Matthew Apgar/Daily Chronicle / AP
Jack McCullough, left, smiles in court with attorney Russell Ainsworth of the Exoneration Project, Thursday, April 6, 2017, at the DeKalb County Courthouse in Sycamore, Ill.
Wednesday, April 12, 2017 | 12:26 p.m.
SYCAMORE, Ill. — An Illinois judge has granted a certificate of innocence to a Washington state man who was wrongly convicted in 2012 of the 1957 kidnapping and killing of a 7-year-old girl.
The DeKalb County judge formally declared 77-year-old Jack McCullough innocent during a Wednesday court hearing. The certificate will allow McCullough to sue Illinois for damages for his wrongful conviction in Maria Ridulph's killing.
A prosecutor concluded last year that evidence backed McCullough's alibi that he had been 40 miles (64 kilometer) away when Maria disappeared. A judge agreed, ordering McCullough's release after he had served four years of a life sentence.
McCullough said at a hearing last week that he wants justice. He says he's been portrayed "as a monster" and that people still think he's one.
