6/22/04

6/22/04 Murder Charges Dismissed, Steidl Walked Away from Prison After 17 Years

Gordon (Randy) Steidl walked away from Danville Correctional Center Friday, May 28, following 17 years in prison for the wrongful conviction of murdering newlyweds Karen and Dyke Rhoads and an assortment of state and federal legal proceedings.

In March, an exhaustive new investigation of the Steidl case, including DNA testing on evidence, resulted in Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan's decision to not appeal U.S. District Court Judge Michael McCuskey's order to grant a new trial. McCuskey said in his opinion that "acquittal was reasonably probable if the jury had heard all of the evidence."

The decision by Madigan - who initially filed notice that she would appeal McCuskey's decision - paved the way for the ruling in Edgar County Circuit Court, where the case then returned. The state's attorneys appellate prosecutor - previously appointed to prosecute the case - presented the motion, moved to dismiss the case.

Years of work by numerous lawyers, including compelling arguments by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law, led to McCuskey's decision to grant a new trial and ultimately to Madigan's agreement that "information favoring the defense" had been improperly withheld from Steidl's lawyers at the 1987 trial. Professor David Protess, of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, also played a major investigative role in the case.

Steidl, who received a life sentence, and Herbert Whitlock were convicted of the murders of the Rhoads, who were stabbed dozens of times and whose home in Paris, Ill., was set afire. The two men long maintained their innocence, and the main witness against them recanted repeatedly.

Steidl, re-sentenced to a life term along the way, is the 18th man sentenced to death in Illinois to be exonerated and released. Between enactment of the death penalty law in 1978 and former Gov. George H. Ryan's blanket commutation of all death sentences in 2003, 288 men and women have been sentenced to death in Illinois. With Steidl's exoneration, the wrongful conviction rate for death row prisoners is more than six percent.

Steidl's Center on Wrongful Convictions lawyers include Lawrence Marshall, legal director and staff attorneys Karen Daniel and Jane Raley. Other Steidl lawyers include Michael Metnick, of Springfield; and Kathryn Saltmarsh, of the Illinois Appellate Defender's Office.