The notoriety of the case and the serious possibility that two innocent men could have been executed was an influence on Governor George H. Ryan's decision in 2000 to impose a death penalty moratorium in the state.
The state indicted seven law enforcement officials for wrongful prosecution of the Nicarico case, saying they had illegally conspired against Cruz in an effort to convict him.
He was already serving a life sentence on two other, unrelated rape and murder charges, one of a 27-year-old woman and the other of a seven-year-old girl, Melissa Ackerman from Somonauk, Illinois.
On November 11, 2009, after deliberating about 10 hours over two days, a DuPage County jury sentenced Brian Dugan to death for the rape and murder of Jeanine Nicarico 26 years earlier.
Dugan's sentence was commuted to life in prison after Illinois passed a law in 2011 abolishing the death penalty.
On February 25, 1983, before the family returned home that day, Nicarico was abducted from the house after an intruder entered and burgled it.
[1] In November 1985, Brian Dugan, who was already in jail and being tried for the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl and of a 27-year-old woman in separate events, confessed to the crimes against Nicarico through his attorney.
[2] Both were retried despite public pressure on the DuPage County State's Attorney's office to investigate the Dugan confession.
[2] Based in part on the notoriety of this case and Cruz's acquittal, in 2003 Ryan imposed a moratorium on executions in the state, and commuted the sentences to life of 167 persons on death row.
[1][4] After the death penalty was abolished in Illinois in 2011 by passage of a new law, Dugan's sentence was commuted to life in prison without possibility of parole (LWOP).