Post by 2foolish on Apr 15, 2016 12:35:24 GMT -5
DeKalb County judge Friday morning vacated the conviction of Jack McCullough, who was found guilty in 2012 of the 1957 murder of a 7-year-old Sycamore girl.
Judge William Brady ordered a new trial for McCullough and also ordered that he be freed from custody on his own recognizance.
McCullough, in handcuffs, appeared shaken by the judge's decision at first, rocking back and forth, then taking a deep breath. Family members behind him hugged and cried. Moments later, McCullough looked back and smiled broadly.
On the other side of the room, Maria's brother and sister displayed little emotion as the hearing ended.
Brady said McCullough would be released Friday.
The order came after lawyers for McCullough filed a motion seeking his release. Those motions followed motions filed earlier by DeKalb County State's Attorney Richard Schmack, who said McCullough was wrongly convicted for the slaying of Maria Ridulph.
McCullough had been serving a life sentence after being convicted of what was considered one of the oldest unsolved slayings in the country.
Schmack, who was not in office when McCullough was convicted, announced March 25 that he had reviewed the evidence presented at McCullough's trial and believed that he was innocent of Maria's murder. The girl disappeared from a Sycamore neighborhood street corner Dec. 3, 1957, and her body was found in northwest Illinois months later.
Schmack said his examination of the evidence led him to conclude that McCullough could not have been in Sycamore when Maria disappeared off a neighborhood street corner.
McCullough, now 76, was arrested in 2011 after authorities reopened the case and a friend of Maria's, an eyewitness, identified McCullough. Kathy Chapman testified that an old photo of McCullough, who lived in Sycamore in the '50s, was a match for the man who approached her and Maria the night the child disappeared.
In 1957, McCullough's family lived in the same neighborhood as the Ridulphs.
An appeals court upheld the 2012 murder conviction, but McCullough's assertions of his innocence gained new life last month with Schmack's announcement of his investigation.
Maria's brother, Charles Ridulph, who lives in Sycamore and believes McCullough is guilty, filed an emergency motion, seeking to have a special prosecutor appointed in the case.
At the last hearing, the judge told Ridulph to hire an attorney. Ridulph said Thursday that he had retained counsel, whom he declined to identify, but had just been able to do so late Wednesday.
"The Ridulph family has no doubt suffered mightily in this matter, but innocence has suffered as well," McCullough's attorney, Gabriel Fuentes, wrote in a motion filed this week.
Clifford Ward is a freelance reporter. The Associated Press contributed.
Copyright © 2016, Chicago Tribune
Judge William Brady ordered a new trial for McCullough and also ordered that he be freed from custody on his own recognizance.
McCullough, in handcuffs, appeared shaken by the judge's decision at first, rocking back and forth, then taking a deep breath. Family members behind him hugged and cried. Moments later, McCullough looked back and smiled broadly.
On the other side of the room, Maria's brother and sister displayed little emotion as the hearing ended.
Brady said McCullough would be released Friday.
The order came after lawyers for McCullough filed a motion seeking his release. Those motions followed motions filed earlier by DeKalb County State's Attorney Richard Schmack, who said McCullough was wrongly convicted for the slaying of Maria Ridulph.
McCullough had been serving a life sentence after being convicted of what was considered one of the oldest unsolved slayings in the country.
Schmack, who was not in office when McCullough was convicted, announced March 25 that he had reviewed the evidence presented at McCullough's trial and believed that he was innocent of Maria's murder. The girl disappeared from a Sycamore neighborhood street corner Dec. 3, 1957, and her body was found in northwest Illinois months later.
Schmack said his examination of the evidence led him to conclude that McCullough could not have been in Sycamore when Maria disappeared off a neighborhood street corner.
McCullough, now 76, was arrested in 2011 after authorities reopened the case and a friend of Maria's, an eyewitness, identified McCullough. Kathy Chapman testified that an old photo of McCullough, who lived in Sycamore in the '50s, was a match for the man who approached her and Maria the night the child disappeared.
In 1957, McCullough's family lived in the same neighborhood as the Ridulphs.
An appeals court upheld the 2012 murder conviction, but McCullough's assertions of his innocence gained new life last month with Schmack's announcement of his investigation.
Maria's brother, Charles Ridulph, who lives in Sycamore and believes McCullough is guilty, filed an emergency motion, seeking to have a special prosecutor appointed in the case.
At the last hearing, the judge told Ridulph to hire an attorney. Ridulph said Thursday that he had retained counsel, whom he declined to identify, but had just been able to do so late Wednesday.
"The Ridulph family has no doubt suffered mightily in this matter, but innocence has suffered as well," McCullough's attorney, Gabriel Fuentes, wrote in a motion filed this week.
Clifford Ward is a freelance reporter. The Associated Press contributed.
Copyright © 2016, Chicago Tribune
...didn't know...
