June 30 OHIO: AFTER 50 YEARS -- Questions remain as to whether justice was served in Sheppard murder case 50 years ago this Sunday, a pregnant Mar ilyn Sheppard was sadistically beaten to death as she slept in the Bay Village home she shared with her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard. Sam Sheppard, a respected surgeon from a family of doctors, told police he heard the faint cries of his wife while he slept on a daybed downstairs. Upstairs, down the hall from his mother, slept 7-year-old Sam Reese Sheppard. Sheppard said he ran up to the bedroom, heard the sounds of someone downstairs and chased an intruder to the beach, where they fought. After lying unconscious for some time at the edge of the water, he later discovered his wife's body and called for help. But the police and Cuyahoga County Coroner Sam Gerber before conducting any real investigation dismissed Sheppard's account as unworthy of belief. Encouraged by a frenzied local and national media spearheaded by powerful Cleveland Press editor Louis Seltzer prosecutors focused solely on Sam Sheppard as the suspect. Without much apparent evidence other than the fact that Sheppard was home at the time, had a reputation for womanizing and the police didn't believe his account of the encounter with an intruder, Sheppard was rushed to court within 3 months in a trial called by appeals courts a "mockery of justice," a "Roman holiday" infused with a carnival atmosphere. Before the trial started, the judge told celebrity reporter Dorothy Kilgallen that Sheppard is "guilty as hell." Indeed, Sheppard was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. But the U.S. Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling, determined that the trial and surrounding press coverage so tainted the jury that Sheppard's right to a fair trial was violated. He was retried and acquitted 12 years later in a more respectable atmosphere, where a judge insisted on a "fair trial." The toll on Sheppard and his family was devastating. His mother committed suicide after the 1st verdict, and his father died from the stress shortly thereafter. Sheppard died at age 46, a result of prison, alcohol abuse and depression. The Sheppards' only son, Sam Reese Sheppard, still lives with the emotional pain and trauma from that horrible day. Yet, ironically, many policemen, prosecutors and judges made names for themselves by putting Sheppard behind bars and went on to successful careers. For a half-century, no case has generated as much chronic worldwide attention. The numerous books, television documentaries and, of course, the connection to the long-running television series "The Fugitive," have permanently established the case as a cultural phenomenon. The interest hangs on not because this murder was any more brutal or devastating to the victims and survivors than the many murders that happen daily, but because of the lingering mystery of what really happened that fateful morning, and whether truth and, ultimately, justice were served. And there is where I come into this story. Growing up in Cleveland, I always wondered about this case. On our family trips to Cedar Point, my mother would point out the house where the infamous crime took place. I remember her saying, "This is where a doctor killed his wife." In 1989, I met Sam Reese Sheppard at a prison reform conference at Cleveland State University and was moved to offer my help in reinvestigating this case from a new perspective, long removed from the generation that had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Because there had been a revolution in investigative techniques since 1954, we suspected that much evidence had never been properly analyzed or considered. We were also curious about the window washer, Richard Eberling, a creepy character who later claimed he had cut himself and bled in the Sheppard home around the time of the murder, had a stolen ring belonging to Marilyn Sheppard and had just been convicted of the murder of an elderly Lakewood woman, Ethel Mae Durkin. During the next 10 years, we succeeded in forcing open the coroner's vault of evidence, which produced a trove of physical evidence, including blood and semen stains, hairs, and clothing. We interviewed witnesses, found police records never disclosed, reconstructed the crime scene, exhumed the doctor's body, and enlisted some of the country's most noted forensic scientists to study DNA, and even the psychological profile of the killer. With this new technology, we could show that another individual's blood was in various locations of the crime scene, and even on Sheppard's clothing. Although it is impossible for this article to report all of the findings, we believed we cracked open the case, demonstrating it was impossible for Sheppard to have murdered his wife and that Richard Eberling was the likely killer. Yet, no matter how successful we were in exposing the shortcomings and biases of the original investigation, we were met by a wall of opposition, often nasty, from a new generation of politicians and prosecutors who felt we were out to disparage the reputations of their predecessors. While there were some in the "system" who wanted to join our efforts to discover the truth, in the end, it was the same old story: the reluctance of government to admit a mistake. In 2000, we fell short of an almost impossible task: to prove Sam Sheppard's