Friday, August 20, 1999
Marilyn Sheppard's body to be exhumed
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND — The Cuyahoga County prosecutor has ordered the exhumation of the body of the wife of Dr. Sam Sheppard, whose murder conviction and later acquittal helped inspire the TV series and movie The Fugitive.
Prosecutor William D. Mason told the Plain Dealer that he wants to exhume the body of Marilyn Sheppard to do his own scientific analysis for the upcoming trial in a wrongful imprisonment lawsuit filed by Dr. Sheppard's son, Sam Reese Sheppard.
Mr. Sheppard is trying to clear his father's name once and for all in the 1954 beating death of his mother.
Mr. Sheppard, 51, accused the prosecutor of using the exhumation as an excuse to delay the trial, scheduled to begin Oct. 18. Damages could reach as much as $2 million.
“They want to delay and prolong this case,” he said. “They've had 45 years to investigate this fully.”
Mr. Mason said Ohio law gives him or the county coroner the authority to exhume a body without a court order. At a news conference scheduled for this morning, he is expected to announce that an anthropologist, a forensic dentist and a DNA expert will examine the body.
Mrs. Sheppard was viciously beaten on July 4, 1954, in her bedroom at the couple's home on the shore of Lake Erie.
Her husband was convicted of murder later that year, but always insisted an intruder killed his wife.
The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the verdict, and Dr. Sheppard was acquitted at a retrial in 1966. He died in 1970 of liver failure.
Mr. Mason would not say what his precise objectives were for the body that is in a crypt at Knollwood Cemetery in suburban Mayfield Heights.
The cremated remains of Dr. Sheppard also are in the crypt. He was exhumed Sept. 17, 1997, at the request of Sam Reese Sheppard as part of the lawsuit he filed on behalf of the estate against the state.
Mr. Sheppard's attorney, Terry Gilbert, said early today that prosecutors want to clarify the nature of the wounds Mrs. Sheppard received, including injuries to her teeth.
Two of Mrs. Sheppard's teeth were broken when she was beaten to death. Criminologist Paul Kirk, whose testimony helped clear the doctor at his second trial in 1966, concluded that Mrs. Sheppard bit her attacker — who then pulled the teeth out when he jerked his hand away.
Mr. Gilbert said the evidence will just support the fact that Dr. Sheppard is innocent.
“In fact it will just confirm what the world seems to know at this point, that an innocent man had been convicted of a crime he didn't commit and that the state had no interest in 45 years in correcting the terrible injustice,” Mr. Gilbert said.
Judge Ron Suster of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, who is handling the lawsuit, said he was aware of Mr. Mason's effort, but had not seen any motions.
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