The Illinois Attorney General’s office will not appeal a federal judge’s ruling finding that it was “reasonably probable” that Gordon Steidl would have been acquitted had the jury heard all of the evidence in his capital murder case. The court granted Steidl a new trial to prove his long-proclaimed innocence. Steidl was given the death penalty for the 1986 murders of a newlywed couple, but his sentence was reduced to life in prison without parole in 1999 following an Illinois State Police inquiry into the case. The inquiry concluded that the initial police investigation into the double murder had been botched, leading to the conviction of the wrong men, Steidl and his co-defendant Herbert Whitlock. Since Steidl’s trial, the state’s key witness in the case has recanted, and the evidence corroborating her testimony has been discredited. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has also concluded her own reinvestigation of the case, including DNA analysis of evidence, and she found that nothing linked Steidl or Whitlock to the murders. The state will decide on April 2 whether to retry the case. If Steidl is not retried, he could be set free, making him the 18th person in Illinois to be exonerated from death row. His co-defendant remains in prison serving a sentence of life without parole, but will likely seek relief in the courts if the state decides not to retry Steidl. (Chicago Tribune, March 26, 2004) See Innocence.