Dr. Sam Sheppard Wrongful Imprisonment Trial
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CLEVELAND (Court TV) — Facing a wrongful imprisonment suit from Dr. Sam Sheppard's only son, Ohio prosecutors believe they have recovered a handwritten confession to murder and want to present it at trial in January.

Sheppard's son, Sam Reese Sheppard, is suing the state of Ohio for the wrongful imprisonment of his father in the 1950s. Dr. Sheppard, whose case inspired "The Fugitive" TV series, was convicted for his wife's beating death in 1954. The doctor insisted that a bushy-haired intruder beat his wife to death and then knocked him unconscious. However, a jury still convicted Sheppard of the murder.

Upholding a lower court's ruling that Sheppard did not receive a fair trial because of pretrial publicity, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the guilty verdict in 1964 and ordered a new trial. Dr. Sheppard was acquitted in his second trial in 1966 and died four years later of liver disease.

Despite the acquittal in the retrial, Sam Reese Sheppard wants to clear his father's name entirely. A victory in the wrongful imprisonment suit would be the equivalent of a declaration of innocence — a stronger statement than the "not guilty" verdict in the Dr. Sheppard's 1966 retrial.

However, Cuyahoga prosecutors said they had what appeared to be an acknowledgment of guilt from the elder Sheppard in a handwritten note found inside a book Sheppard autographed after his acquittal. The prosecution claims it has had the book since 1995, when its owner contacted Franklin County investigators. Prosecutor William D. Mason told The Cleveland Plain Dealer that the note "appears to be a confession of sorts." Inside the paperback edition of "Endure and Conquer," a book Sheppard wrote about his case, there is a page that poses the question: "Did Sam do it?" Under the question, the word "Yes!" is handwritten, and on the other side of the page, Sheppard allegedly signed, "To Phyllis — Our best Wishes! Dr. Sam."

Prosecutors believe Sheppard signed the book in 1969 during the opening of a beauty shop where his third wife worked. Court documents say that a nationally recognized handwriting expert, Phillip Bouffard — who is also part of the Lake County Crime Lab — verified that the handwriting was Sheppard's.

However, lawyers for Sam Reese Sheppard say the note was written in ink that was not available until after Dr. Sheppard's death in 1970 — and another chemist who was hired by the prosecution agrees.

Sam Reese Sheppard's lawyers dismiss the note, saying that prosecutors cannot decisively prove that it was written by Dr. Sheppard. While prosecutor Mason says that tests confirmed that the ink was commercially available when the book was autographed, another chemist hired by the prosecution says it was not available until 1971, a year after Sheppard's death.

"This ink formulation was most similar to a standard ink formulation within our library that was manufactured by Papermate Pen Co.," the chemist said in court papers. "This standard ink formulation was commercially available in 1971."

But Assistant County Prosecutor Steve Dever said the same chemist has also said that Papermate used the ink in question in generic pens between 1966 and 1969.

Dever said he was convinced the handwritten statement was a confession from Sheppard and wanted to put it before a jury at trial. "Never, even in jest, would an innocent man write that he was responsible for the brutal killing of his wife," he said.

— Bryan Robinson