In the early morning hours of July 4, 1954, Marilyn Sheppard was bludgeoned to death in her bed. Her husband Sam, a prominent Bay Village doctor, maintained that Marilyn was murdered by a bushy-haired intruder. He stood trial and was convicted for his wife’s murder amidst a media storm.
The media frenzy so tainted the case that the United States Supreme Court released him and ordered a retrial in the decision Sheppard v. Maxwell. At the 1966 retrial, Sheppard was acquitted. He died just a few years later.
SOURCES:
https://famous-trials.com/sam-sheppard/2-sheppard
law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/sheppard/sheppardchonology.html
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/sheppard/#browse
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Cleveland Press
Associated Press
NY Times
https://case.edu/ech/articles/s/sheppard-murder-case
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-sam-sheppard-murder-case-972179
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/sheppard/sheppardreports.html
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sam-sheppard-dies
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