Sam Reese Sheppard was just 7 when his mother was murdered, and it seems impossible to overstate the effect the crime and its aftermath have had on his life. The 52-year-old struggled for years to come to grips with his mother's death and his father's imprisonment, and in the past decade, he has dedicated his life to solving the murder and on a broader level, to reforming the criminal justice system.

He is not without his critics. Especially in Cleveland, where many remain convinced of his father's guilt, Sheppard is regarded as either an opportunist or an eccentric or both.

Sheppard, known as Chip or Sam Jr. as a boy, was the only child of Dr. Sam and Marilyn Sheppard. He recalls an idyllic childhood with his parents and dog Kokie in the family's white frame home on Lake Erie.

That all changed July 4, 1954 when family friends awakened Sheppard and spirited him, still clad in pajamas, away from the home. He later found out that he had slept though his mother's brutal murder in the next bedroom.

His father and his extended family tried to shield him from the oppressive press attention, even keeping him away from his mother's funeral. Within a year, his father had been convicted of the crime and incarcerated. For the next ten years, he was raised by his aunt and uncle and saw his father during brief visits to the Columbus prison. The loss of his parents was compounded by his grandmother's suicide and grandfather's subsequent death.

Sheppard was 17 when the Supreme Court overturned his father's conviction. Two years later, at a new trial, the elder Sheppard was acquitted. It was difficult for father and son to resume their once close relationship, however. Dr. Sheppard died of alcoholism just four years after his acquittal and once again, his son stayed away from the funeral to avoid publicity.

Sam Reese Sheppard carved out his own life, first in Boston, where his father's attorney F. Lee Bailey helped him get into Boston University, and then Maine and ultimately California. He never graduated from college, instead becoming a part-time dental hygienist. He now lives in a shabby residential hotel in Oakland, California.

In a profile by Cleveland Scene magazine, Sheppard said he first realized he had "emotional problems" stemming from his mother's death in the early 1970s when his girlfriend of five years suggested they start a family.

"I knew I still had emotional problems, and until I worked that stuff out, I just couldn't risk raising kids," said Sheppard, who ended the relationship.

On the 20th anniversary of his mother's death, Sheppard suffered a nervous breakdown, even slitting his wrists. He entered therapy, where he says he was diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and then became a Buddhist.

Throughout these ups and downs, he scorned the media spotlight. That changed, however, in the late 1980s when, Sheppard said, a resurgence in executions pushed him to take his story public. He saw a link between the condemned men and his father, and felt compelled to stand up to what he believed was injustice. In 1989, he spoke out publicly on the murder for the first time.

In this new public career, which lead to a book deal, protest marches and the current lawsuit, Sam Reese Sheppard is often criticized as strange and greedy. Totally bald and often dressed in all-black almost monastic clothes, he cuts an odd figure in Cleveland. There, people also question his motives, alleging that he is trying to make a buck off of his mother's horrible death. Sam Reese, many say, should just get on with his life.

For his part, Sheppard maintains he is not out for money. He says he needs to solve his mother's murder and show the world how his father suffered injustice at the state's hands.

"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 said.