Word: sheppards
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...find four raiders toting shotguns and aiming flashlights in his face. His six children got the same treatment. Schoolteacher Lucinda Wallace was showing slides to a Bible class at home when six armed men burst in, while eight others barred her hysterical mother from the house. When Mrs. Maggie Sheppard, 72, refused to answer the raiders she was arrested, along with her mentally ill grandson, and grilled for two hours for the non-crime of "Investigation, suspected of Assault and Shooting...
Kisses & Votes. Speaking for the Supreme Court, Justice Tom Clark gave no opinion as to Sheppard's guilt or innocence. Clark focused entirely on the "editorial artillery" that began accusing police and "hired lawyers" of covering up the doctor's alleged guilt immediately after the 1954 crime. The salvos came from all three Cleveland papers -the Press, the Plain Dealer and the News (since bought by the Press). One front-page editorial in the Press actually urged that Sheppard "instantly" receive "the same third degree to which any person under similar circumstances is subjected...
...direct result, said Clark, the coroner staged a three-day inquest in a school gymnasium where police searched Sheppard "in full view of several hundred spectators." His lawyer was forcibly ejected by the coroner, "who received cheers, hugs and kisses from ladies in the audience," then publicly questioned the uncounseled Sheppard for 5½ hours about his sex life in and out of marriage. Impatient that Sheppard was still not indicted, the Press blared: WHY ISN'T SAM SHEPPARD IN JAIL? QUIT STALLING, BRING...
Pruning Prejudice. As Justice Clark saw it, Judge Blythin could easily have avoided the Sheppard trial's "carnival atmosphere" by sharply limiting the number of newsmen who crammed the courthouse and even freely handled trial exhibits. Most important, said Clark, Blythin "might well have proscribed extrajudicial statements by any lawyer, party, witness or court official"-thus cutting off prejudicial publicity at its main source and forcing newsmen to report the trial only "as it unfolded in the courtroom...
Such curbs on court officers rather than newsmen are increasing across the country. In addition, the Sheppard decision is bound to make judges more receptive to pretrial postponements, changes of venue and new trials to avoid prejudice. "Given the presence of modern communications," warned Justice Clark, "the trial courts must take strong measures to ensure that the balance is never weighed against the accused...