Tuesday, February 01, 2000
Sheppard on trial again - 46 years later
BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CLEVELAND — Prosecutors plan to put Dr. Sam Sheppard on trial again for allegedly murdering his pregnant wife 46 years ago, even though he was acquitted of the crime and has been dead for nearly three decades.
The unusual and emotionally charged legal strategy seeks to thwart a civil lawsuit filed by Dr. Sheppard's son, Sam Reese Sheppard, who wants the state to admit it wrongfully imprisoned his father after a sensational trial rivaled by the O.J. Simpson saga decades later.
Dr. Sheppard, a suburban Cleveland osteopath whose initial conviction in the 1954 slaying of his wife inspired The Fugitive TV series and movie, would have to be declared innocent by a jury — a stronger statement than the “not guilty” verdict he won in a 1966 retrial ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court.
While Cuyahoga County prosecutors and attorneys for Sam Reese Sheppard began their pretrial proceedings Monday, the made-for-TV case continues to rivet and divide this city as it raises questions about the fairness
of the criminal justice system.
“I'm fighting to make sure my parents didn't die in vain,” said Sam Reese Sheppard, who was 7 years old when his mother, Marilyn, was found bludgeoned to death in her bedroom. “The system makes mistakes, but it shouldn't be allowed to ruin a man's life.”
With a gag order imposed on more than 100 witnesses scheduled to testify, the case is dredging up arguments about a person's right to a fair trial and freedom of the press. DNA evidence, an emerging form of sleuthing during Dr. Sheppard's first trial, also will be hotly contested during the third installment.
It's difficult to overstate the effect the Sheppard case had on popular culture and the people of Cleveland, who were gripped by the tale of murder in the upper-middle-class suburb of Bay Village. And there were O.J.-like subplots, such as allegations Dr. Sheppard was having an affair or that a neighbor caught Mrs. Sheppard in bed with her husband.
Headlines of the day blared, “Why Isn't Sam Sheppard in Jail?” and “Quit Stalling — Bring Him In.” Editorial attacks continued through the first trial, a circuslike event during which the testimony of most witnesses was aired in the media before they appeared in court.
Recent developments in the case have been just as sensational as the first trial, attracting attention from Court TV and a reporter from a Toronto newspaper. The PBS series Nova already has produced a documentary, and CNN and the network news shows are sure to be close behind once the testimony starts to heat up.
Sam Reese Sheppard co-wrote a book and wrote a TV movie to pro mote DNA from the crime scene and other evidence that suggests Mrs. Sheppard was slain by Richard Eberling, a window washer for the couple.
He later won approval to have his father's body exhumed to extract DNA evidence. Prosecutors responded by exhuming the body of Marilyn Sheppard. Mr. Sheppard's media savvy allies even have their own Web site (www.samreesesheppard.org).
Now both sides are fighting to control the content of the Retrial of the Century.
Terry Gilbert, Mr. Sheppard's attorney, asked Judge Ronald Suster of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to bar transcripts of 1954 trial testimony from the proceedings. He contends the trial was tainted by the crush of publicity.
Relying on a technique usually reserved for crime-scene re-enactments on TV, prosecutors plan to have people read the testimony of 19 witnesses who either are dead or unable to attend the latest trial, including Dr. Sheppard.
“Our goal is to prove what occurred in that bedroom in 1954,” said Steve Dever, an assistant prosecutor. “There's no other way we're going to get a complete trial. Was Dr. Sam Sheppard a witness, or was he a killer?”
If Mr. Sheppard wins, he could move his case to the state Court of Claims, which could award him damages estimated at about $2 million. He said revealing his mother's real killer, not the money, is his first priority.
A few blocks away from the courtroom, Lois McRae is convinced neither side will concede even if the jury reaches a verdict.
Ms. McRae, a maintenance worker at the Cleveland Public Library, pushed a waste container down a barrel-vaulted hallway lined with glass cases filled with newspaper clippings, book jackets and photographs from the previous Sheppard trials. The display ends with a poster of actor Harrison Ford from The Fugitive movie.
“I've lived through it all,” Ms. McRae said. “I understand what the son is doing, but my personal feeling is to let the dead rest. It's over, and nothing anybody does will change that.”
Said Rhonda Green, a library researcher: “I've worked here for 21 years, and that case is always coming up.”
Asked whether she thinks Dr. Sheppard was the killer, Ms. Green changed the subject. “Ask me about O.J.,” she said. “Now, he did it.”
Dr. Sheppard spent 10 years in the Ohio Penitentiary in his wife's death, but he steadfastly maintained his innocence and was released in 1966 after the retrial. His attorney during the second trial was a young F. Lee Bailey, who later served as one of Mr. Simpson's lawyers.
Prosecutors scoffed at Dr. Sheppard's alibi, that he was sleeping downstairs when a bushy-haired intruder crept into his wife's bedroom and killed her, leaving a trail of blood through the house. (In the TV series and movie, the real killer was the “One-Armed Man.”) The intruder then knocked him unconscious when he tried to stop him, Dr. Sheppard said.
Reduced to a stint as a professional wrestler, Dr. Sheppard died from liver failure at age 46, four years after his release from prison, leaving his only son and others to speculate about the identity of the actual killer. No one else has been charged.
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