Man convicted of 1957 killing seeks freedom after officials admit he 'could not have done it'

A prosecutor has said he believes 76-year-old Jack McCullough's alibi is true

The prisoner has insisted he is not guilty of the 1957 killing of Maria Ridulph (AP)

A former security guard and military veteran serving a life sentence for the 1957 killing of a young girl has pleaded with a judge to set him free after a prosecutor said there was no way he could have committed the crime.

With his legs and wrists shackled, 76-year-old Jack McCullough told the judge in DeKalb, Illinois, that he was the subject of a miscarriage of justice.

“Your honour,” McCullough said, according to CBS. “I’ve been in prison locked up now for almost five years, I’m innocent, and I can prove I’m innocent. There has to be an end to this somewhere.”

Seven-year-old Maria Ridulph disappeared in 1957 (CNN)

Judge William Brady said all he could do at was to appoint him a new lawyer and outline the process that could result in a new trial.

“Mr McCullough, you have started the process to try and bring it to an end but it's a process. It is not a black and white issue that is easily resolved without further review,” the judge said.

McCullough was convicted in 2012 of the killing of seven-year-old Maria Ridulph in the small community of Sycamore. It was one of the oldest cases in the US ever to go to trial.

Jack McCullough pleaded with a judge to set him free (AP)

But last week, the DeKalb County prosecutor released the findings of a six-month review that convinced him McCullough could not have committed the crime. Richard Schmack, who had no role in McCullough’s prosecution, found fault with the investigation and said new evidence and a review of old documents corroborated an alibi.

The review gives new momentum to McCullough's bid for freedom. Tuesday’s hearing took place in a courtroom in Sycamore, where the little girl was abducted, stabbed and choked to death all those decades ago.

But the review is also plunging her family unto the years of emotional turmoil they have endured since the little girl disappeared from a quiet street corner where she was playing in the snow.

Prosecutor Richard Schmack said be believed the conviction was wrong (AP)

Her brother, Charles Ridulph, filed a motion on Monday asking the judge to appoint a special prosecutor. Like other family members, he remains convinced McCullough is the killer and he hopes an outside prosecutor will ensure the man stays behind bars.

“My sister Maria was snatched away, raped and murdered, abandoned in the woods,” Mr Ridulph, 70, wrote in the filing, according to The Daily Chronicle.

“And now, Richard Schmack has abandoned her yet again and he has done so for the wrong reasons.”

The new evidence included phone records that proved McCullough made a collect call to his parents from a phone booth in central Rockford, Illinois, about 35 miles from Sycamore, just minutes after the abduction took place.

Besides those records, Mr Schmack's conclusions were also based on a review of thousands of pages of police reports and other old documents that he says were improperly barred from evidence during McCullough’s trial. Some of them were only recently uncovered, he said.