal panel recommended no parole Tuesday for former Green Beret doctor Jeffrey MacDonald, whose conviction in the 1970 murders of his pregnant wife and two daughters was dramatized in the best-selling book and TV miniseries "Fatal Vision." The U.S. Parole Commission panel also recommended no reconsideration of the matter for 15 years, said U.S. Attorney Frank Whitney of the Eastern District of North Carolina. The recommendation will now be sent to the full commission. Whitney made...

Nov. 20, 2003 British Ambassador: "My family and I will be staying in Israel" By JPOST.COM STAFF British Ambassador Simon Macdonald said Thursday night that the British Foreign Office had issued him with new security instructions following today's attack on British targets in Istanbul. At least 27 people were killed at over 450 wounded in double suicide truck bombings Thursday morning in a busy commercial center on northern Istanbul. British Consul-General Roger Short was one of sixteen killed in the attack on the British Consulate. The attacks were timed to coincide with US President George W. Bush's visit to England,...