innocence in a court of law 46 years after the murder. The prosecutors, now defenders, spared no resources to win that civil trial. They resurrected the character assassination of Sheppard, even floating the old story of his affair. The woman, now in her 70s, said the affair had ended in California 6 months before the murder and that Sheppard had told her he loved his wife and would never leave her. They attacked Sam Reese Sheppard, preposterously arguing that his search to clear his father 's name was all about money and publicity. Fortunately, an abundance of scientific reports and transcripts are now available to historians and scholars to judge this case on the actual evidence without the hidden agendas. Now, a half-century later, if there is a lesson in the Sheppard case, it is this: The criminal justice system in this country, though noble in its principles of fairness, is still subject to deep flaws. As the prison population surpasses the 2 million mark, and hundreds if not thousands of innocent people have been released because of errors, we need to remember the victims of injustices that occur with too much regularity. And we must never blindly follow public officials, elected leaders, or even coroners, assuming they are trustworthy or work in the interest of fairness. When the verdict in the Sheppard civil trial was announced, I felt as if a brick slammed into my chest, knowing from the deepest recesses of my soul that Dr. Sheppard was innocent. Yet I can only imagine the feelings of a real victim the Sheppards' son whose life was forever changed by the murder of his young mother and unborn brother, his father's wrongful incarceration and the litany of mistakes, vendettas and indifference to truth that persists in the year 2004, just as it did in 1954. (source: Terry Gilbert, a Cleveland attorney, represented the Sheppard family in the 2000 civil trial; Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 29) CALIFORNIA: Peterson Once Described Plan for Murder -Detective A college friend of Scott Peterson told police that the Modesto fertilizer salesman once said he could get away with murder by dumping a body into the ocean, a detective testified on Tuesday in Peterson's murder trial. Peterson's plan for disposing of a murder victim, as described by Modesto Police Det. Allen Brocchini, was strikingly similar to how his murdered wife was dropped into San Francisco Bay, weighed down by cement anchors. The testimony could deliver a blow to Peterson's defense and stands as one of the 1st major courtroom surprises in a case that has been exhaustively covered by the U.S. media. "Scott said he would tie a bag around the neck with duct tape ... and drop the body with weights into the ocean," Brocchini said. "The fish activity would eat away at the neck and hands. The body would float up with no fingers and no teeth, so there would be no means of identification." Laci Peterson, who was nearly nine months pregnant, vanished from her home in the agricultural city of Modesto, California, on Christmas Eve of 2002, and was reported missing by her husband that afternoon. Peterson, who told police he had been fishing on San Francisco Bay when his wife disappeared, joined police and scores of volunteers in an intensive manhunt before he emerged as the prime suspect. The 31-year-old salesman was arrested and charged with 2 murders shortly after the bodies of Laci and her unborn son, Conner, washed out of the bay in April of 2003, and could face the death penalty if convicted. Though the testimony could prove damaging to the defense, Brocchini said he was offering it only to show that police did not seize on evidence against Peterson while ignoring leads that could point to other suspects. Peterson's attorney, Mark Geragos, has attacked Brocchini's credibility as a witness, saying that the detective did not put enough police work into investigating some leads. Brocchini also testified that, in the days surrounding Laci's disappearance, Peterson repeatedly called his mistress, Amber Frey, and told her falsely that he was on vacation with his family. He said Peterson even gave Frey a European phone number to call which would roll over to Peterson's cell phone. Peterson called Frey one day from California "to say he was going to Kennebunkport in Maine to spend Christmas with his parents," Brocchini testified. "He was actually at the police station that day." (source: Reuters) ************************ THE PETERSON TRIAL -- Defense portrays police work as lax; Detective accused of not probing potential suspect Less than a month after Laci Peterson disappeared, a woman with a history of mental illness broke into the Petersons' home, drank their Jack Daniels, lay down on the couple's bed, opened two of their Christmas presents and made off with a video camera and several articles of clothing -- including a pair of Scott Peterson's underwear, according to testimony in the double-murder trial. After the break-in, Modesto police Detective Al Brocchini told Scott Peterson that the woman, who lived in the Petersons' neighborhood, had become infatuated with him while volunteering to help in the search of his missing wife. On Monday, defense attorney Mark Geragos attempted to paint her as a viable suspect in the case, one whom Brocchini and other police working the case had failed to properly investigate in their rush to judge and arrest his