Former death row inmate faces new trial

Fresh charges might return him to prison

Associated Press

CHICAGO - Aaron Patterson walked out of prison two years ago, a free man with a pardon from Gov. George Ryan and a chance to start fresh.

But the happy ending never came for Patterson, whose story of torture by police and long years on death row helped to launch an emotional campaign against the death penalty in Illinois.

These days, the 40-year-old Patterson sits glumly in a federal jail awaiting the start of jury selection Tuesday in a drug and firearms trial that could hand him a return trip to prison.

And chances are, Patterson won't even be allowed to sit in the courtroom for his own trial but instead will have to watch on closed-circuit TV from the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

"I'm concerned that he could very well poison the proceedings," U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer said of Patterson, who was hustled out of the courtroom by husky federal marshals Friday following a series of angry, profanity-laced outbursts.

"Mr. Patterson has been unable or unwilling to conform his behavior to the standards of the court," said Pallmeyer, referring to what has become a pattern of outbursts by Patterson in court.

The case is attracting attention because Patterson was prominent among four former death row inmates who were pardoned by Ryan in one of his last acts in office in 2003. A day later, he commuted the sentences of all 160 other death row inmates to life in prison without parole.

Patterson insisted that he was tortured by police into confessing to a double murder he did not commit. His claims have been echoed by dozens of others and are now under investigation by a special prosecutor. The head of the unit that investigated his case, Lt. Jon Burge, was later fired for allegedly mistreating a suspect.

Ryan's actions drew harsh criticism from prosecutors but were warmly applauded by opponents of the death penalty, who nominated the former governor for the Nobel Peace Prize.

But the cheering for both Patterson and Ryan has long since faded.

The former governor is facing a racketeering indictment, and federal prosecutors are asking the judge -- who by coincidence is Pallmeyer -- to bar his lawyers from using his moratorium on capital punishment and clearing of death row to try to impress the jury.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors Christopher S. Niewoehner and Carrie E. Hamilton say Patterson emerged from prison to become a leader of the South Side's P. Stones street gang.

The 13-count indictment charges him with brokering heroin sales to a federal informant through an alleged pusher and selling bags of marijuana out of his home. It also charges him with buying four guns, including a MAC-10 machine pistol.

Another alleged gang member, Mark Mannie, is also charged in some of the counts.

Patterson and his defense attorneys, Demitrus T. Evans and Paul Camarena, argue that when he left prison, he dedicated his life to rooting out corruption in government and the police force.

They say he was the victim of a set-up arranged by the very people he was investigating.