Problems with the death penalty in Illinois

Randy Steidl says the state of Illinois was prepared to stick a needle in his arm and execute him based on the word of a drunk and drug addict.

Seven appeals and 17 years behind bars later, 12 of them on death row, he finally was exonerated of two murders.

In the six years since he walked out the doors of Danville Correctional Center with $26 in his pocket and well wishes from the prison staff, 59-year-old Steidl has committed himself to making sure no one else suffers the same injustice.

“You cannot release an innocent man from his grave,” Steidl told 200 students at Harper College Wednesday. “If you really want to punish someone, you make them wake up everyday looking out those bars knowing that's the way it's going to be until they take their last breath.”

Steidl was on the college's Palatine campus as part of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty's tour, “Beyond Repair: True Stories of Illinois' Flawed Death Penalty.”

Joined by advocates, murder victims' relatives and men like Steidl, the group is making stops across the state as part of an effort to pass a law abolishing the death penalty during next week's lame-duck veto session.

“Illinois is broke, and it's been 10 years since (former Gov. George Ryan) imposed a moratorium on the death penalty. This is a good time,” the coalition's Colleen Cunningham said.

Many in Steidl's audience shook their heads, disbelieving the circumstances that got him sentenced to death.

Born and raised about 150 miles south of Chicago in Paris, a small town he calls just as corrupt as the big city, Steidl and co-defendant Herbert Whitlock were accused of murdering newlyweds Karen and Dyke Rhoads.

Their convictions were based largely on the testimony of two people, since discredited as an alcoholic and a drug addict, who said they witnessed Steidl and Whitlock stab the victims dozens of times and set fire to their home.

With help from many, including Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions, a federal judge finally ruled in 2004 that Steidl's acquittal was probable if the jury had heard all the evidence. The case is still open.

Steidl cited several reasons the death penalty should be banned, including data showing per capita murder rates are higher in states with the death penalty and research showing it costs more to prosecute and house death row inmates.

Cunningham said that since 2003 the state has spent $100 million on the Capital Litigation Trust Fund, despite a moratorium blocking executions.

In addition to abolishing the death penalty, the coalition wants legislation that would divert trust fund money to law enforcement agencies, victim services and money for murder victims' families.

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