After more than 26 years of fighting, Randy Steidl is ready to put the past behind him. The Paris, Ill., man spent 17 years on Illinois’ death row for a double murder he didn’t commit, but last week Steidl finally got some closure. His lawsuit against those who allegedly conspired to frame him and another […]
Randy Steidl
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Defenders of the innocent
It’s not every day that a serial killer helps a writer solve a crime, so when Diane Fanning, a Texas true-crime author, received a letter from convicted killer Tommy Lynn Sells admitting to a murder in Illinois, she knew she was on to something big. Fanning convinced Sells to give more details about the1997 murder […]
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Pair freed from prison, but still not in the clear
In 1986, newlyweds Dyke and Karen Rhoades were murdered and their bodies burnt in their Paris, Ill., home. Police arrested Randy Steidl and Herb Whitlock for the murders, and the two men each spent many years in prison before their cases were overturned. Now, the DNA evidence in that double murder is being retested, and […]
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Former death row inmate speaks out
While sitting on death row for 12 years, Randy Steidl wasn’t against capital punishment. Not in the general, philosophical sense. “I came from a conservative farm family,” he says, explaining his position on the death penalty when he was arrested for murder in 1986 at the age of 35. “I believed in the system,” he […]
