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F U R T H E R  P R O C E E D I N G S  4:30 p.m.

(The following proceedings were held in the presence of the jury and alternates.)

MR. BLACKBURN:  Your Honor, the Government has, as I understand it, forty minutes left, and the Defendant is out of time.

THE COURT:  That is right.

MR. BLACKBURN:  We have agreed, since Mr. Smith has not had an opportunity to speak, to give him ten minutes of our time.

THE COURT:  All right, Mr. Smith.

MR. SMITH:  I am grateful for the ten minutes and I would ask Your Honor to tap the Bench, please, when ten minutes are concluded.


C L O S I N G  A R G U M E N T

MR. SMITH:  Ladies and gentlemen, they say that no souls are saved anyway after 20 minutes.  I have always heard that said, and so, with ten minutes, I should be able to save all the souls, if I have anything at all to say.
     I wanted to speak to you today about a different approach to an examination of the case, and that is to put aside for just a moment the scientific aspects of the examination, but that is very important and I think it works and I think the scientific evidence in this case is good.  I think our scientific evidence in this case is truly outstanding, but there is a better way as far as I am concerned.  That is to just, for lack of a better way to explain it, let your insides talk to you for a minute about the case.
     What do you feel?  What are you feeling about the case?  In our Opening Statement, we said to you that this was a family where there were life motives and that we would show you that there were life motives.  I believe that we have kept our promises to you.
     Life motives, to me, mean things like this: working three jobs, having children, planning for a better life, acquiring new possessions, furniture, urging each other to be better, Jeff's urging Colette to go to college to complete her education, Jeff's running and keeping fit, adding to the family, the fact that Colette was pregnant, and all kinds of other things that show that this family was teeming with life -- just absolutely teeming with life -- the animals, for example -- the pony has been mentioned over and over again -- the other pets that they had.  It was a home where they were truly living.
     It was not a situation where you so often read that he was a loner; he ws, as we look back on it, he was drinking too much; he was taking drugs; they had been fighting and arguing for months; she was always showing up with bruises; the children were always showing up with bruises; the children were battered, the children were sad -- there was none of that.  There is no evidence that there was any alcohol.  There is no evidence that there was any drugs of any kind in this man's blood; so, it is a situation where things were happening that were good.  Everything was going well.
     What has the Government been able to point out that would show to the contrary?  Mr. Blackburn, I think, readily admitted that the fact that the child wet the bed simply -- that just simply cannot be a reason for this man to have gone berserk and done anything like this.  The fact that he was with another woman on a couple of occasions, we are sorry about -- he is sorry about -- and we don't treat that lightly or flippantly, but surely, surely that is no reason for him to have gone berserk and destroyed his family.
     Looking at an afterthought -- something that happened later -- the fact that he told Mr. Kassab a lie does not indicate for a moment that he would have destroyed his family.  The prosecution in this case, I think, is in a terrible dilemma.  I would assume that it is somewhat embarrassing to them, and that is that the most eloquent witness in this courtroom has taken the witness stand every single day, and that is that there is no motive.  Don't you wonder why when you think about this -- why did it happen?  Don't you wonder when you are thinking about whether Jeff did it, why would he have done it?  Can you think of a reason why he would have done it?  There isn't any.
     Now, the prosecution is not under any obligation to furnish a motive.  The law does not place that burden on them.  Nevertheless, that is natural law.  That is law that we feel inside of us -- every one of us.  We fell that we can say to the prosecution in any case, "Tell us why.  Tell us why this man would have destroyed his family?"  Think about the photographs that you saw of Jeff with the family, Jeff with the children, Colette with the children, the children playing.  Think about Major Moore arriving at an unscheduled lunch stop.  Think about the children running out and grabbing Jeff and climbing all over him a few weeks before this happened.  Think about how Colette came to him and announced with joy that she was expecting a child.  Think about how they embraced, according to Major Moore, and how they walked into the house with Jeff with his arm around her and Major Moore walking with the children, talking and enjoying themselves at the lunchtime.  Everything was going well.  There was not anything going on in their home that you have seen in this evidence that would indicate that this man would do a thing like this.
     The contrasts are incredible.  The contrasts are fantastic.  You think about this: that Jeffrey MacDonald lived his life and nothing like this ever happened to him; and think about the fact that he has lived his life since and nothing like this has happened since.  It makes no sense.  Don't you know -- don't you know if something had been going on in that house that was bad, don't you know the neighbors would have observed it?  Don't you know that Major Moore would have seen it?  Don't you know Jeff's mother would have seen it?  Don't you know when she was down there Christmas or New Year's and they went out together and she lived there in the home with them and don't you know at Thanksgiving when she was there that if something had been going on, if they were headed for a calamity like this, she would have known it.  Others would have known it.  I say to you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that if you will examine the testimony of the witnesses who took the stand for Jeff, they are little windows into that home, and you can look into any of the windows -- the little windows into the home.  All of the witnesses who came and said that they had visited recently there, they give you a window into the home.
     If you want to completely disregard Jeffrey MacDonald's testimony and not think anything at all about it, but just think about the other people who testified and they will give you insight into what was happening.  No motive.  It is unbelievable.  It is incredible.  Don't you know that Jeffrey MacDonald could not have destroyed his children?  Don't you know that that raises a reasonable doubt?
     If you look at the autopsy photographs of those little children and think about what it would take to cause someone to raise a knife and destroy them -- to destroy Kristen -- not just destroy her but absolutely mutilate her -- just beat her to death, thrust after thrust after thrust.  It can't be true.  He needs peace.  He hasn't had it in a long time.  You, as a jury, are immensely powerful because you can give him peace for the first time in years and years.  Thank you for hearing me.