From death row to hero

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http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-8263-from-death-row-to-hero.html

Thursday, January 20,2011

From death row to hero
How Randy Steidl became the face of capital punishment repeal
By Bill Clutter

At the State Capitol, former death row inmate Randy Steidl became the improbable champion in the successful campaign to get the General Assembly to abolish the death penalty. Now he is trying to persude Gov. Pat Quinn to sign the repeal into law. He traveled a long road from death row to Springfield’s halls of power.

We began working on Randy’s case in October 1991, after the Illinois Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and set his execution date. Springfield attorney Mike Metnick, who earlier that year represented Alejandro Hernandez pro bono in the infamous Nicarico case, agreed to take on the cause of saving Randy’s life. Mike Metnick again volunteered his legal services without pay. The reward for that work finally paid off when the General Assembly voted last week to abolish the death penalty.

John Hanlon, now the legal director at the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project at UIS, worked all night long in April of 1992 writing Randy’s petition for post-conviction relief in Mike Metnick’s law office, which was above the Vinegar Hill Mall. By 7 a.m. we had appended the affidavits supporting the facts that revealed Randy’s innocence. We placed the petition in the trust of our runner, Paul Wetmore, who drove it to Paris, the Edgar County seat, to be filed. It was the last day of the statute of limitations for filing the petition. If some awful auto accident had impeded its delivery, all appeals in Randy’s case would have stopped there. The execution would have proceeded as scheduled.