Prosecutor To Exhume Sheppard's Body
12:53 AM ET 08/20/99
CLEVELAND (AP) - The Cuyahoga County prosecutor has ordered the exhumation of
the wife of Dr. Sam Sheppard, whose murder conviction and later acquittal helped inspire
the TV series and movie ``The Fugitive.'' Prosecutor William Mason told The Plain
Dealer newspaper that he wants to exhume the body of Marilyn Sheppard to do his own
analysis for the upcoming trial in a wrongful imprisonment lawsuit filed by Sheppard's
son, Sam Reese Sheppard.
Sheppard is trying to clear his father's name once and for all in the 1954
beating death of his mother.
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.''
Mason said Ohio law gives county officials the authority to exhume a body
without a court order.
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 Sheppard was acquitted
at a retrial in 1966. He died in 1970 of liver failure.
Sheppard's body was exhumed Sept. 17, 1997, at the request of his son as part of
the lawsuit he filed on behalf of the estate against the state.
Mason would not say what his precise objectives were for Mrs. Sheppard's body,
which is in a crypt at Knollwood Cemetery in suburban Mayfield Heights.
A family Sheppard's attorney, Terry Gilbert, said early Friday that prosecutors
want to clarify the nature of the wounds she received.
Two of Mrs. Sheppard's teeth were broken during the beating. Criminologist
Paul Kirk, whose testimony helped clear the doctor at his second trial in 1966, concluded
that Mrs. Sheppard bit her attacker - who pulled the teeth out when he jerked his hand
away.
