CLEVELAND—The body of Sam Sheppard was exhumed and sent for DNA testing in an effort by his son to clear Sheppard's name once and for all in the 1954 murder case that inspired TV's "The Fugitive."
Television lights provided the illumination before daybreak as a backhoe began digging up the Columbus gravesite where Sheppard's remains have been buried for 27 years. Sam Reese Sheppard -- who was 7 when his mother was beaten to death -- stood back and watched, cradling 27 daisies. He rested his hand on the coffin and placed most of the flowers on top as it was lifted away.
The elder Sheppard was convicted of killing his wife and spent 10 years in prison before being acquitted in a retrial in 1966. He claimed a bushy-haired intruder knocked him out and killed her at their suburban Cleveland home. Lingering questions about Sheppard's innocence dogged him for the rest of his life, and he died nearly penniless of liver disease at age 46 in 1970.
The younger Sheppard, now 50, also was left unsatisfied by his father's acquittal, since a verdict of "not guilty" requires only a reasonable doubt. He has sued the state, seeking a declaration that Sheppard was innocent and wrongly imprisoned. He hopes that DNA samples, which were taken from Sheppard's body five hours after the exhumation, will exclude the doctor as the source of bloodstains at the crime scene.
