suit against the state of illinois for wrongful imprisonment. while he was in the courthouse, he and mike metnick paid a visit to the courtroom of judge mccusky. he saw us in the gallery. i look at him, i mouthed these words, is that randy steidl? and he nods his head yes. i recessed the court. as i m say thing right now, i m getting goose bumps. the judge signaled us to come back in chambers. there was a split second where you just hug. i didn t cry. i came close. i m starting to get emotional. i knew how difficult it was to get to that point, to have a judge overturn 15 years of state court findings. it s almost unheard of. i was trying to think of something to say to the man.
him. in this letter he makes this cryptic remark about the eiffel tower, have you ever been? it s nice this time of year. it s also a reverence to paris, illinois. i m convinced he committed the murder. tommy lynn sells was executed in texas in april 2014. you had all these different characters who you could read the possible narratives, and i don t see any way that any of these stories hung together. we don t know who killed these guys. by now, randy steidl had spent nearly 12 years on death row and lost all of his appeals. and he was about to come face to face with his final chance at freedom. except that managing my symptoms was all i was doing. and when i finally told my doctor, he said humira is for adults like me who have tried other medications
by 2001, the illinois courts had repeatedly declined to give randy a new trial. randy s last chance at freedom would now come at the federal level. it is the court of last resort. after 15 years of state court findings, most federal judges assume that those state court findings are correct. judge mike mccusski would oversee the case, a veteran of the bench he had never granted a petition for a new trial. you would think year after year, is somebody going to come with a case that you can look at and say this case was decided wrongly? you always wonder, if 100% of all your cases are going one way, are you looking at them correctly? fortunately, randy got the fresh eyes of a federal judge that was not connected to the
was i shook his hand and said thank you for giving my life back. we make decisions every day, but we don t save lives, police do, firemen, heroes, but that day i fluknew i d saved his lif. mike callahan s fight to bring about the truth of 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. betrayed by my department. the only thing i m guilty of is trying to solve a case with the truth. before he could collect his reward, the spleem court declared that government employees didn t have free speech plex if they were talking about something that involved their work. it was a huge setback for whistle blowers. the ruling tells police
imprisonment. while he was in the courthouse, he and mike metnick paid a visit to the courtroom of judge mccuskey. and he saw us in the gallery. i looked at him. i mouthed these words. is that randy steidl? and he nods his head yes. i recessed the court. as i m saying this right now, i m even getting goose bumps. ? then mccuskey signals us to come back in chambers. there was a split second where you just hug. i didn t cry. i came close. starting to get emotional. i knew how difficult it was to get to that point, to have a judge overturn 15 years of state court findings. it s almost unheard of, and i was trying to think of something to say to the man. the only thing i could think of