anything to do with this at all? i looked her in the eyes and said mom, i ve done some bad things in my life, but i ve never done anything like this. you know i m not capable of doing anything like this. as soon as i got that out of my mouth, she was up and out of there, slammed the door. when we left, she said he didn t do that, rory. i said, how do you? she said, by the way he answered my question. i looked him in the eye. i know when he s lying to me. despite their mother s belief in randy s innocence, only hard evidence could shake rory s faith in the system. that evidence was about to come from an unlikely source. my epiphany came when i got the call from the attorney that said, i just received a letter from debbie reinbolt that says your brother wasn t there. and that he had nothing to do with it, and that she s willing to speak to me.
i think he was able to refute the knife very easily. it was a five-inch blade. the deepest wounds were 6 3/8 inches. there was a hilt on the knife. i felt like, wow, i had this evidence that this two men are innocent. they re going to finely be freed. we re going to be able to conduct an investigation and try to find out who the killers are. randy s incarceration had torn his family apart. randy s brother, state troop errory steidl, believed randy was guilty. randy s mother wanted to see for herself, so she visited him behind bars. she sits down and says, look at me right now, did you have
they usher us all in, we have an opportunity to get randy, you know, psychologically prepared for the moment when he s going to step out. here we go. [ applause ] walking behind this, you know, parade of heroes who made this happen. you know, i m thinking, damn, this is really happening. are you ready? let s go! it s a flood of emotions. and my mom was mom held up real good. everybody did. you know, that day was very, very special. in 2005, randy filed a civil
trial and have the attorney general appeal it to have it taken away and within 60 days they re strapped to a gurney being executed. one thing i could state to people with confidence, in this business, there is no certainty. no certainty at all. randy s fate would rest in the hands of illinois new attorney general, lisa madigan, who would decide to release randy or try him again. michael callahan knew he would have to get his findings to madigan now or forever live with the knowledge he failed to help set an innocent man free. and stay awake during the day. this is called non-24. learn more by calling 844-824-2424. or visit your24info.com. color is a beautiful thing, i know, oh yes i know.
the only thing i could think of, i just shook his hand and i said, thank you forgiving me my life back. we make decisions every day, but we don t save lives. police do, firemen do. heroes. but that day i knew i had saved his life. mike callahan s fight to bring out the truth about corruption and misconduct in randy s case had ruined his career. in 2003, he sued the state of illinois for violating his right to free speech. i was angry. i felt betrayed by my department. the only thing i m guilty of is wanting to solve a homicide, look for the truth. callahan won his lawsuit, but before he could collect, the supreme court declared that government employees didn t have free speech protection if they were talking about something that involved their work. it was a huge setback for whistleblowers. the ruling tells police