client. Scott Peterson, 31, is standing trial in Redwood City on charges that he murdered his wife and couple's unborn child in the days before Christmas 2002. Geragos is trying to prove that authorities, under pressure because of intense publicity surrounding the case, ignored multiple leads and various suspicious people, including the neighbor, Kim McGregor. Geragos spent several hours quizzing Brocchini about the odd break-in that occurred while Scott Peterson was out of town. An alert neighbor called police at 1:53 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2003, to report a woman had broken into the Petersons' house and was leaving with a bundle of goods, which she loaded into a white Honda. Police later learned the woman was McGregor, a neighbor who became a die- hard volunteer after Laci Peterson vanished -- bringing coffee to searchers, working at the command post and helping to take care of the couple's dog when Scott Peterson was not home. When Brocchini interviewed McGregor, she told him she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and hadn't been taking medication to help control the disease when she broke into the house. McGregor admitted that she had become fascinated by the case and was charmed by Scott Peterson. The detective said that she had told him that she had used a mug to break a window in a French door of the house and once inside had made herself at home, mixing herself a Jack Daniels and Coke, opening a couple of Christmas gifts around the tree and lying down on the couple's bed. Then, she helped herself to several articles of clothing -- including jackets and a pair of Scott Peterson's underwear. McGregor took Brocchini to a garbage can where she said she had thrown the jackets. Police returned them to Scott Peterson, and Brocchini warned the fertilizer salesman that McGregor seemed to be infatuated with him. Peterson, according to Brocchini, responded sarcastically by saying, "Great," but was not interested in pressing charges. What McGregor didn't tell police during that 1st interview is that she also had stolen the couple's camcorder and Laci Peterson's Social Security number, Brocchini said. She admitted taking those items later, when the detective threatened to arrest her if she didn't cooperate, he said. Brocchini testified that he also had questioned McGregor about her whereabouts on Dec. 24, 2002, the day Scott Peterson said his wife disappeared while he was on a daylong fishing trip at the Berkeley Marina. Brocchini said McGregor had told him she had gone to the mall that day, where she ran into a cousin, and later had gone to the house of an old boyfriend. Brocchini said he had later determined that McGregor actually had done those things Dec. 23 and not Dec. 24. Geragos suggested that McGregor's ex-boyfriend and his two roommates, both of whom were Hawaiian, also were viable suspects in the disappearance of Laci Peterson, but not properly probed by police. Early in their investigation, police had sought the public's help in locating three dark-skinned men said to be small in stature and seen driving a van. The men were wanted in connection with a break-in of a house across the street from the Petersons' home that occurred sometime between Dec. 24 and Dec. 26, 2002. Modesto police eventually tracked down the suspects in that case, and the link to Laci Peterson's disappearance was dropped. But in his cross-examination of Brocchini, Geragos got the detective to admit that although he had interviewed McGregor's ex-boyfriend over the phone, he had never seen him in person; nor had he talked to or seen his roommates or knew what they looked like. Brocchini said he had also never asked the ex- boyfriend about driving a van. Geragos also questioned Brocchini's handling of a subsequent alibi offered by McGregor -- that she had met a man in a bar on Dec. 23. At her request, the man she met called Brocchini to verify her account, but Brocchini admitted he had never double-checked to see if the caller were in fact who he said he was. "I believed him," said Brocchini of the man who called him. Nonetheless, the detective said he was satisfied with the police investigation of McGregor. "She's been investigated, and I don't think she's involved," he told Geragos. DAY 16 -- Lies told to Amber Frey Modesto police Detective Al Brocchini said Amber Frey had told investigators that Scott Peterson wasn't the only man she had met who told her his wife had died recently. Frey said that two weeks before Laci Peterson disappeared, Scott Peterson had gotten teary-eyed after telling her he had recently lost his wife. Frey told Brocchini that another man she had met in a bar earlier had told her a similar story. She reported being shocked when she later ran into that man's wife, who was alive and well. Laci Peterson intended to resume walks? Laci Peterson was so concerned about the weight she had gained from her pregnancy that she planned to begin walking again in early December 2002, according to a friend Kristen Reed, who attended Lamaze classes with her, Brocchini testified Monday. That information contradicts testimony given by others who said the 8-months-pregnant woman had stopped walking her dog because of her condition. What's next? Geragos' cross-examination of Brocchini is expected to resume Tuesday morning. Brocchini, one of the lead investigators in the case, has been on the stand