Sheppard Retrial Draws Family’s Fire Lawyer For Late Doctor’s Son Says Prosecutors’ Pace Glacial

The lawyer for Dr. Sam Sheppard’s son says prosecutors are stalling to avoid a trial that could exonerate Sheppard in the sensational 1954 murder of his pregnant wife.

Prosecutors denied the charge and asked the judge Thursday to dismiss the wrongful imprisonment lawsuit brought by Sam Reese Sheppard.

The 43-year-old case - in which Sheppard steadfastly claimed that a “bushy-haired intruder” beat his wife to death and knocked him unconscious - helped inspire the television series “The Fugitive.”

The younger Sheppard wants Common Pleas Judge Ron Suster to declare his father innocent so he can ask the Ohio Court of Claims to pay $250,000 for his father’s imprisonment plus compensation for financial losses.

The doctor was convicted and imprisoned for 10 years before being acquitted at a second trial in 1966. He died in 1970.

In Ohio, to collect damages for wrongful imprisonment, a person must be declared innocent even if acquitted in a trial.

The prosecutor’s office asked Suster to dismiss the case, arguing only a former inmate can sue for unlawful imprisonment under state law.

Suster scheduled a hearing for June 2 at which he will hear arguments on the dismissal request and get an update on how much evidence the two sides still need to examine before trial.

The 50-year-old Sheppard of Oakland, Calif., sat next to his lawyer, Terry Gilbert, during the 70-minute hearing but did not speak.

“It’s difficult to be here,” he told reporters. “I have some rough memories of this town. But I’m glad there’s a new generation around to look at the information in the case.”

Gilbert believes evidence uncovered in DNA tests on blood from the crime scene will pin the slaying on the family’s former handyman and window washer, Richard Eberling, 67, who is in prison for murdering a woman in 1984. Eberling denies killing Sheppard’s wife.

Gilbert, who wants the trial to begin by October, said the prosecutor’s office has been increasingly uncooperative about sharing evidence such as trial transcripts and police reports.

Carmen Marino, an assistant county prosecutor, denied the accusation. “He (Gilbert) has never been excluded from getting anything and everything he wants. They have complete access to whatever they want,” he said.