Gordon ​“Randy” Steidl is sched­uled to be freed from an Illinois prison today (May 28th), 17 years after he was wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to die for the 1986 mur­ders of Dyke and Karen Rhoads. He will be the nation’s 114th death row inmate to be exon­er­at­ed and the 18th freed in Illinois. The case against Steidl has long drawn crit­i­cism from jour­nal­ists such as Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune, and inves­ti­ga­tors famil­iar with the facts of the crime. An Illinois State Police inves­ti­ga­tion in 2000 found that local police had botched their inves­ti­ga­tion so bad­ly that inno­cent men, Steidl and his co-defen­dant Herbert Whitlock, had been wrong­ly con­vict­ed. Steidl won a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing in 1999 because of the poor rep­re­sen­ta­tion he had received at tri­al. At the con­clu­sion of his re-sen­tenc­ing hear­ing, he was giv­en a sen­tence of life in prison. In 2003, a fed­er­al judge ordered a new tri­al for Steidl, stat­ing that if all the evi­dence that should have been inves­ti­gat­ed had been pre­sent­ed at tri­al, it was ​“rea­son­ably prob­a­ble” that a jury would have acquit­ted Steidl. Following the fed­er­al rul­ing, the state rein­ves­ti­gat­ed the case, includ­ing tests on DNA evi­dence, and found no link to Steidl. Based on the results of the inves­ti­ga­tion, State Attorney General Lisa Madigan decid­ed not to appeal the fed­er­al rul­ing and Edgar County pros­e­cu­tors plan to announce today (May 28) that they will not retry the case. Steidl has main­tained his inno­cence since his arrest. (Chicago Tribune, May 27, 2004) See Innocence. Gov. George Ryan of Illinois had par­doned 4 death row inmates based on their inno­cence in January 2003, while com­mut­ing from death to life the sen­tences of 167 oth­er inmates. Thirteen oth­er death row inmates had been freed ear­li­er in Illinois, lead­ing to the mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions that remains in place today. See Illinois Developments.

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