[3] McCulloch was the chief prosecutor in office overseeing the case related to the shooting of Michael Brown, which attracted considerable controversy and media attention, both nationally and internationally.
[4][5] After attending law school at Saint Louis University, McCulloch served as a clerk for Missouri Appeals Court judge Joseph G. Stewart.
[18] In the Democratic primary on August 7, McCulloch in an upset lost handily to Wesley Bell who ran on a criminal justice reform platform.
During that campaign, McCulloch claimed that his office does not file bail bonds for misdemeanors; however, an ACLU of Missouri report showed this to be false.
[19][20] On August 16, McCulloch as an invited speaker at an Oregon prosecutors conference made several remarks considered so unprofessional and characterized by some as "racially insensitive" that several walked out and subsequently boycotted a later keynote speech, including the entire staff of one district attorney office.
[5][23] Cornell Brooks, the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), called for a special prosecutor to replace McCulloch in the case, saying that was needed to restore credibility with Ferguson's black community.
[7][24][25] On November 24, McCulloch reported in a press conference that the grand jury reached a decision in the case and elected "not to indict Wilson".
[26] Immediately after the announcement, McCulloch said that he appointed prosecutors in his office to handle the case, rather than himself, because "he was 'fully aware of unfounded but growing concern that the investigation might not be fair.
[33] Former United States federal judge Paul G. Cassell, writing for the Volokh Conspiracy blog, said that "Contrary to the complaints of some critics, the grand jury process was clearly fair.
[35] His son, Matthew McCulloch, a St. Louis County police officer, is suspected of shooting into the air at a children's trunk or treat event on Sunday, October 16, 2023 in Kirkwood, Missouri.