How was DNA evidence used to prove that Dr. Sam Sheppard did not murder his wife?
Why wasn't this evidence used when the case first went to court?
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:New DNA evidence taken from the exhumed body of Dr. Sam Sheppard provides the most compelling piece of evidence that he was wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife in a trial that transfixed America more than four decades ago, and suggests strongly that the killer really was a ''bushy-haired'' intruder, as Dr. Sheppard claimed, a lawyer for the Sheppard family said today.
The murder, the O.J. Simpson trial of the 1950's, entered popular culture by forming the basis for the television program ''The Fugitive'' and the movie of the same name.
Tissue samples taken from Dr. Sheppard's body, which was exhumed under a court order last fall, show ''he is excluded as a donor'' of the blood found at the murder scene, Terry Gilbert, the lawyer, who represents Dr. Sheppard's son, Sam Reese Sheppard, said today.
That conclusion, and earlier DNA testing of the blood completed in February 1997 that showed the blood wasn't from Dr. Sheppard's wife, Marilyn Sheppard, leaves the bushy-haired intruder, whom the doctor contends he struggled with on the night of the murder, as the only source, Mr. Gilbert said.
Answer:
New DNA evidence taken from the exhumed body of Dr. Sam Sheppard provides the most compelling piece of evidence that he was wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife in a trial that transfixed America more than four decades ago, and suggests strongly that the killer really was a ''bushy-haired'' intruder, as Dr. Sheppard claimed, a lawyer for the Sheppard family said today.
The murder, the O.J. Simpson trial of the 1950's, entered popular culture by forming the basis for the television program ''The Fugitive'' and the movie of the same name.
Tissue samples taken from Dr. Sheppard's body, which was exhumed under a court order last fall, show ''he is excluded as a donor'' of the blood found at the murder scene, Terry Gilbert, the lawyer, who represents Dr. Sheppard's son, Sam Reese Sheppard, said today.
That conclusion, and earlier DNA testing of the blood completed in February 1997 that showed the blood wasn't from Dr. Sheppard's wife, Marilyn Sheppard, leaves the bushy-haired intruder, whom the doctor contends he struggled with on the night of the murder, as the only source, Mr. Gilbert said.
And that 1997 testing strongly suggested that the intruder was Richard Eberling, a former window washer at the Sheppards' lakeside house who first came under suspicion in 1959, when a ring belonging to Mrs. Sheppard was found in his home. Mr. Eberling is in prison for the 1984 murder of an elderly widow.
The blood evidence includes specks from a trail of blood leading from the bedroom where Mrs. Sheppard was assaulted and killed in July 1954, and a smear found on Dr. Sheppard's pants.
In the trial, prosecutors argued that the blood came from a knife that Dr. Sheppard had used to kill his wife, even though no knife was found.