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Part 5 | Back to Part 4 July 16, 1964 Dr. Sheppard released from prison, after federal district court judge Carl Weinman rules that Sheppard was denied a fair trial. June 6, 1966 U.S. Supreme Court agrees with federal district court judge Weinman, ruling in Sheppard v Maxwell that the trial of Dr. Sam Sheppard was a "carnival" and that Dr. Sheppard was denied a fair trial because the judge failed to take steps to control the courtroom atmosphere and prevent jury bias resulting from excessive press coverage. October 24, 1966 Dr. Sheppard's second, and fair, trial begins. November 16, 1966 Jury finds Dr. Sheppard not guilty. August 27, 1967 "The Fugitive" runs its final episode. Ratings have declined since Dr. Sheppard was found not guilty. Daily reruns of the 120 episodes begin shortly after.
Dr. Sam Sheppard dies at age 46; Dr. Paul Kirk dies within a few months. 1981 - 1982 Spen and Esther Houk, divorced in 1962, die. [They were neighbors and friends of the Sheppards, and at one point, Spen Houk was considered a possible suspect in the murder.] January 3, 1984 Elderly widow Ethel May Durkin dies, six weeks after being hospitalized for a fall at her home. [See next entry.] July 1989 Richard Eberling, an interior decorator and the former window washer at the Sheppard home, is convicted of aggravated murder in the death of Ethel May Durkin. October 1989 Sam Reese Sheppard, only child of Dr. and Mrs. Sheppard, first speaks out publicly about the injustice he has suffered and begins an effort to solve his mother's murder. March 1990 Sam Reese Sheppard meets with Richard Eberling at the Lebanon Correctional Institution in Ohio. August 1993 The movie The Fugitive, starring Harrison Ford and based on the old television series about Dr. Richard Kimble, an innocent man wrongly convicted of the murder of his wife, is released.
AMSEC [an investigative firm] joins in helping Sam Reese Sheppard reinvestigate the murder. October 13, 1995 Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Stephanie Tubbs Jones announces an investigation into the murder of Marilyn Sheppard. February 22, 1996 The first court hearing in over 30 years on the Sheppard case takes place before Judge Ronald Suster in Ohio. September 17, 1997 Dr. Sam Sheppard's body exhumed for DNA testing. March 4, 1998 Terry Gilbert, lawyer for the Sheppard family, contends that results of DNA tests conducted by Dr. Mohammed Tahir of the Indianapolis-Marion County Forensic Services Agency exclude Dr. Sam Sheppard as a donor of the blood found at the murder scene and point to Richard Eberling. July 25, 1998 Richard Eberling dies in prison. August 19, 1998 Eberling's fellow inmate, Robert Lee Parks, announces that shortly before his death, Eberling confessed to Marilyn Sheppard's murder. December 1998 Ohio Supreme Court rules against a request by the Cuyahoga County prosecutor to stop suit by Sam Reese Sheppard against the State of Ohio for wrongfully imprisoning his father, clearing way for a new trial. August 1999 Lawyers defending the State of Ohio against Sheppard's wrongful-imprisonment lawsuit say they will exhume the body of Marilyn Sheppard to perform genetic and other tests. They also file a motion to delay the trial, which is now set to begin in January 2000. October 5, 1999 The body of Marilyn Sheppard, including the fetus she was carrying when she died, is exhumed at a suburban Cleveland cemetery. Photos: (2) Sam Reese Sheppard Chronology of a Murder | Science in the Courtroom Create a DNA Fingerprint | 3-D Mug Shot | Cleared by DNA Resources | Transcript | Site Map Editor's Picks | Previous Sites | Join Us/E-mail | TV/Web Schedule About NOVA | Teachers | Site Map | Shop | Jobs | Search | To print PBS Online | NOVA Online | WGBH © | Updated November 2000 |
Nearly ten years after Judge Edward Blythin, above, convicted
Sam Sheppard of murder and had him imprisoned, a federal district court judge
released Sheppard on grounds that he was denied a fair trial.
A severely depressed Sam
Sheppard died six years after his release from prison. He was 46 years
old.
Sam Reese Sheppard