Crooked Chicago: Man freed 8 years after wrongful conviction

The information that would have cleared him was in the files all the time. Note also bad eyerwiness ID yet again

Before he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder, Maurice Patterson told the judge he was innocent -- and then asked, if he eventually was cleared of the crime, "Are you going to be here to apologize to me?"

On Friday, eight years later, Patterson was back in court -- and ordered released after DNA evidence indeed cleared him in the murder. But he got no apology.

The DNA evidence was taken from a knife that the prosecution originally claimed had no connection to the crime, said Rob Warden of the Northwestern University Center on Wrongful Convictions. But years later, it turns out the knife had the victim's blood on it with the blood of another man, a convicted offender.

After that came to light, Judge David Linn ordered a new trial last November. Friday, the Cook County state's attorney's office dropped all charges and Linn ordered Patterson, 44, released.

Patterson walked out of Cook County Jail Friday evening into the arms of his joyful family. "I thought you'd be way taller than this," said his teenage brother, Samuel.

Patterson held up two paperback books he said inspired him: John Grisham's The Innocent Man and Courtroom 302, a non-fiction book on the Cook County court system by Steve Bogira.

Patterson never gave up believing he would be cleared. "I always [believed] through the grace of God. I spoke all this into existence. I proved my innocence."

Indeed, it was Patterson himself who set in motion the process that ultimately freed him. While imprisoned, he filed a Freedom of Information request for the lab report on the knife. Later, after the Center on Wrongful Convictions had taken his case, the request came through.

The Cook County state's attorney's office said it prosecuted the case "in good faith based on eyewitness accounts and forensic evidence that was believed to be the totality of the evidence."

Of the police and prosecutors, he said Friday, "They're evil, but I forgive them through the grace of God."

Original report here




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