Wrongly convicted man is released in Illinois

SYCAMORE, Ill. (AP) — A 76-year-old Washington state man has been released from prison in Illinois after a prosecutor persuaded a judge that the man was wrongly convicted in 2012 of killing a schoolgirl six decades earlier.

Judge William Brady on Friday vacated the conviction of Jack McCullough and ordered him to be freed. McCullough left a jail near the courthouse this afternoon, smiling to reporters from the backseat of his stepdaughter's rental car.

Judge Brady's order came in Sycamore, Ill., where Maria Ridulph was playing in the snow in December 1957 when she was abducted. Her body was found five months later.

McCullough was convicted in Maria's death in 2012 and sentenced to life in prison.

In a six-month review of evidence this year, DeKalb County State's Attorney Richard Schmack concluded that McCullough couldn't have killed Maria.