Sam Sheppard example essay topic

The media had to much power and are the ones who put Sam Sheppard in jail in 1954. On the evening of July 3, 1954 Dr. Sam Sheppard and his pregnant wife were having the neighbors over for drinks. They invited them to thier home witch was on lake Erie. Sam fell asleep on the couch before the neighbors left. His wife, Marilyn, then let the neighbors out and went to bed herself around midnight. Sheppard woke up to loud screams sometime later.

When Sheppard herd the screams he rushed upstairs to his bedroom. He saw a white form standing beside his wife on their bed. Sam then tried to attack the form but was clubbed on the neck and quickly blacked out. He then herd a noise and went racing downstairs. He then saw the intruder and chased him out the backdoor and onto the beach, he noticed the man had busy hair. While he was chasing the intruder he leapt at him and tackled him from behind.

They struggled for a few minutes and then Sheppard was knocked out again. When he came to he was partially submerged in water, he got up and staggered back to his house and called for help. (courtroom drama) Sam called his neighbor Spen Hour, the mayor. The police Dan Sams brothers Richard and Steve were called. His brothers then took him to the hospital. The newspapers however said that the Sheppards sped him off to the family hospital and kept him away from the investigation.

They did not report however that the police at the scene had no objections with Sam going to the hospital, or the fact that Sam was questioned three different times on the day of the murder or that he had a full-scale questioning four days later with no counsel present. Those facts did not matter, the newspapers were spreading the idea that Sam Sheppard was rich enough and had enough influence to get away with murder. (Cooper For the next few weeks the papers were crazy with Sheppard stories, they were accusing him left and right. They were continually pressuring the police. They even called for an inquest. Also, some of the media speculation was due to the discovery of a canvas bag at his house that included a watch, a fraternity ring, and a key.

This made people believe that he faked a robbery. Then it was revealed that he was involved with another women, the media went crazy. (courtroom drama) On July 30, an article called Quit stalling - bring him in! was run by the leading media hound of Sheppard, Lois B. Seltzer. That night police arrested Sheppard at his parents home on the charges of murder. Outside of the house was a carnival. When Sheppard was lead out of the house people started to cheer.

The grand jury indicted Sam on August 17, Dan is trial began a month later. Before the trial even started the judge, Judge Blythin, told reporters that Sam was guilty has hell. Sam Sheppard was blamed with second degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison on December 21, 1954. (internet site) Sheppards attorneys were not even able to get into Sams house until after the trial to collect evidence. Corrigan, Sheppards attorney, hired Dr. Paul Leland Kirk.

Kirk was a nationally known criminologist from the University of California. Kirk turned up lots of great evidence that proves Sheppards innocence. He determined that the killer was left handed, and Sam is right handed. He also found a spot of blood that did not belong to either Sam or Marilyn. He also said that Sams story was consistent with the known facts, and that the technical evidence presented by the prosecution had been worthless.

But petitions for a new trial on the basis of Dr. Kirks findings were turned down by the courts, as were other appeals over the years. (Bailey) After Sams conviction his mother shot herself and his father died of cancer in less than a month. He survived in jail by writing to his son, working has a surgeon for limited pay, letting doctors use him for medical research, participating in athletics and made and sold religious jewelry. The years in jail were bitter ones for Sam Sheppard, none of the appeals succeeded. The nations legal system had failed him. He was in jail for a crime he did not commit, and to boot half of his family was dead because of it, his wife, his mother and his father.

Think about what it must be like to have all the time in the world to think about something that you did not do, or had no control over. (Cooper) In August 1961, the young lawyer F. Lee Bailey red the book Sheppard Murder case by Paul Homes. When Bailey read the book it made him furious at what the state of Ohio had done to Sam. Bill Corrigna had died the last summer and Sheppard needed a lawyer. In November 1961 F. Lee Bailey took up the case. In April 1963 the US supreme court broadened the law of habeas corpus by saying that trial judges were not guarding the rights of the accused and empowered federal judges to check into every aspect of trials involving appeals of habeas corpus.

This greatly helped Sheppards cause. Bailey field legal paper after legal paper, most of witch were about Sheppard wanting to take a lie detector test. He filed a petition to Mel G. Underwood a Federal District court judge in Columbus. Underwood passed the petition for a writ of habeas corpus to Carl A. Weinman, the chief judge for the southern district of Ohio.

On January 17, 1964 a pretrial conferences started with judge Weinman. While in Manhattan Bailey met Dorothy Kil gallen and she told him of the off record remarks of judge Blythin. This was grounds enough for a new trial. (Bailey, courtroom drama) Finally on July 15, 1964 Judge Wien man handed down his decision on the Sheppard case. Basically he said that the court had found five separate violations of Sheppards constitutional rights. He gave the state sixty days to come up with a new trial and he ordered Sams immediate release.

The state tried last ditched effort of keeping Sam in. A week after his release he appeared before the US court of appeals in Ohio and they ruled Sam free. The case then went to Federal court of appeals in Cincinnati. They ruled that Sam go back to jail. Bailey appealed to the supreme court and they herd the case on February 28, 1965.

