Welcome!
Introduction
The Case
Alaska v. McDonald
Case Update
Personal History
Mac's History
P I Reports
PI Report, 2000
PI Interviews, 2000
PI Inquiry, 2000
Other Info
Copyright Information
Acknowledgements
Related Links
Contact Information
View Mac's Guestbook
Justice Denied Magazine
Issue 26, Fall 2004
Email My Staff
| Free Mac | |
Introduction |
|
Wrongly accused, convicted, and imprisoned
Donald "Mac" McDonald has been wrongly imprisoned in Alaska for 24 years for a murder he did not commit. On Good Friday, March 28, 1986, Ms Laura Lee Henderson disappeared from Kodiak, Alaska, without a trace. At the time of her disappearance, Ms Henderson was under the surveillance of a local Private Investigator, Albert Ruble. At approximately 9:00pm, Ms Henderson was seen sitting in the front passenger-side seat of a white cargo van. The van was parked outside the Anchor Bar on Shelikof Street. Laura was smiling and laughing. At least one other person was in the van with her. A few minutes later the white van was gone. The car Laura had borrowed for the evening was still parked exactly as it had been. Ms. Henderson was no longer in the area... and according to everyone involved, she was never seen again. In Kodiak, Alaska, in 1986, that is apparently all you needed to arrest, and later convict a person of kidnapping and First Degree Murder. If all you read is the prosecution's theory, if you are not familiar with the locations in question, the people involved, the condition of Mac's van (a key element in the prosecution's theory), or the weather on that particular night then you just might believe there was a possibility that the events could have happened as they claimed. But that's how not how convictions are supposed to be rendered... in America. Every person on trial in any Court of Law in any State in these United States of America is supposed to be Innocent until Proven Guilty... Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. However, if you've ever been to traffic court, you know this is not true. In traffic court you are guilty of whatever the Police Officer who pulled you over says you are guilty of... Unless you can prove that you are innocent - that the Police Officer made some sort of mistake. Proving you didn't do something is extremely difficult, and nearly impossible if you are sitting in a jail cell. Because of this, the average juror believes that if the Police have made an arrest, the person arrested must be guilty... of something. Innocent people are not arrested. To think otherwise would cause panic, fear and distrust of those we pay To Protect and To Serve us. It would destroy our sense of safety. After all, if he could be arrested for something he didn't do, then I could, too. And that just cannot be. Once arrested, Mac was left in the care of inexperienced attorneys. Experts were not called to disprove the prosecution's allegations... testimonies went uncorroborated and unchallenged. Mac was not allowed to testify on his own behalf. Even his key witness was not allowed to testify. In fact, Mac discovered later, his key witness was never even subpoenaed to appear. The bottom line: Mac's court appointed attorneys did not mount a strong enough defense to prove his innocence. A juror's explanation for their guilty verdict... No one gave them a better explanation of what happened to Ms. Henderson. It was not until years later, finally able to hire Private Investigators to look into the Prosecution's allegations, that Mac was able to show anyone how implausible the theory used to convict him actually was. In 1990, the national television program Inside Edition sent a film crew to the alleged crime scene on Kodiak Island and attempted to duplicate the prosecution's theory of the alleged crime. On national television Inside Edition conclusively showed the theory used to convict Mac of kidnapping and murder was physically impossible! Click here to read more about the discoveries made by the Inside Edition crew. If he had these resources in 1986, it seems highly unlikely that Mac would have been found guilty, and he would not have spent the last 24 years in prison for crimes he did not commit.
| ||