This is one of those stories you couldn't make up. In July 1986, Karen and Dyke Rhoads of Paris, Illinois were brutally murdered in their home, which was then set on fire. Two local men were arrested in due course for the crime for no apparent reason, then released when their alibis checked out. Later however they were re-arrested, charged and convicted in separate trials. Herb Whitlock received a life sentence while Randy Steidl was sentenced to death.
Much of this documentary is centred on Steidl, who was cleared after 17 years behind bars, 12 of them on death row. Herb Whitlock did not take part in this programme, but the former police officer whose reinvestigation led to their freedom did. Herb served 21 years.
The two men were convicted on the evidence of two people who both claimed to have participated in the crime without either being aware the other was there; one was the town drunk, the other was a woman no red- blooded male would want to be left alone with. The claims they made would ordinarily have been shot down by any detective with marginally more nous than Inspector Clouseau, but other agendas were at work here.
It remains to be seen how murky the waters actually were, but three years after this documentary was screened, Steidl was awarded $3.5 million dollars on top of the $2.5 million he received the previous year. The double murder remains unsolved.