Sam Reese Sheppard told jurors his father died with a broken heart after being wrongly accused of his mother's murder.(Court TV)

				Dr. Sam Sheppard Wrongful Imprisonment Trial
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CLEVELAND (Court TV) —Sam Sheppard's son took the stand Tuesday to proclaim his father's innocence in the 1954 beating death of his mother and explain why he has dedicated his life to clearing his father's name.

"It's an unsolved murder case," Sam Reese Sheppard, 52, told jurors in the wrongful imprisonment suit brought against the state of Ohio by the Sheppard estate.

"My father's life was destroyed by the state of Ohio. Any son that would sweep that under the rug is not worth their salt as far as I'm concerned," Sheppard testified.

In July 5, 1954 as a 7-year-old, Sheppard slept through the brutal murder of his mother in the family's suburban Cleveland home. His father was convicted of the murder later that year. In 1966, however, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that verdict and Sheppard was acquitted at a new trial. He died in 1970.

His son told the jury Tuesday that before that fateful July day, his family life was idyllic. He said the last time he had seen his mother alive was when she had tucked him into bed and heard his prayers.

The next morning, he told the jury, he awakened to find two family friends beside his bed, both visibly upset.

"They told me something terrible had happened, that I needed to get out of bed quickly, that there was not enough time for me to change out of my pajamas," he testified.

The Sheppard estate is suing the state of Ohio to obtain a declaration of innocence, a higher standard than the not guilty finding of the 1966 jury. With an innocence decree, the estate could collect millions from the state of Ohio as recompense for the decade Sheppard spent in prison.

The younger Sheppard described for the jury how the imprisonment and notoriety from the case had affected his father's life after acquittal. Sheppard tried unsuccessfully to resume his medical career, but finding his livelihood "pretty much stripped from him" he turned to professional wrestling, his son testified.

Sam Reese Sheppard said his father "ironically" wrestled under the name "Killer Sheppard" as "a gesture of ultimate despair that his heart was broken."

On cross examination, Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Steve Dever suggested that the younger Sheppard was pressing the suit to make money, a charge Sheppard has often denied.

"Isn't a fact Mr. Sheppard that you were being pressured by your agent and collaborator Cynthia Cooper to go to the prosecuting attorney to reopen the investigation of your mother's death in order for your agent and your co-author to find a suitable publisher for the book?" Dever asked.

"I would describe this as being advice by business people," replied Sheppard.