packy
02-22-2008, 08:09 AM
At 61, Whitlock faces a sudden array of choices. A judge on Tuesday morning ordered him freed from prison, just more than 20 years after he was convicted of killing Karen Rhoads of Paris, the eastern Illinois town where they both lived.
Whitlock’s plans included greeting the 7-year-old grandson he’d never met. Beyond that, he said he didn’t have “hard-set’’ plans.
“I learned from the past experience not to make any,’’ Whitlock said after being released.
After years of legwork on his behalf by lawyers and law and journalism students, the 4th District Illinois Appellate Court in Springfield ruled in September that Whitlock should get a new trial because jurors hadn’t been presented key evidence in the case. Prosecutors last week filed paperwork saying they did not plan — at the moment, anyway — to retry him.
Rhoads and her husband, Dyke, died after a violent struggle in their home in July 1986. Each was stabbed more than 20 times and their house, about 50 miles southeast of Champaign, was set on fire after they were killed.
Whitlock and his friend Gordon “Randy’’ Steidl were convicted by separate juries of stabbing Karen Rhoads to death. Steidl also was convicted of killing Dyke Rhoads.
Whitlock was given a life sentence, while Steidl was sentenced to die. Steidl, convicted on much of the same evidence, was released from prison in 2004 and now lives in Missouri. http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/01/09/news/doc478446627e8bc259937771.txt
Whitlock’s plans included greeting the 7-year-old grandson he’d never met. Beyond that, he said he didn’t have “hard-set’’ plans.
“I learned from the past experience not to make any,’’ Whitlock said after being released.
After years of legwork on his behalf by lawyers and law and journalism students, the 4th District Illinois Appellate Court in Springfield ruled in September that Whitlock should get a new trial because jurors hadn’t been presented key evidence in the case. Prosecutors last week filed paperwork saying they did not plan — at the moment, anyway — to retry him.
Rhoads and her husband, Dyke, died after a violent struggle in their home in July 1986. Each was stabbed more than 20 times and their house, about 50 miles southeast of Champaign, was set on fire after they were killed.
Whitlock and his friend Gordon “Randy’’ Steidl were convicted by separate juries of stabbing Karen Rhoads to death. Steidl also was convicted of killing Dyke Rhoads.
Whitlock was given a life sentence, while Steidl was sentenced to die. Steidl, convicted on much of the same evidence, was released from prison in 2004 and now lives in Missouri. http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/01/09/news/doc478446627e8bc259937771.txt