for 4 days. (source: San Francisco Chronicle) ************************ Peterson prosecution boosted by detective testimony It would seem the kind of lead investigators building a murder case against Scott Peterson would doggedly pursue: A caller claiming the former fertilizer salesman once talked about how he would dispose of a body by weighing it down and dumping it in the ocean. But the tip, which came the day after Peterson's arrest, was swiftly deemed not credible, detective Allen Brocchini testified Tuesday. It was part of prosecutor Rick Distaso's attempt to show that as police fielded thousands of tips following the disappearance of Peterson's wife, Laci, they didn't just accept any information that pointed to her husband as the killer -- contrary to what defense lawyer Mark Geragos maintained during his cross-examination. Brocchini, who wrapped up 5 days of testimony Tuesday, told Distaso the man, claiming to be a college friend of Peterson's, said the two had a conversation in 1995 "where Peterson told him how he would get rid of a body." "He said he would tie a bag around the neck with duct tape," weigh the body down and dump it into the ocean and "fish activity would eat away the neck and hands and the body would float up, no fingers, no teeth," making it impossible to identify, Brocchini said. Distaso then left it to Geragos to ask what the detective did with the tip. "I just didn't put a lot of stock in it," Brocchini testified -- the man's account wasn't credible, his timing was suspicious and his story couldn't be confirmed by anyone else. The revelation countered Geragos' argument that the police were out to get Peterson, some legal observers said. "If they wanted to frame Scott Peterson, this guy would have been the prosecution's star witness," said Dean Johnson, a former San Mateo County prosecutor who's watching the trial. "It's the best day the prosecution has had. It restored credibility to Brocchini." Distaso also asked Brocchini about the thousands of tips pouring in the days after Laci Peterson vanished to show police were attentive to all "credible" leads. "Is it fair to say there were tips coming in that people saw Laci Peterson all over the world?" Distaso asked. "Yes," Brocchini said, adding police did not follow every lead because "sometimes you could tell by the tip it was a crackpot." Earlier, Geragos exposed what appeared to be sloppy police work by Brocchini, including the omission of a key witness statement that might have helped clear Peterson. Prosecutors allege Peterson, 31, murdered his pregnant wife, Laci, on or around December 24, 2002, then weighted her body down with concrete anchors and dumped her in San Francisco Bay. Scott Peterson was arrested four months after she vanished, when the partial remains of Laci Peterson and her fetus washed ashore 2 miles from where he said he was fishing. He was charged with murder and could face the death penalty if convicted. Defense lawyers say someone else abducted Laci Peterson near their Modesto home as she walked the dog, and held her captive before killing her and dumping her body after hearing Peterson's fishing alibi to frame him. In re-questioning Brocchini, Geragos again accused the government of ignoring leads that didn't point to Peterson. He asked Brocchini about a Peterson neighbor whom prosecutors planned to call, then later removed from the witness list. The woman claimed Laci told her she had started walking the couple's dog after Thanksgiving because she had begun putting on too much weight. Prosecutors claim Laci stopped walking the dog weeks before her disappearance because of dizzy spells, but the defense asserts she may have been abducted while walking the dog in a nearby park. "Were you aware that [the woman] was here and when they heard of what she was going to testify to they excused her?" Geragos asked. The judge allowed the question over Distaso's objection, but Brocchini was unable to answer. The next witness to take the stand was state criminalist Ronald Welsh, who testified that he found no blood on a pistol seized from Peterson and that it had not been recently fired. (source: Associated Press) ******************************* SAN MATEO COUNTY -- New try to give killer his wish to die; Retrial of man, 26, whose plea divided the 1st jury, 9-3 San Mateo County prosecutors will try again to convince a jury that a killer and bank robber who has asked to receive the death penalty should have his wish granted. Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe on Monday asked a Superior Court judge to schedule a new sentencing trial for 26-year-old Seti Scanlan. Scanlan has pleaded guilty to the October 2002 murder of Alice Martel, 34, a bank manager and mother of two who was shot to death while Scanlan and several accomplices were robbing her Wells Fargo branch in Burlingame. Scanlan has also admitted to committing several other crimes around the Bay Area that summer and fall. Scanlan's plea made him eligible for the death penalty and he has repeatedly said that's what he wants. He fought in vain to represent himself and short-circuit the trial process, and told jurors when he took the stand in May that he wouldn't "feel like a man" if he were sentenced to life in prison without parole. Nevertheless, the jury split 9-3 earlier this month in favor of giving Scanlan the death penalty. Judge Robert Foiles declared a