Illinois former convict speaks against Ind. death penalty

Gordon (Randy) Steidl was guilty until proven innocent.
 
No physical or forensic evidence existed to incriminate Steidl. But he said the testimonies of a “town drunk and a drug addict,” bribed with reward money, were enough to convince the 12-member jury that Steidl was guilty.

Steidl was sentenced to death for the murder of Dyke and Karen Rhoads.

For 17 years Steidl was incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. Twelve of those years were on death row.

Only six weeks remained until his execution date when he was exonerated.
In 2004, federal Judge Michael McCuskey overturned Steidl’s conviction because of faulty evidence and ordered a new trial.

As a free man, Steidl now works with Witness to Innocence, a group working to abolish the death penalty. And its work has not been in vain.

Because of Steidl’s testimony, the Illinois General Assembly voted to abolish the death penalty Jan. 11.

But the group is not ready to quit yet. Thirty-four states still impose the death penalty, Indiana included, and Steidl said that number is 34 too high.

On Tuesday afternoon Steidl once again took the stand in a courtroom. Only this time he was not the defendant.

Steidl spoke in the Moot Courtroom of the Maurer School of Law against the death penalty — one stop in a speaking tour to expose to the public the fatal flaws in the criminal justice system.

Steidl said he was an average man living in the average town of Paris, Ill. In 1986, the population was only 9,000. He said a double murder in a town like that was unheard of — until the Rhoads were brutally stabbed and left to burn in their house that was set ablaze.

Steidl was at his mother’s house the night of the murder, and many testified to
the fact.

But months before the murder, Steidl had approached the FBI regarding his concern about a corrupted state prosecutor that was notorious for covering up crimes to protect local drug dealers.

Steidl said that state prosecutor was out to get revenge for Steidl bringing attention to his practices. Steidl said the prosecutor found his revenge when he chose to frame Steidl for the Rhoads murder.

After three days of gossip and rumors, Steidl was approached by the police in a local bar while playing pool and drinking. He was asked to take a ride to the police station for questioning.

After two and a half hours of questioning Steidl was released, but not for long. On Feb. 19, 1987, Steidl was arrested for the double murder.

While in his cell Steidl called his little brother, an Illinois state police officer.
His brother visited him in jail and told him if he confessed to the murder, the judge would not seek the death penalty.

But Steidl was not about to confess to a murder he did not commit.

“I remember him slamming his fist down and saying, ‘They don’t arrest people who aren’t guilty,’” Steidl said.

Steidl had a couple of battery charges for barroom brawls but did not know where to look for a lawyer.

He hired a friend’s lawyer who had gotten many people out of DUI charges — a mistake that Steidl later learned could have been fatal.

During his trial, Steidl said he was feeling pretty good about his future. He had no reason to lie, and without any physical or forensic evidence, he said he believed the jury would have no reason to convict him.

But Steidl said two unstable addicts had a reason to make up a testimony putting him at the scene of the crime: reward money.

The state had advertised a $25,000 reward for anyone willing to come forward with information about the case, and Darrell Herrington and Deborah Reinbolt responded.
Six days after the trial, the jury had reached its verdict. Steidl was guilty and sentenced to death.

He said he remembers the white face of his attorney and the wail of his mother from the row behind him.

“It was like sitting on a bed of hot coal and you can’t scream out,” Steidl said. “But I thought, ‘I’m a country boy, I can handle this. You can’t sink much lower than this.’”

While in prison Steidl spent every minute of free time in the law library. He was going to find a way out.

“I still had faith in the legal system,” Steidl said. “I didn’t wanna see the trees, I didn’t wanna see the sky. I didn’t leave that library for five or six months.”

With his hard work and the help of an appeal attorney fresh out of law school, Steidl was granted another chance in court.

Reinbolt and Herrington recanted their testimonies but then recanted their recantations.

The court reached the same verdict, and Steidl was sent back to death row.

“The only story that remained the same during all that time was mine,” Steidl said.

Once again, the eyewitnesses recanted their testimonies only to retract them again.

But forensic evidence was also beginning to appear in photographs of the crime scene.
 
Steidl said while corruption in the criminal justice system prevented his case from being reopened, he found a glimmer of hope when Michale Callahan was promoted to lieutenant of the Illinois State Police.

Callahan was asked to review Steidl’s case before the execution but refused to approve it because he was suspicious of the presented evidence.

Thanks to Callahan, Steidl’s fortune finally took a change for the better and his case was reviewed once more at the federal level.

On May 28, 2004, Steidl walked out of prison as a free man.

Steidl is one of 20 who have been exonerated from death row in Illinois, and one of more than 130 nationwide.

“I want you to think for a moment about the death penalty,” Steidl said. “You can release an innocent man from prison, but you can never release him from the grave.”

IND. DEATH PENALTY FACTS

After many previous death penalties were deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, Indiana adopted a version of the death penalty on Oct. 1, 1977, that remains in effect today.

If a defendant is convicted of murder, the jury can sentence him or her to death if the decision is unanimous.

Indiana uses lethal injection. An IV is inserted into the prisoner’s arms and sodium piothental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride are administered to paralyze the prisoner and stop his or her heart.

Six death penalty cases are currently pending trial.

11 prisoners are currently on death row.

Since 1977:
93 prisoners have been sentenced to death.
53 prisoners have been released after being on death row, though some are still in prison.
20 prisoners have been executed.

Executions since 1977 by race:
White     62 (66.7%)
Black     29 (31.2%)
Hispanic 02 (02.2%)
Asian     00 (00.0%)