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);

(Jack McCullough was convicted in 2012 of murdering 7-year-old Maria Ridulph, of Sycamore, in 1957): "The DeKalb County judge who vacated the murder conviction of Jack McCullough set a December date to hear evidence to help him decide whether to issue a declaration that McCullough is innocent of the 1957 murder of a Sycamore girl. Judge William Brady set Dec. 5 as the day when attorneys for The Exoneration Project will present evidence they say proves McCullough could not have kidnapped and murdered Maria Ridulph on Dec. 3, 1957. McCullough was arrested more than 50 years after the crime and found guilty in 2012 of Maria's murder, but he was freed this spring after DeKalb's chief prosecutor said he believed McCullough had been wrongly convicted, based on some new evidence and a review of the old records. "We're here because Jack McCullough is an innocent man, and he would like to clear his name," Exoneration Project attorney Russell Ainsworth told the judge Thursday.........Maria, 7, was playing with a friend on a Sycamore street corner on the evening of Dec. 3, when a man approached and introduced himself as Johnny. Maria's playmate went to her house for a few minutes and came back to the corner to find Johnny and Maria missing. The case drew national headlines and the involvement of FBI agents who, despite an intensive investigation, failed to find the missing girl. Her remains were discovered in April 1958 in northwest Illinois. McCullough, who was 17 in 1957, lived in the same neighborhood as the Ridulph family and at the time went by the name John Tessier. He was arrested for the crime in 2011, after Illinois State Police reopened the 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."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-sycamore-cold-case-hearing-1021-20161020-story.html