Samuel Sheppard Blood Analysis
Name
Institution
Samuel Sheppard Blood Analysis Dr. Sam Sheppard was a well-known physician in the early 1950s in Cleveland. He was from a very wealthy family that was well known because of their acclaim as being physicians. He was liked very much by the Cleveland community, which put his life under great public scrutiny. The Sheppard case is a very good example of the trial happening in the public arena with the outrageous behavior of the media and the press[1]. The influence that the media and the press had on the Sheppard’s case contributed greatly to the inability of Dr. Sheppard having to receive a trial that was unbiased in terms of the jury. Marilyn Sheppard who was the wife to Dr. Sheppard was found bashed to death on July 4th, 1954, and at the arrival of the police at the scene, the house was in shambles and the bedroom was a gruesome scene that made Sheppard the primary suspect because he was present in the house. Despite the position of the body and the partial removal of clothes, the autopsy of the body, however, showed that there was no sexual assault since there was no evidence of anal or vaginal trauma as well as no evidence of seminal fluid or any indication that the victim had been sexually abused[2]. Marilyn was reported to have suffered a series of wounds and several blows to the head while Dr. Gerber stated that she had died from hemorrhaging caused by the blows she had got on her head. According to the story of Dr. Sheppard, he fell asleep on a couch downstairs after having entertained guests in his house and was awaken by Marilyn’s screams. When he went upstairs, he was able to discover a figure that had a light garment. After engaging in a fight with the man, he knocked him out. He awoke to find Marilyn’s body on the bed and he chased after a man downstairs having a fight with him one more time before the man knocked him out for the second time. Dr. Sheppard testified that he had touched the body of his wife where he had taken her pulse to determine if she was still alive or dead. This pulse he took by placing his fingers on her throat and neck. He admitted having touched her body according to the Trial Testimony 12/13/54 P. 4971, where he mentioned the parts of the body that he touched. Al though he was not sure, he mentioned that he had touched the face and neck[3]. This touching of his wife’s neck and face would have led to the primary transfer of blood spots from the victim’s blood-stained body to his fingers. After he checked the pulse rate of his wife for the last time, Sheppard stated that he went downstairs where he used the telephone to call the Houks. It was very logical to expect that the blood that was supposed to be on his fingers after having touched his wife was logically expected to have been secondarily transferred from his fingers to the telephone. It is evident enough that the killer of Marilyn staged the crime scene to suggest three motives for the occurrence of the crime: an attach that was sexually motivated, a profit related burglary, or a burglary that was drug related[4]. In the Sheppard’s case, goods and money were not the primary focus since all the possessions of Marilyn and her husband were left intact. Sheppard’s house that was the crime scene had been staged to create the image of a burglary, which is evident from the pulled out drawers and the poured out contents of the Sheppard’s kit, but there was taken away no valuable possession, for instance, the watch that belonged to Marilyn and had been removed from her wrist was discovered downstairs as well as the watch belonging to Sheppard had been also removed from his wrist and was later discovered in a green bag dumped outside the house along with other valuable personal items. In the Sheppard case, the murder weapon had been removed from the crime scene. There were found no fingerprints. The body of the victim had been displayed in order to show that the victim had been assaulted sexually. The offender of the murder crime made sure that the scene was staged in a way that the death of Marilyn was seen as a result of a burglary or a sexual assault. The pajamas of the victim had been partially removed and the pajama bottoms had been pulled off on one leg and buttons on her top had been unbuttoned and had been pushed over her breasts exposing her breasts, thus showing that the victim was a target of a sexual assault.

