Randy Steidl was sentenced to death in Illinois in the 1980s. He spent 12 years on death row for a crime he did not commit. In 2003, the Governor of Illinois commuted all death sentences into life sentences, and only after that, Randy managed to prove his innocence and to be released. As a free man, he campaigned for a complete abolition of the death penalty in his State, and success arrived just a few years later. "We need to tell and to listen to these stories, and through them, we need to work to change the culture and the mind-set of those who still support the death penalty," said EU High Representative Federica Mogherini during her opening speech at the 7th World Congress Against the Death Penalty.