mistrial, leaving prosecutors to decide if they would seek another trial or allow Scanlan to be sentenced by default to life without parole. After speaking with Martel's husband, other victims of Scanlan's crimes and defense attorneys, prosecutors decided to try again, Wagstaffe said. Foiles ordered the parties to return Sept. 7 to begin picking a new jury. "We certainly believed from the start that this crime spree of murder and attempted murder deserved death," Wagstaffe said. "Nothing came out in trial that convinced us there's a change there." Scanlan, who appeared in court wearing a large white crucifix outside his red prisoner jumpsuit, did not visibly react to Wagstaffe's decision. Scanlan's mother and sister also appeared in court, but declined to comment afterward. They did speak briefly with David Martel, the victim's widower, who later described it as a polite conversation in which Scanlan's mother asked about his children's well-being. Martel said he supported the retrial, saying he and everybody he cares about were "outraged and insulted at the outcome of the last trial." "This whole thing is about finding a jury with a backbone, that can see moral clarity," he said. "(The last jury) saw reasons as excuses and gave him an out. I wanted to throw up." Martel conceded he is not looking forward to the emotional drain of another trial. He testified in the 1st penalty phase and sat through most proceedings, saying he wanted jurors to see him representing his wife. He said he would like to see the case resolved instead, this time, by a court trial, in which Foiles would impose a sentence without a jury and without additional evidence being presented. Wagstaffe said in court that prosecutors have offered to proceed with such a court trial, which Scanlan has suggested in the past he would prefer. Scanlan's attorneys did not immediately respond to the offer. Scanlan also has not determined whether he will once again seek to defend himself, said Cliff Cretan, one of his attorneys. "We've been trying to convince him that this is the kind of decision a jury should make, so you get a full range of opinions the way we did last time, " Cretan said. "(And) I think cases like this should be represented by experienced attorneys on both sides." (source: San Francisco Chronicle) INDIANA: Foes of death penalty bask in clemency bid The clemency recommendation for condemned state prisoner Darnell Williams energized death penalty opponents, who said the historic decision marked a turning point in the debate over capital punishment. For the 1st time under Indiana's current death penalty law, the Indiana Parole Board voted Tuesday to recommend clemency in a death row case and for commuting the sentence to life in prison without parole. The board's decision, however, is not binding on Gov. Joe Kernan, who is not expected to receive documents in the case from the parole board until later this week. Williams is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection July 9. The board voted unanimously to recommend that Kernan grant clemency. "I think it will galvanize people here in Indiana to work harder to abolish the death penalty," said Karen Burkhart, who coordinates Amnesty International's efforts to abolish Indiana's death penalty. "The anti-death penalty movement has gained other victories over the years," Burkhart said, pointing to laws over the past decade barring the state from executing someone who is mentally retarded and raising the minimum age of a defendant in a capital case to 18. "I think its possible that there's a change in attitude here in Indiana," she said. The current Indiana death penalty became law in 1976, a year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the states old law as unconstitutional. Since then, the parole board had voted overwhelmingly against clemency in every case before it. Until Tuesday, just 1 parole-board member ever had voted to recommend clemency, in the case of Gary Burris before his 1997 execution. One abstained in Tommie Smith's case a year earlier. "When you win a big ballgame, it does get you excited, and it gets you over a hump," said Charles Kafoure, president of the Indiana Information Center on the Abolition of Capital Punishment. Greg Garrison, a former prosecutor who hosts a conservative radio talk show on Network Indiana, dismissed such optimism on the part of death-penalty opponents. "They see everything as a crack in the sidewalk, and it's not one," he said. Garrison noted the prosecutor who tried Williams and several jurors who had convicted him spoke out in favor of clemency. "I don't think it's much precedent. Obviously, theres a whole ton of folks that thought something went wrong with that case," said Garrison, who won the Marion County rape conviction against boxer Mike Tyson. Religious denominations including the Indiana Catholic Conference have lobbied the Legislature for years against capital punishment. "I'm delighted, and relieved," Gary Bishop Dale Melczek said of the clemency recommendation in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. His diocese includes Lake County, where Williams was tried, and the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where the state performs executions. "I certainly pray that the governor is guided by the careful study and wisdom that came out of the clemency hearing," Melczek said. (source: Associated Press)
