Judge to hear new testimony in 1970 slaying of Green Beret doctor's family

(CNN) -- One of the most sensational and infamous murder cases in modern U.S. history is returning to a courtroom this week.

A federal judge in
Wilmington, North Carolina, will begin hearing testimony Monday morning
on whether Jeffrey MacDonald, the former Green Beret doctor convicted of
killing his family, should get a new trial.

MacDonald, 68, is
expected to be present at the proceedings. He has long said that a group
of hippies beat and stabbed to death his wife and two young daughters
in their Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home on February 17, 1970.

Jeffrey MacDonald: In his own words

MacDonald told
investigators that he was at home, sleeping on a couch, when he heard
screaming. He awoke to find three men and one woman, whom he described
as having blond hair and wearing a floppy hat. They chanted "kill the
pigs" and "acid's groovy" before attacking him, MacDonald said. He
suffered two stab wounds and a collapsed lung.

A military inquiry into
the murders recommended that MacDonald not be court-martialed, but a
federal jury found him guilty in 1979. He was sentenced to life in
prison and has been behind bars since 1982.