CHICAGO (AP) — Aaron Patterson walked out of prison 2 years ago, a free man with a pardon and a chance to start fresh.
But the happy ending never came for Mr. Patterson, who faces new drug and weapon charges that could land him back in prison. Jury selection begins today in the case against the 40-year-old.
His story of torture by police and 17 years on death row helped start an emotional campaign against the death penalty in Illinois.
Mr. Patterson was among four death-row inmates who were pardoned by Gov. George Ryan in one of his last acts in office in January 2003. A day later, the governor commuted the sentences of all 160 other death-row inmates to life without parole.
Mr. Patterson insisted he was tortured by police into confessing to a double murder he did not commit. Lt. Jon Burge, the head of the unit that investigated his case, later was fired for purportedly mistreating a suspect.
Mr. Ryan’s actions were applauded by opponents of the death penalty, who nominated the former governor for the Nobel Peace Prize.
But the cheering for both Mr. Patterson and Mr. Ryan has long since faded.
Mr. Ryan is facing a racketeering indictment, and federal prosecutors are asking the judge to bar his attorneys from using his moratorium on capital punishment to try to impress the jury. Coincidentally, U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer is handling the case against Mr. Ryan as well as the one against Mr. Patterson.
Federal prosecutors say Mr. Patterson emerged from prison to become a leader of the South Side’s P. Stones street gang.
A 13-count indictment charges him with brokering heroin sales to a federal informant and selling bags of marijuana out of his home. It also charges him with buying four guns, including a MAC-10 machine pistol.
Mr. Patterson and his attorneys say he was the victim of a setup after he dedicated his life to rooting out corruption in government and the police force. As for the gun charges, Mr. Patterson says he never meant to buy real guns but wanted the kind of replicas that some people collect.
Chances are that Mr. Patterson will not be allowed even to sit in the courtroom for his trial but instead will have to watch on a closed-circuit television from jail because of his frequent outbursts.
“I’m concerned that he could very well poison the proceedings,” Judge Pallmeyer said of Mr. Patterson, who was hustled out of the courtroom by federal marshals Friday after a series of profanity-laced comments.
Two defense psychologists have testified that Mr. Patterson’s outbursts show he should not go to trial at all — that he is mentally incompetent and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of torture by Mr. Burge. A prosecution psychiatrist disagreed.
Competent or not, no one denies that Mr. Patterson has serious personality problems after his years on death row.
“He’s deeply scarred,” says defense attorney Standish E. Willis, who worked for years to secure Mr. Patterson’s release from prison. “And he does need some help.”
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