The First Trial During the first trial, the judge preceding the case quoted the case as an open and shut case when he pronounced Sheppard as guilty as hell and expected no questioning after that. All the time throughout the case, there had been poor police handling and the development of the media circus. The entire public had also condemned Sheppard even before the trial begun. The police and the press tried to piece the crime when they tried to figure out that there were marital problems between Dr. Sheppard and his wife[5]. It brought in Susan Hayes who admitted that she had had an affair with Dr. Sheppard, which made the police strongly believe that Dr. Sheppard had lied in his statement on two occasions: under the oath and about the affair. The search for the affairs that explained Sheppard’s unfaithfulness to his wife became a possible cause for him to murder his wife. Dr. Sheppard was denied the right to have an attorney on one occasion when he was questioned and forced to answer the questions of Coroner who was not a professional lawyer. It was a clear indication that Sheppard was never going to receive a fair trial since the Cleveland Press published their thoughts on the case where they stated that Sheppard had been given much freedom as a suspect of a murder case, which led to his arrest later on the day of the publication[6]. The media were allowed to get away with injustice because due to their publications Sheppard could never have gotten a free and fair trial. For instance, the publication of Carl Weinman who was a U.S. District Trial Judge, in which he convicted Sheppard, = explained why Sheppard was convicted of a second degree murder. In the selection of the jury, there were cases when some jurors who had admitted to be swayed by the media remained the jurors in the Sheppard case. Dr. Sheppard’s case helped in showing the changes that had taken place in the forensic analysis and the criminal justice system in the last 50 years. Judge Clark was unable to control the media enthusiasm, which showed a total failure of the judicial system. The judge did not do anything to be able to control and reduce the influence that the media had in his courtroom. The media were given free access to all the jurors in this case, which included taking individual pictures of the jurors and publishing them. During the trial process, the jurors also had full access to several newspapers that were strongly believed to have influenced their final opinions in the case[7]. It was because of the biased and unrelenting media coverage that Dr. Sheppard was found guilty. The media and the press had also been allowed to have access to the Sheppard’s home even before Sheppard was charged with murder. They were even allowed to publish evidence from the case proceedings in their articles and they also assessed the guilt of Sheppard. They went to an extent of reporting that all other suspects had their names cleared through the use of a lie detector test and they never understood the reason why Sheppard refused to take such a test. This refusal to take the lie detector test by Sheppard was used as the actual evidence in support of the prosecution. The media had been allowed to run the trial since the judge presiding over the case disregarded all the concerns brought up by the defense counsel by allowing the state officials working on the case to give out private and confidential information concerning the case to the press and the media[8]. In the trial, the prosecution pounded at the allegations that Sheppard had an affair and also stated that the Sheppard’s injuries were self-inflicted. Dr. Gerber also argued that the weapon that had been used in the murder of Marilyn was a surgical instrument that, according to his analysis, produced the blood signature of Dr. Sheppard[9]. The attorney of Sheppard failed in emphasizing the incompetence of the lead investigator Dr. Gerber and in turn argued with him. The witness argued that the injuries that Sheppard had were not easy to fake. In the whole case, there were a total of about 87 witnesses and a total of about 300 evidence exhibits found during the trial. Dr. Sheppard was convicted of having murdered his wife Marilyn and he was then sent to prison, which resulted in an outcry that the press and the media had directly and unfairly influenced the jury. The trial judge was able to accept an appeal of the original conviction of Sheppard on the grounds that Dr. Sheppard had been tried unfairly and that prejudicial publicity had tainted the whole trial. Dr. Sheppard was released on 16th July, 1964 on a $10,000 bond after having served 10 years in prison. The main reason why Sheppard was released is that F. Lee Bailey had convinced the courts that they had been led to a mistrial in the first trial by the media circus. He was very determined to have the Sheppard’s case retried again when the US Supreme Court ordered the retrial of the case. A total of five constitutional violations were outlined by the court: the failure of the court to grant a venue change due to the publicity that had been very much unfavorable before the trial and also after the trial; the inability of the court to have an impartial jury when it allowed the press and the media to influence the decisions and the opinions of the jury; the trial judge failing to step down because of the ideas he had preconceived about Sheppard; the court allowing a lie detector test into the trial testimony; and the communications between the outsiders and the jurors that had been unauthorized during the trial period. It made the court declare the Sheppard’s sentence and judgment void when he was released.
The Second Trial In the second trial, the jury was put in isolation throughout the whole trial and they were not exposed to any form of media throughout the whole period. However, the prosecution did not focus so much on Sheppard’s affairs, but claimed that the Sheppard’s injuries were self-inflicted. Dr. Paul Kirk who was the star witness in the case presented a profile where he claimed that the killer of Marilyn had been a member of the lower class who might have resented the wealth that the Sheppards processed and might have had an erotic fantasy about Sheppard’s wife. The profile presented by Dr. Kirk was based on the evidence of Marilyn’s body in terms of how the police found her clothing she had worn at the time of the crime.
