Psicologia Juridica

The Dr. Sam Sheppard Trial by Douglas O. Linder (2006)
El juicio del Dr. Sam Sheppard por Douglas O. Linder (2006)





Famous trials
On July 4, 1954, Marilyn Sheppard, the wife of a handsome thirty-year-old doctor, Sam Sheppard, wasbrutally murdered in the bedroom of their home in Bay Village, Ohio, on the shore of Lake Erie. Sam Sheppard denied any involvement in the murder and described his own battle with the killer he described as "bushy-haired."

Did Sam do it? It's rare for a murder mystery to endure for over half a century. Almost always, if the the mystery is not fully resolved at the trial, subsequent admissions,previously uncovered clues, or more sophisticated forensic tests reveal what the trial did not. Not so with the Sam Sheppard case. Facing two different juries, twelve years apart, Sam Sheppard was found guilty by one jury, not guilty by the next. Even over the past decade, partisans continued the debate. A third jury in 2000, asked to consider awarding the Sheppard family damages for wrongfulimprisonment, sided with county prosecutors. In 2001, a book on the Sheppard case concluded that Sam was clearly innocent. Two years later, another book on the case argued just as forcefully that the first jury got it right: Sam was guilty as charged.

Apart from the large unanswered question of guilt, the Sheppard case deserves to be considered among the nation's most famous because it produced alandmark U. S. Supreme Court decision on fair trial rights and launched the career of a flamboyant young defense attorney named F. Lee Bailey. The case is also is remarkable for the unlikely collection of notable figures that touched the case, including columnist and quiz show star Dorothy Kilgallen, Cleveland Browns quarterback and NFL Hall-of-Fame member Otto Graham, and chief Nazi propagandist,Joesph Goebbels. The case also was widely associated with a popular early 60s' television show, The Fugitive.
Fourth of July, 1954
The evening of Saturday July 3 had been a pleasant one at the home of Sam and Marilyn Sheppard. Friends from their neighborhood, Don and Nancy Ahern and their two children, joined the Sheppard family for drinks and a casual dinner. From a screened porch, the Sheppardsand Aherns finished dinner and watched the sun set over Lake Erie. Don Ahern brought his two children back home, put them to bed, and drove back to the Sheppards. After Marilyn tucked their seven-year-old son, Chip, into his upstairs bedroom, the two couples sat down to watch the movie Strange Holiday on one of the two available television channels. Marilyn sat on Sam's lap until Sam, having hada long and trying day in the emergency room at Bay View Hospital, moved to a daybed in the living room and fell asleep. Shortly after midnight, Marilyn showed the Aherns to the door.

At 5:40 the next morning, Spencer Houk, the mayor of Bay Village, was roused by a phone call. On the line was his friend Sam Sheppard. "My God, Spence, get over here quick," Sam exclaimed, "I think they havekilled Marilyn." Houk quickly dressed and, with his wife Esther, drove the short distance to the Sheppard home, where they found the bare-chested Sheppard in his den leaning back in a swivel chair and holding his neck.

Asked what had happened, Sheppard offered a mumbled and--on the face of it--improbable account. Sheppard said that he was sleeping downstairs on the daybed when he heard Marilynshout, "Sam!" According to his story (which he repeated later to police officers), Sheppard ran up the dimly lit stairs to their bedroom where he saw a white "form" standing next to his wife's twin bed. He grappled with the form, but was hit on the back of his neck and lost consciousness. When he came to, he took Marilyn's pulse and determined her to be dead. After checking Chip's room next door and...