On June 6, 1966 it was announced that Bailey had won the supreme court case because Judge Blythin had failed to protect Sheppard Dan a retrial was to be scheduled. (Bailey) John Corrigan was the prosecuting attorney for the second trial. The prosecution planned to employ the same strategy has before and cal the same witnesses. But this time the defense was better prepared with evidence Dan the prosecution did not have a media carnival on their side. The prosecutions first witness was officer Robert Schottke. He was a homicide detective for the Cleveland police and the star witness the first trial.

This guy thought he was Dick Tracy. He questioned Sheppard in the hospital hours after the murder occurred. He thought that it was Sheppard from the start and he did not back down. Bailey mad him look like a blubbering fool. He asked Schottke why he had not checked finger prints on Sheppards fraternity ring and watch before accusing him.

He also asked him about Sheppards injuries. Bailey got Schottke to admit that he accused Sheppard without first determining that he even could be guilty or not. (Bailey, courtroom drama) The prosecution also called Dr. Samuel Gerber, The number one witness at the first trial. At the first trial Gerber made most of his case out of the bloodstains on Marilyn pillow. He said that they came from a surgical instrument, one that he has never seen. Corrigan did not want to use the surgical instrument theory when he examined Gerber in the court.

But on Baileys cross-examination he asked Gerber what he had seen on the bloodstain imprint and he said It looked like a Surgical instrument to me. Then bailey got Gerber to admit that he had never handled such and instrument and that he was not even a surgeon. Then Bailey put the nail in the coffin on Gerber. He asked him if he had ever seen on in any hospital before and Gerber said no. Bailey than asked where as Gerber looked for one in the past twelve years, Gerber replied I have looked all over the United states. (Bailey) The prosecution next called Gerber assistant, Marry Cowan.

Bailey also chewed her apart. He has her admit that the murder was committed by a left handed person and that Sheppard was right handed. The defenses two main strategies were Dr. Kirk, and keeping Sheppard off the stand. Baileys reason for keeping Sheppard off the stand was his condition. He was begining to drink heavily has a crutch and losing his grip on life, at points during the trail Sam did not even know what was going on around him. He has to make the prosecution think that Sam was going to testify.

He told people that Sheppard would obviously testify and the prosecution would play off this with a rebuttal witness form the penitentiary named Frenchy. But since Sam never testified Frenchy did not take the stand and Bailey successfully tricked the prosecution. (Bailey) The defenses main weapon in this case was Dr. Kirk. He proved that the bloodstained pillow was not a surgical instrument but blood splattered from the attack Dan then the pillow was folded over itself and created a mirror image. He also determined that Sam was right handed and the attacker was left handed, Dan he found someone elses blood in the room. When Kirk was called to the stand by the defense he proved all of these points to the court.

He also gave a lecture on blood and how it dries and blood types and how its splatters and things of this sort. Kirks testimony was too good for Corrigan to Have a good cross examination, he only asked limited questions. (Cooper) Baileys called a few other witnesses to refuted Gerber, one who pointed to the suspect in the murder and Sams dentist. The dentist showed how Sams mouth injuries could not of been committed by Sam himself. The last witness was an osteopath, DR Elkins. He proved to the court that Sams neck and back injuries couldnt of been committed upon himself.

For the closing statement Bailey compared the state of Ohio to a women who dropped her dollar. When asked why the lady was not looking for her dollar near where she dropped it, but under the streetlight. The lady replied Because the light is better over here. The judge in this second case was common Pleas Judge Francis J. Tally.

He was a no-nonsense judge who gave the defendant a fair trial. He was very strict on the press. He ordered all photographers to stay outside the courtroom. He also only assigned fourteen seats to the press.

Bailey thought that this is not what the supreme court intended, he thought that the judge had too much power in this case. It took over a week to select the jury, most of them were relatively young. They ruled on November 16, 1966, that Sam Sheppard was not guilty. On April 6, 1970 Sam died of liver cancer at the age of 46.

(Bailey) The Sam Sheppard fiasco became so important because of media attention. They had to much power in this case. They blamed Sam before the trail even began and all the people believe them, Sam was basically screwed from the start. There have been Supreme court case ruling saying that the judges arent protecting the dependents well enough and gave the state supreme courts more power to intervene. It became almost like a president. I think that there were brutal crimes committed.

Not only the murder, but what the press did to Sam, they basically sealed his fate for him. They have no right to such power. The media are the ones who made Sheppard a suspect in the first place, and they pressured police to bring him in. I think that the first trial was unbelievably unfair to Sam but the second trail as how it is suppose to happen. The trial judge from the first trial even said that Sam was Guilty has hell before the trial even started. The media was everywhere saying that Sam was guilty, and in was basically impossible to find jurors who have not been swayed by the media.

I think that the verdict and punishment of the first case was defiantly wrong. It was a fair punishment to the verdict, but that verdict was proven wrong. I am happy with the outcome of the second trail though. So in conclusion to this paper, I say that the only reason that Sam was ever arrested or convicted was because of the media and its wrongful power over the case.