Editing Sam Sheppard (section)

=== Retrial ===
Jury selection began October 24, 1966, and opening statements began eight days later. Media interest in the trial remained high, but this jury was [[Jury sequestration|sequestered]]. The prosecutor presented essentially the same case as was presented twelve years earlier. Bailey aggressively sought to discredit each prosecution witness during cross-examination. When Coroner Samuel Gerber testified about a murder weapon that he described as a "surgical weapon", Bailey led Gerber to admit that they never found a murder weapon<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=http://www.famous-trials.com/sam-sheppard/2-sheppard |title=Dr. Sam Sheppard Trials: An Account |last=Linder |first=Professor Douglas O. |date=2017 |website=Famous Trials – UKMC School of Law |language=en-GB |access-date=December 16, 2017}}</ref> and had nothing to tie Sheppard to the murder. In his closing argument, Bailey scathingly dismissed the prosecution's case against Sheppard as "ten pounds of hogwash in a five-pound bag".

Unlike the original trial, neither Sheppard nor Susan Hayes took the stand, a strategy that proved to be successful.<ref name=":0" /> After deliberating for 12 hours, the jury returned on November 16 with a "not guilty" verdict. The trial was important to Bailey's rise to prominence among American criminal defense lawyers. It was during this trial that [[Paul L. Kirk|Paul Kirk]] presented the putative{{efn|Recent studies cast significant doubt on the accuracy of blood spatter analysis.}} [[bloodstain pattern analysis|blood spatter evidence]] he collected in Sheppard's home in 1955. Kirk used the blood evidence to suggest that the murderer was left-handed, unlike Sheppard, which proved crucial to his acquittal.<ref name=":0" />

Three weeks after the trial, Sheppard appeared as a guest on the December 7 episode of ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]]''.<ref>{{cite news  |title=Television Program Schedule of Area |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/163117845/ |access-date=April 22, 2021 |work=The News Journal |via=Newspapers.com |date=December 7, 1966 |location=Wilmington, Delaware |page=28 |language=en}}</ref>

After his acquittal, Sheppard worked with [[ghostwriter]] Bill Levy<!-- Note: this is Cleveland-based writer William V. Levy (~1931–2020) (probably not sufficiently notable to warrant an article); not the Amsterdam-based American writer [[William Levy (author)]] (1939–2019). Do not wikilink. --><ref>{{cite web |title=Bill Levy Career |url=https://www.naturalstoneinstitute.org/about/bill-levy-career/ |website=Natural Stone Institute |access-date=April 22, 2021}}</ref> to write the book ''Endure and Conquer'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sheppard |first1=Sam |title=Endure and Conquer |date=1966 |publisher=World Publishing Company |location=Cleveland |oclc=249908 |language=English}}</ref> which presented his side of the case and discussed his years in prison. Levy felt conflicted about collaborating with Sheppard because of his belief that Sheppard had committed the crime.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Barnett |first1=David C. |title=The Enduring Fascination of the Sam Sheppard Case |url=https://www.ideastream.org/news/the-enduring-fascination-of-the-sam-sheppard-case |website=Ideastream |access-date=April 22, 2021 |language=en |date=July 4, 2014}}</ref>