The Ghost of Dr. Sam

On July 4, 1954 the pregnant wife of Cleveland Osteopath Dr. Sam Sheppard was found dead in her bedroom, stabbed more than 24 times.

The brutal murder of Marilyn Sheppard rocked the sleepy suburb of Bay View, Ohio and soon became the obsession of the media, the people of Cleveland and the rest of the United States. After three trials over the course of five decades, questions still linger about the killer's identity.

Almost 36 years after the Sheppard murder, an equally shocking murder enveloped New Hampshire. On May 1, 1990 the trigger was pulled and the bullet killed Greg Smart, the case quickly became the 1990s version of media and public fixation on the crime, the victims and the accused.

Both cases reflect the dynamics, intentions and collisions between the public's right to know and a defendant's right to a fair trial. And that intersection of rights in both cases was the media coverage of the two murder cases.

After Pam Smart was convicted, she began a lengthy appeals process. Throughout Smart's appeals process, her legal team contended the extent of the media coverage prevented her from a fair trial, particularly since it was televised live throughout the state.

"This was a concrete reason why it's not a good idea to run live feed through the course of a trial," said Mark Sisti, Smart's defense lawyer.

For Smart's legal team, the media circus surrounding her case has become her battle cry and the basis for her petition for commutation filed in 2004.

"Ms. Smart was denied her right to a fair trial as a result of the media frenzy surrounding it," read the petition for commutation packet. "A case cannot be properly tried if the court is unable to seat an impartial jury because of prejudicial pretrial publicity or an inflamed community atmosphere."

On Dec. 21, 1954, the 18-man jury found Sheppard guilty of the murder of Marilyn Sheppard. Sheppard was given a life sentence although given the chance to apply for parole after serving 10 years.

Over 37 years later, on March 22, 1991, Smart was found guilty and given a life sentence without the chance of parole. Following her conviction, Smart's lawyers began their way down a long road of appeals, leading to her petition for commutation in late 2004.

The petition invokes the 1966 Supreme Court ruling of Sheppard v. Maxwell. The ruling concerned the effects of pre-trial publicity on a case and how it may or may not taint the jury pool.

Aside from the impact of the media both the Smart and Sheppard cases share the thread of adultery. Smart's affair was widely documented and exploited by the media as the lurid details poured from the witness stand. While Sheppard's affair was also brought before the court in the form Susan Hayes and latched onto by the press. Speculations still are discussed on Marilyn Sheppard's affair with Bay Village Major Lester Houk and how it may have resulted in her murder.

As a result of the initial coverage, the innocence of Sheppard is still debated and the picture of the murderer from 1954 resonates in the memories of Cleveland residents, who have grown up with the murder and its aftermath.

"I was always aware of the case," said James Neff, investigation editor for the Seattle Times and author of "the Wrong Man," an examination of the Sheppard case. "I found the further I got from Cleveland, people saw something was wrong."

Neff spent over 10 years researching the case. "It convinced me very clearly Dr. Sam is innocent," said Neff.

The media vested such an interest in the case because of the circumstances of the murder and the fact both the accused killer and victim were both young and attractive, according to Neff.

"The media stories infected the jury pool," said Neff. The Supreme Court ruling was mostly about judicial conduct, added Neff.

The case became the focus of the local media, including the Cleveland Press which published editorials aggressively attacking the investigation as too lax.

Editorials like "Somebody is getting away with murder," "Why no inquest? Do it now Dr. Gerber" and "Quit stalling and bring him in" were authored by late editor Louis B. Seltzer, of the now defunct Cleveland Press.

"Sheppard was tried and found guilty before the trial in the media," said Gilbert. "The circus atmosphere clearly deprived him of a fair trial."

Just as New England was riveted to the Smart case starting in 1991, Cleveland's obsession with the Sheppard case has been ongoing since 1954.

Oct. 18, 1954 the trial was set to begin when Judge Edward Blythin requested to see famed crime reporter Dorothy Kilgallen. Kilgallen went to the judge's chambers and began talking about her presence at the trial.

Blythin told her, "He's guilty as Hell. There's no doubt about it," according to Killgalen's deposition for F. Lee Bailey, Sheppard's lawyer, in 1964.Kilgallen's deposition was part of the case that brought Sheppard to the Supreme Court, although she died before the ruling. The Supreme Court ruled in 1966 that Sheppard could not have received a fair trial because of the media coverage.

"It was a judge who did not guarantee a fair trial to Dr. Sam Sheppard," said Neff.

Following the Supreme Court ruling, Sheppard was retried and found not guilty.

After the trial, Sheppard started practicing medicine again, but left practice after being sued for malpractice. He then started a short career as a professional wrestler, following the divorce from his second wife. Sheppard was found dead on April 6, 1970 at age 47.

Following his death, his son, Sam Reese Sheppard, continued fighting to have his father's name cleared in connection with the murder. Sheppard's son then called "Chip" was woken up in his pajamas and taken from the house on the morning of his mother's murder.