Thursday, October 20, 2016

Jack McCullough; Illinois; Bulletin: (Accuracy of eyewitness identification more than 50 years after the fact!) Judge sets December date on his innocence bid in 1957 cold case..."Decades after she last saw Maria, her childhood playmate identified McCullough as the man who approached them on the street corner. Her testimony at trial in 2012 helped secure a conviction against McCullough, a Seattle area retiree State's Attorney Richard Schmack, who did not prosecute McCullough, reviewed the evidence to prepare a response to a post-trial petition McCullough filed. After the review and some additional investigation, Schmack said he became convinced that McCullough could not have committed the crime, based on old investigative records that placed him in downtown Rockford shortly after the time Maria went missing. Ainsworth said he would present a psychologist at the December hearing who would testify that it is unlikely Maria's friend could have made an accurate eyewitness identification more than 50 years after the fact. If McCullough is granted the certificate of innocence, he would be eligible for about $85,000 in reimbursement from the state court of claims, Ainsworth said." Reporter Clifford Ward: Chicago Tribune; (October 20, 2016);