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Dr. Samuel Sheppard Speaks Out

July 16, 1964 - Dr. Samuel Sheppard (pictured in 1954), who was released from Ohio Penitentiary this afternoon, said tonight that he would surrender to U.S. marshals and return to prison.

At a news conference in a motel where has been staying since his release, Dr. Sheppard said, “I’m going back to the lockup and behind bars.”

Yesterday, a Federal district judge in Dayton granted a writ of habeas corpus and ordered Dr. Sheppard released from Ohio Penitentiary on the ground that the 40-year-old osteopath was denied his constitutional rights in his murder trial nearly 10 years ago. Dr. Sheppard was convicted of second-degree murder in the bludgeon-slaying July 4, 1954, of his wife, Marilyn.

Today, a Court of Appeals judge in Cincinnati stayed yesterday’s order. When the staying order reaches Columbus, a marshal is expected to return Dr. Sheppard to the penitentiary.

The doctor said that his German fiancée, Ariane Tebbenjohanns, was on the way from Cleveland. He said they had planned “to fly to some other state and get married” this evening. His 17-year-old son was to have been the best man.

Dr. Sheppard’s attorney, F. Lee Bailey, said a three-judge panel would hear the Cincinnati staying order. He said he expected Dr. Sheppard to be free again by Monday or Tuesday.

He said that if Mrs. Tebbenjohanns arrived in time, they would have a brief reunion. Until the court order and the marshal arrive at the motel, Sheppard is staying in a second-floor room.

Dr. Sheppard left Ohio Penitentiary today at 1:10 p.m. and signed a $10,000 bond at the nearby Federal Building.

As this was happening, Judge Lester Cecil of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati stayed yesterday’s decision of the lower court. Judge Cecil signed the order in Dayton, and it was rushed to Cincinnati for filing in the court.

At the Federal Building, Dr. Sheppard said his stay of nearly nine years in Ohio’s prisons “was hell.”

He added: “Until Lee Bailey came along, except for my family, I had lost my faith in humanity.”

The doctor has insisted that a bushy-haired intruder inflicted the 35 wounds with a blunt instrument — never found — that killed his wife in their Bay Village home near Cleveland.


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