these two motions was based on jurisdictional issues, specifically that MacDonald had not obtained the required pre-filing authorization from the Circuit Court for these motions to the district court. Nonetheless, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals granted MacDonald's motion for a successive habeas petition and remanded the matter back to the District Court Eastern Division. Britt affidavit On January 12, 2006, MacDonald was granted leave to file a further appeal based upon a November 2005 affidavit of retired Deputy United States Marshal Jim Britt, who had served in this role during the trial. Britt stated that he had overheard Helena Stoeckley admit to prosecutor James Blackburn she had actually been present at the MacDonald house at the time of the murders and that Blackburn had threatened her with prosecution if she testified as a defense witness admitting this claim. (Stoeckley had earlier met with the defense counsel prior to this alleged meeting with Blackburn, and informed them she had no memory of her whereabouts on the night in question.) In November 2008, Judge James Carroll Fox denied this appeal. This denial was based on the merits of the claim, specifically that, as Stoeckley had made many contradictory statements regarding her participation, or lack thereof, in the murders, her claims were unreliable. In addition, MacDonald's claim that Stoeckley had been expected to testify in a manner favorable to him at trial until she had been threatened by Blackburn is contradicted by the official trial records. Subsequent to this November 2008 decision, a government motion to modify the decision to negate Britt's claims was denied. Included within the motion was jail documentation establishing that Stoeckley was originally confined to the jail in Pickens, South Carolina, not Greenville, South Carolina, as Britt had claimed. Also included were custody commitment and release forms indicating that, although Britt and fellow Deputy United States Marshal Geraldine Holden had escorted Stoeckley into the Raleigh courthouse on August 16, 1979, agents other than Britt and Holden had actually transported Stoeckley to the 1979 trial. MacDonald appealed the district court's denial of his claim to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2011, the Court of Appeals reversed this decision, remanding MacDonald's claims back to the district court for further consideration. MacDonald faced several legal obstacles in his efforts to incorporate a motion relating to the earlier results of DNA testing of hair and fiber evidence recovered from 544