Aaron Patterson -- the ever-outspoken freed Death Row

Dee · **Posted:** Tue Jul 31, 2007 12:56 pm

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Ex-Death Row inmate's latest defense could be insanity

February 13, 2005

BY NATASHA KORECKI Staff Reporter

Aaron Patterson -- the ever-outspoken freed Death Row
inmate -- has shouted down a federal judge, insisted
he recorded counter-surveillance on the government and
driven a pro-bono attorney to quit his federal case.

But is Patterson insane?

Patterson's latest attorney, Demitrus Evans, disclosed
Friday she might argue insanity in Patterson's trial,
set for May 31, in which he faces weapon and drug
charges. Evans said she is trying to get an expert to
evaluate Patterson.

Not long after the words left her mouth, Patterson --
in his orange jump suit -- stepped in.

"I'm not in agreement with this evaluation. I want to
talk to the U.S. attorney," he told a federal judge
Friday.

Even as Evans and U.S. District Judge Rebecca
Pallmeyer tried quelling him, Patterson directly
addressed the prosecutor in the case, asking for a
personal meeting.

Patterson was finally led away as he repeated: "Don't
make me go to the media with this information. Don't
make me go to the media."

Evans will also explore two other defenses, including
entrapment. She said she wants to know more about
Patterson's mental state because he was an alleged
victim of torture and spent 17 years on Death Row for
a double murder for which he was exonerated.

Patterson has filed a multimillion lawsuit against
former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge, suing him for
torture and the city for covering it up.

About a year and a half after Patterson's 2003 Death
Row release, he was back behind bars on federal
weapons and drug possession charges. He faces up to
life in prison.

Patterson claimed the feds were out to get him because
he became a noisy critic of law enforcement and
because of his lawsuit.

In a jailhouse interview last fall, Patterson said he
knew of the government sting and set up a surveillance
in his mother's home to prove it.

But prosecutors say they have a multitude of
recordings from an informant that captures Patterson
committing crimes on tape and video.

Evans and Patterson have challenged the recordings,
saying they're inaudible in parts, fuzzy and contain
gaps.

Last month, Tommy Brewer, who volunteered to help out
Patterson for free, left after he said Patterson
insisted on "playing quarterback" in the case.

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Marion · **Posted:** Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:59 pm

Aaron Patterson back in prison

Suzanne Le Mignot
Reporting
Apr 10, 2006

(CBS) CHICAGO Federal prosecutors say sentencing a man former Gov. George Ryan freed from death row to 30 years to life in prison is "the only way to protect the public."

The prosecutors contend Aaron Patterson, 40, is a Chicago street gang leader who went right back to trading in guns and drugs after being released.

Prosecutors also allege that Patterson helped mastermind gang activities during the 17 years he spent in prison for a double murder he insists he didn't commit.

They recommended a term of 360 months to life in prison.

After being pardoned by Ryan, Patterson publicly vowed to devote his life to uncovering police corruption, but he later was convicted of drug and gun charges.

“You know, it’s not unique. It’s not anything that the government doesn’t allege anyone they’re out for. I think they’re out to show Aaron Patterson as a bad guy,” said Patterson’s attorney Jason Epstein.

Federal prosecutors say Patterson should remain in jail to keep the public safe. They claim he went right back to a life of crime after he was given a new lease on life.

A little more than a year after his release, Patterson was arrested on gun and drug charges. Drama surrounded his trial. Patterson shouted at the judge. One lawyer was even released from his defense team after she was reduced to tears. That was before the trial even started.

“He was vocal against the whole system before he was charged with this case,” Epstein said. “Did that have any effect on that? I don’t know.”

One thing that is certain is Patterson will remain behind bars for now. He’s serving time after his conviction last year for running drugs and buying guns. His lawyer says he is appealing that conviction and says Patterson is despondent about the situation.

Marion · **Posted:** Tue Jul 31, 2007 9:00 pm

Prosecutors seek 30 years to life for ex-Death Row inmate

By Rudolph Bush
Tribune staff reporter

April 10, 2006, 7:37 PM CDT

The last 20 years of Aaron Patterson's life have been "an unbroken string of crime and violence," prosecutors charged in a court filing that made new allegations about contact between the former Death Row inmate and El Rukn street gang founder Jeff Fort.

Pardoned of murder in 2003, Patterson, 41, never abandoned his life as a gang "prince" and was prepared to use violence to enforce a drug territory, prosecutors stated in a court filing late last week.

The document also included a glimpse into the current operation of the El Rukns, also known as the Black P Stones, including allegations that Fort sought to purchase a $5 million headquarters and offered safe haven to a presumed rival, Vice Lords leader Willie Lloyd.

Prosecutors presented the new allegations in anticipation of Patterson's June sentencing for running drugs and buying guns. He was convicted of those charges last year, and prosecutors are seeking 30 years to life in prison for him.

Patterson's lawyer, Jason Epstein, had not reviewed the new allegations late Monday and said he could not comment on the details.

"It's not surprising that they're making these allegations. If they have it out for you, they're going to say you're just a very bad guy," he said.

Prosecutors detailed Patterson's criminal history, a violent trail that began in 1985 when he shot at a police officer and missed. While in and out of prison, Patterson engaged in beatings, stabbings and shootings of several men, prosecutors recounted.

Since his pardon in 2003, Patterson has portrayed himself as a man bent on reforming a criminal justice system that unjustly put him on Death Row for years. He has also said he was using his position to encourage young men to stay away from drugs and violence.

