Document Type
Article
Media Type
Text
Abstract
This Article will discuss the obligations and duties of a prosecutor in reviewing post-conviction claims of actual innocence in the context of the DeKalb County case of People v. Jack McCullough. In my role as State's Attorney, the chief prosecutor, I was required to formulate a response to the Defendant's claim of innocence. Ultimately, I reached the conclusion that he was innocent of the crime for which he had been convicted, and thereafter proactively participated in his exoneration. This Article will begin with a general discussion of the principles which apply to a prosecutor's assessment of claims of actual innocence, and of evidence of innocence which may come to the prosecutor's attention in the absence of a pending petition. The Article will then move on to a summary of the facts of the McCullough case, and conclude with my assessment of how those rules governed my ultimate conclusion of innocence and the disposition of the case.
First Page
420
Last Page
443
Publication Date
6-1-2017
Department
Other
ISSN
0734-1490
Language
eng
Publisher
Northern Illinois University Law Review
Recommended Citation
Schmack, Richard
(2017)
"Unmaking a Murderer: The Prosecutor's Duty to Remedy Wrongful Convictions,"
Northern Illinois University Law Review: Vol. 37:
Iss.
3, Article 3.
Suggested Citation
Richard Schmack, Unmaking a Murderer: The Prosecutor’s Duty to Remedy Wrongful Convictions, 37 N. Ill. U. L. Rev. 420 (2017).