Blood Evidence Blood evidence affected the case since despite the detectives having found many blood spots and evidence they however failed to conduct a blood spatter analysis. Blood typing analysis was not conducted as well in order to determine the person who had committed the crime. The investigators did not look for any form of evidence to support their claims like analyzing Marilyn’s stomach. There was also no rape determination in this case or any microscopic analysis of her wounds. It showed that Dr. Gerber made his own conclusions that the burglary was an act which was staged by Dr. Sheppard in his defense to claim that he did not murder his wife. The detectives working on the Sheppard’s case used benzidine tests, luminol, and backlight probe in order to find all the blood spots in the crime scene. There were about 45 blood spots found from the steps of the bedroom towards kitchen and towards basement. Several blood types of analysis were used in Dr. Sheppard’s trial that included blood spatter, blood grouping, DNA typing, and Ghost pattern. The original blood evidence in this case was shoddy, but it was still considered to be enough to convict someone to an imprisonment term. The blood trail that had also been gotten from the crime scene indicated that it came from the killer’s wound and it did not come from the weapon used to murder Marilyn. Having typed the blood, it was evident that the blood trail did not belong to Sheppard or Marilyn, thus showing that the killer must have been another person and not Dr. Sheppard. Dr. Kirk stated that “the blood on the closet door came neither from Marilyn or Sam.”[10]. The blood type found on the door of the closet was a type O while blood types of Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard were both type A. Dr. Kirk conducted a spatter analysis in which he found out that the killer of Marilyn was a left-handed person, which implied that Dr. Sheppard was not the killer. Kirk also testified that the blows on Marilyn’s head had come from a person who was left-handed. According to Terry Gilbert, the blood trail could only have come from the killer and not from Marilyn. The bloody pillowcase was also reexamined when it was found out that imprint found by Dr. Samuel Gerber had actually been caused by blood that had soaked through the fabric. There was also more blood found on the wrist watch of Sheppard. The prosecutors suggested that it was as the result of the blood spatter caused by the beating[11]. The defense counsel however claimed that it might have been the result of a transfer by contact. Dr. Kirk concluded that the blood on the wrist watch was the result of transfer contact since blood spots were tadpole shaped, which showed that the watch came into contact with blood flying. It was a clear indication that Sheppard had not beaten up Marilyn to death. If he had killed her, the blood on his watch was supposed to be a back spatter and the blood trail would have faced Sheppard with the wide end projecting away from him[12]. The murder of Marilyn was very brutal, which explained the reason why there was a lot of blood in the bedroom of Mrs. Sheppard. If Sheppard had indeed murdered his wife, then he would have gotten blood stains all over his body and clothing. There was only one blood stain found on the knee of the Sheppard’s pants. Dr. Sheppard did not have any blood spots on his body or on his hands since he denied having taken a bath after the murder. It made it evident that the killer had blood stains from the victim after having bludgeoning her to her death. This lack of blood on the Sheppard’s body was consistent with his initial testimony where he denied having committed the crime. What cleared him in the second trial was the DNA evidence that was conducted on the blood stains. It showed that the blood found in the house by the detectives did not belong to Dr. Sheppard and the series of tests carried out on the blood indicated that the blood belonged to Richard Eberling who was a former window washer in the house[13]. The DNA tests conducted by Dr. Mohammed Tahir showed that all the blood stains on the bedroom wall, on the stairs, on the Sheppard’s trousers, and on the porch matched the DNA makeup of Eberling. Dr. Tahis also stated that Marilyn had been sexually assaulted since, according to the DNA analysis, there were traces of the Eberling’s DNA type semen found in the Marylin’s vaginal slides. The prosecution had never disclosed the fact that Marilyn had been raped during the proceedings of the trial. It led to Mr. Gilbert accusing the investigators of the case in having overlooked the evidence since there was enough proof that Mrs. Sheppard had been raped. Dr. Samuel Gerber who was the lead investigator was forced by Bailey to admit that he had never found a surgical instrument that, according to his statement, had been used in the murder of Marilyn. It came up with the overall result that Dr. Sheppard was not guilty of having murdered his wife. The main suspect of the Marilyn’s murder was Richard Eberling who had worked in the house a day before murder. He was considered to have murdered Marilyn because some stolen and missing items were found in his possession like the