Sheppard's son loses suit over father's imprisonment

Sam Reese Sheppard appeared to be in good spirits before the reading of the verdict

April 12, 2000
Web posted at: 8:52 p.m. EDT (0052 GMT)

In this story: 'We will find the truth' Case inspired 'The Fugitive' TV series RELATED STORIES, SITES

CLEVELAND (CNN) -- A civil court jury unanimously declined to clear the name of the late Dr. Sam Sheppard, who went to prison for 10 years for the 1954 slaying of his wife Marilyn but was acquitted at a retrial in 1966 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction on constitutional grounds.

Wednesday's verdict means that the couple's son, Sam Reese Sheppard, failed to meet the burden of proof in his wrongful imprisonment civil lawsuit against the state of Ohio.

Had the jury ruled in favor of the son -- who was 7 years old at the time of the slaying -- it would have officially cleared his father's name and opened the door to seeking damages from the state.

After the verdict, Sam Reese Sheppard repeated several times, "We are bloodied but unbowed ... We will find the truth in our lifetime."

He and his attorney, Terry Gilbert, declined to say if they would appeal. "We'll confer," Sam Reese Sheppard said.

Gilbert expresses his disappointment at the verdict

After the verdict was read in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, a clearly shocked and dismayed Gilbert shielded his face with his hand as Judge Ronald Suster polled each of the eight jurors. Gilbert said he felt "shortchanged" by the verdict.

The jurors, who deliberated only a few hours after the 10-week trial, declined to speak with the attorneys or the media.

Sheppard's conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark ruling on the negative effects of pretrial publicity.

The Sheppard family believes Richard Eberling, who was a window washer at the family home, was the real killer. He died in prison in 1998 while serving a life sentence for an unrelated murder. The family also contends that DNA testing performed on tissue taken from Dr. Sheppard's remains in 1997 excludes him from the crime scene.

The DNA evidence "excludes the critical parties in this case," Gilbert said during closing arguments Tuesday. "It's not from Sam and it's not from Marilyn."

After the verdict Wednesday, Gilbert said, "I just don't understand how they could overlook that."

Steven Dever, assistant to the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, called the family's DNA evidence old, unreliable and "mumbo jumbo." He also said it had "a lot of contamination."

Sam Reese Sheppard said having the decision made by a jury as opposed to a judge was a "fact of political pressures. The judge has to get re-elected. The prosecutor wanted a case so he could get re-elected."

He said, "This does not mean my dad was guilty. This means that the county was able to clear themselves from some partial misconduct. We are in the belly of the beast in this county."

He added, "We were facing massive, pervasive, prejudicial publicity which has survived through the generations."

Marilyn and Dr. Sam Sheppard

In the state's defense, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason painted Dr. Sheppard as a habitual philanderer who killed his wife as a way out of a doomed marriage without going through a divorce.

Dever said the "case was overstated from the beginning" and that "Richard Eberling was a red herring."

The decades-old murder case inspired a hit television series, "The Fugitive" and a movie.

Marilyn Sheppard was beaten to death in her bed early on July 4, 1954, at the couple's home on Lake Erie. Dr. Sheppard had told authorities he was sleeping downstairs at the time of the killing and awoke to his wife's cries.

He always said that he ran upstairs to help her but was knocked out. Upon waking up, he chased the killer -- whom he identified as a bushy-haired man -- down to the beach outside the house but was knocked unconscious again.

Sam Reese Sheppard has worked since the late 1980s to try to clear his father's name and solve his mother's murder.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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April 10, 2000
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Opening statements begin in Sheppard civil case
February 14, 2000
Latest Sam Sheppard trial opens with jury selection
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Body of Sam Sheppard's wife exhumed in Ohio
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