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Samuel Sheppard was accused of bludgeoning his pregnant wife to death in the bedroom of their Cleveland home. He told his wife, Marilyn, that he was tired, so he dozed off, and was woken up by what sounded like his wife screaming. Rushing up to the bedroom, he saw a figure over his wife’s body. He was said to have chased the figure, wrestled with it, but was eventually knocked out.
Sheppard contributed that he was unconscious on their basement floor, with teeth missing and bruises on his body, as well as other injuries (that doctors say he couldn’t have given himself.) Sheppard didn’t feel as though the trial warden took proper precaution against publicity.
Key arguements each side brought to court.
The question taken to court was the same: What threshold must be crossed before a trial is said to be so prejudicial, due to context and publicity, as to interfere with a defendant's Fifth Amendment due process right and Sixth Amendment to a fair trial?
Amendments at stake
First Amendment
1st amendment - freedom of press and speech - If media is allowed in courts. It was questioned if media is allowed in courts, since it allows for swaying of the jury.
Sixth Amendment
Because media was allowed free reign in the court, it was questioned if this was impeding on the 6th Amendment rights - right to a fair trial, and right to a trial with an impartial jury.
The court decided that, due to all the media coverage in the court, Sheppard was not given a fair trial. The physical arrangement of the court room allowed for swaying, and put the media coverage first, instead of justice, instead of proving the accused innocent or guilty. The Court concluded that the courtroom judge should have postponed the trial or went to a different courtroom.
To restrict media for his retrial, and to allow little to no media in any sort of court to sway the jury. The lessening of media will make for a fairer trial.
Sheppard was allowed a retrial. In that retrial, a dentist spoke for him saying that there was no way he could have broken four of his own teeth, and a doctor stated that, “Sheppard for a broken neck that could not have been self-inflicted” (mtsu.edu). In his retrial, he was found innocent, where he was released from prison.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/384/333
https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/334/sheppard-v-maxwell
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1965/490
https://www.thefire.org/first-amendment-library/decision/sheppard-v-maxwell-warden/
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/384/333