Randy Steidl
Randy Steidl came from a small farming community in southern Illinois. He had always worked, from the age of 12. He worked hard and played hard, and at the age of 35 had a couple of misdemeanors for bar fights but had never been in serious trouble with the law. When he and a friend were questioned about the 1986 murders of newlyweds Dyke and Karen Rhoads he dismissed it as an attempt by police to question a number of people in the area. Randy did not know either of the victims but cooperated fully with the police and provided a corroborated alibi for the night of the murders. To his surprise, he and his friend were later arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death within 90 days.
Randy had poor representation, no DNA evidence against him, and witnesses fabricated testimony against him due to misconduct by local police and prosecutors. He spent 12 years on death row trying to prove his innocence. When the Center for Wrongful Convictions in Chicago became involved in his case, it was able to get a new sentencing hearing granted in 1999, resulting in a sentence of life without parole. The Center for Wrongful Convictions continued the fight for his freedom for almost five more years.
In 2000, an Illinois State Police investigation of four years proved that local police and prosecutors had framed Randy and co-defendant Herbert Whitlock, resulting in their wrongful convictions. The real person responsible for the murder was Karen Rhoads’ employer, a man who made major campaign contributions to the governor’s office, making this case “too politically sensitive” so that the governor ordered the investigation against him be ceased. In 2003, federal judge Michael McCuskey overturned Randy’s conviction and ordered a new trial, stating that if all the evidence that should have been investigated had been presented at trial it was “reasonably probable” that Randy would have been acquitted by the jury. The state reinvestigated the case, tested DNA evidence, and found no link to Randy. State Attorney General Lisa Madigan decided not to appeal the ruling and Edgar County prosecutors decided not to retry the case.
On May 28, 2004, after a total of 17 years, three months and three weeks of wrongful imprisonment, Randy left prison. He was escorted by his wife of nine months, Patty; his mother, Bobbie and his brother, Rory, an Illinois state policeman of 25 years. “I'm laying this cross down today,” Randy said after leaving Danville Correction Center. “I'm not carrying it any more.” His faith in God and the constant support of his family enabled him to be strong and, as he says, “not to let the system turn me into what they think I am or wanted me to be while I was in prison.”
Randy became the 18th person to be freed because of a wrongful conviction after serving time on the state’s death row since Illinois reinstated the death penalty in 1977. He has been adjusting to his new life and working in the manufacturing business. He seeks to become more active in the movement against the death penalty as he believes that “one innocent life lost by execution is not worth 10 guilty persons being executed.”