Dr. Sam Sheppard on trial
Subtitle: the prosecutors and the Marilyn Sheppard murder
By: Jack P. DeSario and William D. Mason.
Contributors: Mason, William D., 1959-
Publisher: Kent State University Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Kent
Language: eng
Number of pages: 388
Subjects: Sheppard, Sam -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Murder) -- Ohio -- Cleveland.; Prosecution -- Ohio -- Cleveland.
Description: "Marilyn Sheppard, four months' pregnant and mother of a 7-year-old son, was bludgeoned to death in her Bay Village, Ohio, home in the early morning of July 4, 1954. The cause of death was twenty-seven blows to the head with a heavy instrument. Who took her life so brutally has been the subject of much controversy and debate for nearly a half-century." "Was it her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, who was convicted of the murder in what was called "the Trial of the Century"? Was the killer, as Dr. Sam claimed, a "bushy-haired intruder"? Or could it have been Richard Eberling, the window washer who worked for the family, as asserted by son Sam Reese Sheppard?" "Dr. Sam spent ten years in prison before being released in 1966 by a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision which determined Sheppard had not received a fair trial due to excessive and prejudicial press coverage. Defended by F. Lee Bailey in his second trial, Dr. Sam was found not guilty of his wife's murder. And in 2000, in what was dubbed "the Retrial of the Century," Sam Reese Sheppard sued the State of Ohio for wrongful imprisonment, seeking millions in damages and attempting to prove that his father was innocent." "With the 2000 civil suit as the backdrop for this story, Dr. Sam Sheppard on Trial presents for the first time the complete and final analysis of this controversial case from the perspective of law enforcement. Jack P. DeSario and William D. Mason - who defended the state in the civil suit - provide all the facts, evidence, expert testimony, and sworn statements of the principals in this case. Prosecutor Mason and his team of aggressive attorneys conducted an ambitious and comprehensive reinvestigation of the murder of Marilyn Sheppard, examining old evidence with new scientific technology, tracking down new leads and witnesses, and systematically discrediting alternate theories concerning the crime."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes index.
Table of contents: title: The new prosecutor faces an old controversy; title: An unlikely setting for murder; title: Did Sam murder Marilyn?; title: Putting together the pieces of the puzzle; title: Final trial preparation : the emergence of the prosecutor's strategy; title: Opening statements : setting the stage; title: The Sheppard team presents its case; title: Science and suspects : the plaintiff and efforts to raise reasonable doubt; title: The prosecutor speaks; title: Dr. Sam Sheppard; title: portrait of a murderer?; title: Closing arguments and a verdict : the end of a legal era.