I therefore believe that our system does not have a word for failed trial, and that is where the American public does not realize that our criminal justice system sometimes makes mistakes.

Terry Gilbert an attorney retained by the Sheppard family told the media that "the fetus in this case had previously been autopsied" a fact that had never previously been disclosed. Though Eberling denied any criminal involvement in the Sheppard case a fellow convict reported that Eberling confessed to the crime. The case was reviewed by the U.

The controversial murder trial drew widespread nationwide attention from the media creating what the Supreme Court later described as a "carnival atmosphere". After a ten-week trial a civil jury returned a unanimous verdict that Samuel Sheppard had failed to prove his father had been wrongfully imprisoned. In 1966 he was acquitted in a new trial.