Judge Orders Body of Doctor Exhumed

The body of Dr. Sam Sheppard, the Cleveland area man first convicted and later acquitted in the 1954 murder of his wife, will be exhumed to obtain DNA material that the man’s son hopes will clear his name. Sam Reese Sheppard of Oakland, who was 7 when his mother was killed, has filed a lawsuit against the state asking that his father be declared innocent. The exhumation was ordered last week by the judge hearing the suit. Sheppard’s DNA will be compared to that in blood found at the murder scene, said Terry Gilbert, the younger Sheppard’s lawyer. He and his client expect the evidence to clear Sheppard, who died in 1970, and implicate another man.