Jack McCullough will be released from prison in Illinois today after serving four years of a life sentence for kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Maria Ridulph. The crime was committed on December 3, 1957, but no one was prosecuted until 2012, when DeKalb County State’s Attorney Clay Campbell convicted McCullough.
Campbell’s successor, DeKalb County State’s Attorney Richard Schmack reviewed the case after defeating Campbell in an election. He concluded that McCullough could not have committed the crime because he was 40 miles from the scene of the crime when it was committed. According to Illinois Bell telephone records McCullough called his family collect from an Air Force recruiting office in Rockford, Illinois at 6:57 pm. Maria Ridulph disappeared between 6:45 p.m. and 6:55 p.m.
Schmack also challenged the accuracy and reliability of an eyewitness identification of McCullogh by Maria’s friend with whom she had been playing in the snow when a young man offered to give Maria a ride on his shoulders. First, she identified McCullogh more than 50 years after the incident. Second, the photo was unnecessarily suggestive since McCullough’s photo stood out from the others in a photo array of six photographs because they were professional yearbook photographs and each person was wearing a suit coat.
Yet another example of the unreliability of eyewitness identifications.
Fortunately, an honest and ethical prosecutor corrected the wrongful conviction.
Read more here.