cocktail ring that belonged to Marilyn. Eberling was considered to be a career criminal but died long before any solid evidence was found to implicate him in the murder case. On further questioning, Eberling stated that the main reason why his blood had been present in the crime scene was because he had cut his hand as he was trying to replace a window[14]. Eberling denied all the claims of the murder of Mrs. Sheppard. Kathie Collins Dyal, a fellow convict, made a report that Eberling had confessed the crime to her in 1983. Gilbert called in experts who were able to state that Mrs. Sheppard had bitten her attacker and bitten his arm, which was evident from her broken finger nail and broken teeth. Eberling also had a scar on his wrist that might have been the result of a scratch. Eberling was a man who was considered to be capable of violence when the murder of Durkin showed that he had planned a monetary gain through inheritance. He had repeatedly stolen from the homes which he was familiar with, but there was never any evidence indicating that he had ever been involved in a crime with the sexual assault since many believed that he was a homosexual. According to the James Neff’s book The Wrong Man: The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case (2001), it was concluded that the killer of Sheppard’s wife was Eberling. According to Neff (2001), on his interview with the dying Eberling, he described the conversation of Eberling as a wandering conversation when Eberling confessed having been in the Marilyn’s blood-soaked bedroom and when he also said that he saw a total mess that made him horrified. It brought up a series of questions since later he was not willing to answer any more questions concerning the murder scene[15]. It implied that Eberling was the killer since it was not clear what he could be doing in the middle of night in the bedroom of Mrs. Sheppard and why he was not found on the murder scene when the police arrived. Eberling was dead before Neff could have any other conversation with him concerning the murder case. In the end, it was however determined that all the found evidence had not been sufficient enough to clear the Dr. Sheppard’s name. Dr. Sam Sheppard was not guilty by all means, but he was not also considered to be innocent. This case shows how the community and town people can also play a role that can be either positive or negative. In the Sheppard case, the Cleveland people played a very big role in destroying a man’s life, a good family, and the innocent’s beliefs before he had been actually convicted of committing a crime. This case was a deciding factor in the Sheppard’s life, fate, and death. His son Reese Sheppard tried all possible means to get evidence that would lead to clearing his father’s name including the exhuming of his father’s remains to get DNA samples that would have cleared all his doubts. He stated that his father had not murdered his mother since he strongly believed in the innocence of his father[16]. Despite his son’s efforts, the people of Cleveland strongly believed that it was Sheppard who had murdered his wife. References
Cooper, C.L., & Sheppard, R.S. (1997). Mockery of justice. New York: Onyx.
DeSario, J. P., & Mason, W. D. (2003). Dr. Sam Sheppard on trial. Ohio: The Kent State University Press.
Entin, Jonathan. (2003). Being the government means (almost) never having to say you’re sorry: the Sam Sheppard case and the meaning of wrongful imprisonment. Akron Law Review, 38(1), 139-179.
Estiloz, Tim. (1996). Dr. Sam Sheppard case: His son seeks the real killer. Retrieved November 24, 2012 from http://www.all-about-forensic-science.com/famous-forensic-cases.html.
Linder, D. (2006). Dr. Sam Sheppard trials: 1954 and 1966. Retrieved November 24, 2012 from http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/sheppard/samsheppardtrial.html.
McClish, M. (2002). The Marilyn Sheppard murder. Retrieved November 24, 2012, from http://www.statementanalysis.com/Sheppard/
Neff, J. (2001). The wrong man. New York: Random House.
Saferstein, Richard. (2009). Forensic science: From the crime scene to the crime lab. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.
Trial Testimony 12/13/54, 4957-72.

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[1] DeSario, J. P. & Mason, W. D. (2003). Dr. Sam Sheppard on Trial. Ohio: The Kent State University Press.
[2] Desario & Mason, 21

[3] Trial testimony 12/13/54 Pg.4957-58
[4] Linder, D. (2006). Dr. Sam Sheppard trials: 1954 and 1966.

[5] McClish, M. (2002). The Marilyn Sheppard Murder

[6] Linder, 2006, p. 1.
[7] Cooper, C.L. & Sheppard, R.S. (1997). Mockery of Justice. New York: Onyx.
[8] Entin, Jonathan. (2003). Being the government means (almost) never having to say you’re sorry: the Sam Sheppard case and the meaning of wrongful imprisonment. Akron Law Review, 38(1), 139-179.
[9] Linder, 2006
[10] Ibid, 1
[11] Saferstein, Richard. (2009). Forensic science: From the crime scene to the crime lab. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.
[12] Ibid, 261
[13] Estiloz, Tim. (1996). Dr. Sÿþaam Sheppard case: His son seeks the real killer.
[14] McClish, 52
[15] Neff, J. (2001). The Wrong Man. New York: Random House
[16] Estiloz, 22