“Convicted murderer Brian Dugan was indicted Tuesday for the 1983 abduction, rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville, the DuPage County state’s attorney said.

The 15-count indictment against Dugan, 49, is the latest development in a 22-year-old case that put Illinois’ capital punishment system under a national spotlight after two men who were convicted of the crime and sent to death row were freed years later.

""The past is the past. We’re going forward. This indictment is about the evidence available now, today,"" DuPage County State’s Attorney Joseph Birkett said at a press conference to announce the indictment.

Nicarico was home alone from school recovering from the flu on Feb. 25, 1983, when she was abducted, leaving no sign but fingernail scratches on the wall near the kicked-in front door.

Birkett said Tuesday that Dugan raped and bludgeoned the girl to death. Her body was later found in a nature preserve.

Birkett said he would pursue the death penalty against Dugan if he got a conviction in the case.

""Jeanine’s murder was the result of exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior indicative of wanton cruelty,"" he said.

Thomas McCulloch, Dugan’s defense attorney since 1985, said Dugan would ""probably enter a plea of not guilty when he’s presented to the court.""

""I’m saddened but not surprised,"" McCulloch said of the indictment. ""I think it’s a terrible waste of time and energy. I wish they spent their time and money elsewhere.""

McCulloch said he has not spoken with Dugan in several months, but probably would meet with him in the next day or two to discuss the charges.

A message left at the home of Jeanine Nicarico’s parents, Tom and Pat Nicarico, was not immediately returned.

Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez were convicted of the crime and condemned to death in 1985, but appeals courts over the following decade twice reversed the convictions.

Cruz was acquitted during a third trial in 1995 after spending almost a decade on death row, and prosecutors later dropped the charges against Hernandez.

Dugan emerged as the chief suspect only after Cruz’s acquittal, even though prosecutors said he confessed to the crime during a 1985 interview with his attorney.

He is currently serving a life term at Pontiac Correctional Center for the unrelated rapes and murders of a 7-year-old girl and a 27-year-old woman.

Dugan refused to make a formal confession because prosecutors at the time refused to rule out the death penalty in return for a guilty plea.

Seven DuPage County prosecutors and law officers were charged in 1996 with lying and fabricating evidence against Cruz in what prosecutors described as a conspiracy to railroad Cruz for the crime. All seven were cleared in 1999 after a high-profile trial.

Over the years, Cruz’s case became a cause for death penalty opponents. His release was followed by a string of similar, highly publicized cases - a dozen men sentenced to death have been freed in Illinois since 1977 after questions about their guilt arose.

That led former Gov. George Ryan in 2000 to halt executions in Illinois and to propose an overhaul of the death penalty system. Gov. Rod Blagojevich has continued the moratorium on executions.“