Jackson/Profile/Lede

Jim Blackburn, a fresh-faced Raleigh attorney who had seen the inside of a

courtroom only six or seven times, found himself inside the home of one of the most

sensational murders of the 1970s, searching for a reason to prosecute a case that

had been sealed for several years.

His eyes hovered over the plaid couch and the overturned wooden coffee

table, finally resting on a folded piece of paper attached to the refrigerator with a

magnet. Happy Valentines Day to the Best Dad Ever was emblazoned across the

sheet of construction paper in sloppy red, yellow and green Crayon writing.

After the military had found Green Beret Group Surgeon Dr. Jeffrey

MacDonald not guilty in the murders of his pregnant wife and two young children,

he had been honorably discharged and allowed to return to his home one last time

to collect whatever belongings he wanted to take. The TV was missing from the

entertainment stand; the radio was gone; dust coated the shelves where volumes of

medical journals had once rested.

The Valentines Day card from his oldest daughter, who had been brutally

murdered just months before, remained pinned to the fridge.

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Standing in that house, finally convinced of the guilt of MacDonald, the young,

disinterested lawyer was transformed into a passionate trial attorney.

However, the transition from Blackburn, inexperienced law school graduate,

to Blackburn, courtroom bulldog and legal expert, wasnt complete yet.

When I was growing up, there werent many options for what to do after

college, said Blackburn, You went to law school if you werent smart enough to

become a doctor, so thats what I did.

After finishing law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,

Blackburn opted not to pursue a career in trial law, instead setting out to pound the

political pavement for Attorney General Robert Morgan. After being elected, Morgan

offered Blackburn a position as an Assistant United States Attorney.

Soon after, the case against Jeffrey MacDonald was reopened and Blackburn

was surprisingly selected to prosecute the reopened murder trial. The case was

closed because, at that time, no one believed an educated, white, male doctor would

kill his wife and children, said Blackburn.

The case, which had originally been heard in military court, attracted a cult

following of people who lined up outside the courtroom to watch the jury

painstakingly scribble notes and cringe as photos of the blood-covered crime scene

were shown, said Blackburn.

Blackburn sought out to sew the scarlet letter of infidelity on the chest of

MacDonald by gathering information from several of his alleged mistresses over a

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glass of scotch. After visiting with each woman, and stumbling to the nearest pay

phone, Blackburn called his co-counsel.

I have good news and I have bad news, Blackburn told co-prosecutor Brian

Murtagh. The good news is that all of these women slept with him, but the bad

news is that they all still like him. None of the women Blackburn interviewed were

called to the stand, but MacDonalds infidelity was still used as a pillar of the

prosecutions argument.

On August 29, 1979, MacDonald was convicted of the murders of his wife and

two daughters. Winning that case was like Jim Valvano and NC State winning the

national championship in 83, said Blackburn. No one thought we could do it.

Blackburn was a great prosecutor, said Wade Smith, MacDonalds defense

attorney and distinguished Raleigh criminal lawyer, He was outstanding. There was

no one better.

After his victory in the MacDonald case, Blackburn quickly transitioned to

handling high-profile cases, such as the Lieutenant Governor Jimmy Green case and

the Ward Transformer chemical spill case, and eventually went to work for a private

firm.

Blackburn, overwhelmed with the responsibilities of working in the large

firm, began to struggle to keep up in the fast-paced environment. Small mistakes

turned into larger mistakes, and before he knew it, he was trying to cover up his

blunders.
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In 1993, his drive to win at any cost and failure to seek help caused him to

face forgery, fraud and embezzlement charges. Blackburn pled guilty to all of the

charges, lost his law license and served three months of a three-year sentence in

prison.

When the time came for him to drink a bitter cup and admit that he did

wrong, he was a courageous and brave man, said Smith, who became Blackburns

defense attorney, I will always have the greatest admiration and love for my

legendary friend and adversary, Jim Blackburn.

After a guilty verdict, Blackburn found himself out of the work to which he

had devoted most of his life. He sought help from depression counselors and

struggled to make ends meet financially.

He called up an old friend at the restaurant where he would often meet his

clients and begged for a job. Blackburn was hired as a host at 42nd Street Oyster Bar,

one of Raleighs prime locations for high-end business meetings and ritzy parties.

They sent news crews to the restaurant to see me hit rock-bottom when I

picked up my first paycheck, which was only for about $100, said Blackburn.

Realizing that he could make more money waiting tables, he swallowed his pride

and taught himself to carry trays full of crab legs, hush puppies and flash-fried

oysters to serve the people with whom he had once dined.

Blackburn befriended his college student co-workers and shared late-night

drinks and conversations about their hectic days at the restaurant. In his free time,
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he wrote a few pages at a time of a book that would tell the story of his rise to the

top and subsequent fall to the bottom.

When he finished the book, he agreed to a speaking engagement that he

hoped would help boost sales. After talking up his book to a small group of lawyers

and followers of the MacDonald case, a European man approached him and told him

that his book had helped him overcome his own anger and depression.

The man, an ex-member of the European military, had been scheduled for an

overbooked flight and was unable to make it to his destination. The flight he was

meant to be on was the Pan Am 103, which was attacked by terrorists, killing all 243

passengers. The man had suffered from anger issues and depression after his near-

death experience and told Blackburn the book helped him overcome the feeling

that this incident was life-defining.

After meeting this man, Blackburn realized that he could use his own story to

help others overcome their own depression and anger. In this, he discovered his

passion for teaching. He contacted the North Carolina State Bar Association and

requested that he be allowed to teach Continuing Legal Education (CLE) courses and

they granted his request.

Since then, he has been trekking from Asheville to Wilmington, teaching

North Carolina lawyers about corporate and business ethics, resilience and mental

health. Being young and working in a large firm is overwhelming, said Christy

Smith, an attorney who has attended several of Blackburns seminars, Hearing his
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stories helped me to really understand the importance of professional ethics

without making me fall asleep in the process.

If Blackburn could return to his collegiate days, he would have become a

writer who would travel the world and tell stories, instead of being a lawyer.

He believes the key to success is not winning the most cases, completing the

most successful surgeries or rising to the highest political office, but instead doing

something with passion.

Sitting around a table at 42nd Street Oyster Bar, Blackburn shares a basket of

steamed oysters with lawyers, business executives and restaurant waiters. He finds

himself in this unlikely crowd every week and there is one common element every

time -- Blackburn is always the one narrating the nights with stories of his days as a

lawyer or a waiter. He finally found his passion in telling stories and helping other

people.