AMAZING: THE GUY CONFESSED TO MURDER YEARS AGO AND THEY STILL HAVE NOT GOT AROUND TO PROSECUTING HIM

But they sent someone else to death-row for the crime!

In a stepped up effort to secure an indictment of Brian Dugan in the 1983 Naperville murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico, DuPage prosecutors will be presenting evidence to the grand jury in weeks ahead, State's Atty. Joseph Birkett said Monday. "I've said it before that Brian Dugan is the target and he remains the target," said Birkett. Birkett noted that grand jury proceedings are secret, "but I think people will soon be seeing a lot of familiar faces in the courthouse. The investigation has been ongoing, and the presentation of evidence to the grand jury is part of that."

The strongest reported evidence against Dugan is DNA samples that link him to the crime. Birkett declined to give a date when he would seek an indictment.

Thomas McCulloch, Dugan's attorney, said Monday that he hadn't heard anything specific about a current DuPage County grand jury investigation. "I assume there will be an indictment at some time," said McCulloch, who added he last talked to his client, who is in Pontiac Correctional Center, late last year.

Birkett has said previously that he would seek the death penalty against Dugan if he is indicted and convicted of the Nicarico murder. Dugan, 49, of Aurora, is currently serving two life sentences for the murders of a Geneva woman and a Somonauk child. He has been at the center of a 20-year firestorm since he confessed to killing Nicarico in a statement that couldn't be used against him in a criminal court. Dugan claimed that he was the sole perpetrator of the murder, kidnapping and sexual assault of the girl who was abducted from her Naperville home on Feb. 25, 1983, when she stayed home from school because of illness.

Three other men were indicted and tried for the crime: One eventually had charges dropped against him. Two were convicted and sentenced to death. Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez were both eventually freed from Death Row by judges who ruled there was a lack of evidence needed to convict.

Also, seven former prosecutors and police officers involved in the Nicarico death investigation were eventually charged with, and later acquitted of, malfeasance in Cruz's and Hernandez's prosecution.

Dugan has never been indicted in the Nicarico murders, but the possibility has been discussed for years. Some evidence in the case over the years has been presented to the grand jury. "We are still waiting for the results of some tests," said Birkett. "We want to be able to deal with every piece of evidence." The potential indictment comes as Birkett has announced that he is considering running for governor in next March's Republican primary. He lost the 2002 election for Illinois attorney general.

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AND HERE IS THE STORY OF THE GUY THEY DID CONVICT

Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for the 1983 kidnaping, rape, and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico in DuPage County, Illinois.

Prior to their 1985 trial the lead detective in the case resigned in protest that prosecutors were proceeding against innocent men. Nonetheless, prosecutors continued and won convictions, thanks to the testimony of officers who falsely claimed that Cruz had told them details of the crime that only the killer would have known.

Shortly after the trial, a repeat sex offender and murderer - Brian Dugan - confessed that he alone had committed the crime, as well as a series of other crimes, including two rape-murders and three rapes. Many of these crime were similar to the crime for which Cruz and Hernandez were sitting on death row, and several witnesses established conclusively that Dugan was the sole perpetrator in the other crimes he had described.

Although Dugan's confession that he alone killed Jeanine Nicarico was corroborated by overwhelming evidence - as shown by a Chicago Lawyer investigation headed by Rob Warden - prosecutors steadfastly refused to acknowledge that they had put the wrong men on death row. And, after the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the convictions, prosecutors retried Cruz and Hernandez and again won - largely because much of the evidence proving that Dugan had committed the crime was excluded from the courtroom.

In 1990, a volunteer legal team led by Lawrence C. Marshall agreed to represent Cruz on appeal. After four years of arduous litigation, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed Cruz's conviction in 1994, and granted him a third trial. Prior to that trial, newly available DNA testing excluded Cruz and Hernandez as the child's rapists and linked Dugan to the crime. Even so, prosecutors refused to drop the case.

At trial, Cruz was represented by a team of four lawyers, including Marshall. During the trial, a police officer admitted that he had lied under oath in relation to testimony about Cruz's purported statement. After hearing all of the prosecution's evidence, the trial judge directed a verdict of not guilty. Prosecutors later dropped charges against Hernandez.

The story of the Cruz-Hernandez case is told in a book by Thomas Frisbie and Randy Garrett - Victims of Justice, Avon Books (1998).

In the aftermath of the Cruz trial, a special grand jury indicted four sheriff's deputies and three former prosecutors for their roles in the Cruz case. Charges included perjury and obstruction of justice. Although a DuPage County jury acquitted these men of those charges, the County later agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle the civil rights claims that Cruz, Hernandez, and Stephen Buckley (a third defendant who had been charged in the crime) had filed in federal court.

In December 2002, Cruz received a pardon based on innocence from Illinois Governor George H. Ryan.

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