Jeffrey MacDonald, convicted of murdering family at Fort Bragg, says COVID risk means he should get out of prison

Jeffrey MacDonald, the former Army captain who is serving three life sentences for the murders of his wife and two young children their home at Fort Bragg in 1970, is asking a federal judge free him due to his age and failing health.

A hearing on MacDonald’s request for what’s known as compassionate release is set for 3 p.m. Thursday at the federal courthouse in Raleigh. This is the same courthouse where MacDonald was convicted of the murders in 1979.

MacDonald’s former brother-in-law, Bob Stevenson of Hull, Massachusetts, plans to attend the hearing.

“He wants to get out. I want to keep him in. It’s that simple,” Stevenson said. “He destroyed my family.”

MacDonald is serving three consecutive life sentences in federal prison for the murders. He says he was wrongly convicted while the police let the real killers, often described as a group of four “drug-crazed hippies,” get away.

MacDonald has been in and out of courtrooms since the summer of 1970 to assert his claim he is innocent.