|
|
Published: Sept. 16, 2012 at 3:21 PM
MacDonald, 68, has maintained his innocence ever since his 1979 conviction and will formally present evidence of unidentified DNA at the crime scene and the statements of a now-elderly woman who claimed she took part in the killings.
The hearing is the latest in a long-running legal battle that picked up steam this year with the release of a new book contending MacDonald was not the killer.
"I believe he is innocent. I don't see any evidence to suggest that he is guilty," Errol Morris, author of "A Wilderness of Errors," told The New York Times earlier this month. "One thing we do know is that evidence was lost, some of it went uncollected, and some of it was contaminated. One of the reasons we can't prove he is innocent is that so much of the evidence is unavailable to us."
A federal appeals court last year ordered a hearing on the new evidence, which the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer said could lead to a new trial or even tossing out the conviction.
(0) |