But through telephone conversations with Fort, who is serving an 80-year sentence for plotting acts of terror, Patterson and other top Black P Stones ran the violent gang, prosecutors charged.

In a February 2004 conversation with alleged gang leader Isaiah Kitchen, Fort discussed Patterson's ultimately unsuccessful run for state representative, according to the court document.

"Fort thought that if Patterson became an Illinois sate representative, [he] would use his office to help the Black P Stones," the document states.

Patterson plotted to unite gangs in Chicago to extort money from musicians who wanted to perform here, prosecutors charged.

After Patterson and Kitchen visited embattled gang chief Lloyd in 2004, Fort told Kitchen to tell Lloyd "to move to their neighborhood and they would protect him," the document states.

Fort also instructed Patterson to have a "well-known entertainer" contribute $500,000 toward the purchase of a new headquarters where Patterson could "guarantee his safety by having a fortified place," according to the document.

The notion of a fortified headquarters recalled the days when Fort's gang controlled a drug empire from an old theater, known as "the fort" and "the mosque," on South Drexel Boulevard.

Marion · **Posted:** Tue Jul 31, 2007 9:00 pm

Ex-Inmate's Outburst Delays Hearing

By DON BABWIN
Associated Press Writer

July 24, 2007, 9:46 PM EDT

CHICAGO -- A former death row inmate on Tuesday disrupted his sentencing hearing on a new conviction, loudly questioning whether the judge was listening to testimony and causing the abrupt adjournment of the hearing until next month.

Tuesday's exchange came in the third day of testimony in Aaron Patterson's sentencing hearing on drug and weapons charges.

Patterson, 43, was released from prison in 2003 after being falsely convicted of two murders. His case became a symbol for death penalty opponents worldwide, but just two years later he was back in prison after a jury convicted him of the new charges.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, who appeared exasperated after several witnesses appearing on behalf of Patterson on Tuesday told the same stories, had just asked a witness to make a point about Patterson in one sentence.

"Don't even answer that, don't even answer," Patterson told the witness, Fred Hampton Jr., an activist and son of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton. "She ain't listening to anything you say, anyway."

Pallmeyer did not argue with Patterson. The defendant, who was dragged from the courtroom yelling and kicking by marshals several times during his trial and on Friday, was led out of the courtroom again Tuesday, but he did not fight the marshals this time.

Because of scheduling conflicts among the judge and attorneys in the case, the next open date for the hearing to resume was Aug. 14.

Patterson gained international fame when he was one of four men pardoned by then-Gov. George Ryan, who also reduced to life in prison the death sentences of every inmate on the Illinois' death row.

Patterson spent 17 years in prison, 13 on death row. He has maintained he did not commit the murders, and he said that he was tortured by Chicago police.

When arrested in 2004 on drug and weapons charges, Patterson said he was just trying to expose police corruption. Prosecutors contended that the arrest stemmed from gang activities.

Marion · **Posted:** Tue Jul 31, 2007 9:01 pm

Former Death Row Inmate Awaits Sentence

Monday July 23, 2007 11:01 PM
By DON BABWIN
Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO (AP) - Aaron Patterson's account of being convicted of two murders and tortured by police helped persuade a governor to set him free and empty Illinois' death row.

In 2003, he walked triumphantly out of prison, a symbol of a badly broken criminal justice system and a champion for death penalty opponents worldwide.

But on Monday, the 43-year-old was just another inmate in an orange jumpsuit waiting to be sentenced on weapons and drug charges. He sat quietly as a string of supporters, including actor and rapper Mos Def, told the judge of his good character.

``To my family and to many people, he truly is a hero,'' community activist Stephanie Weiner testified.

Weiner's testimony came three days after Patterson was dragged yelling and kicking from the courtroom.

``I done many great things in this community,'' he hollered Friday, angrily denouncing the judge and the legal system he claims are railroading him again.

Weiner suggested Patterson, who could be heading back to prison for decades, might have been set off by court officials' use of a phrase common at sentencing hearings: career criminal.

In 2003, then-Gov. George Ryan pardoned Patterson and three other men because he did not believe they were guilty, and commuted to life in prison the sentences of all 167 inmates on death row.

In a speech that made headlines worldwide, Ryan said he was convinced Patterson was innocent. Patterson had maintained his innocence for the 17 years he was in prison - 13 of those on death row.

The governor recounted Patterson's torture at the hands of Chicago police, how they threw a plastic typewriter cover over his head to suffocate him and how they beat him. And he told of a defiant Patterson, who when left alone, took a paper clip and scrawled out a message about what was happening to him.

``Listen to these chilling words,'' Ryan said. ``'I lie about murders, police threaten me with violence slapped and suffocated me with plastic ... signed false statement to murders.'''

Patterson vowed to spend his life exposing corruption and police misconduct. And he made it clear he would not forget the men still behind bars who, he said, did not deserve their fate.

Hours after his release, he was meeting with Ryan. He pleaded with the governor to reduce the sentences of some other inmates.

And he did what he did in prison. He wrote letter after letter. He made call after call to lawyers, supporters and others, pressing for help for those still behind bars.

He gave speeches on police corruption and capital punishment, but also on issues such as the war in Iraq.

He made headlines when he took out a $100,000 loan, using money he expected from the state for wrongfully convicting him, to post bond for a former gang leader he had known since their days on death row.

The next year he campaigned for a seat in the Illinois House, using current and former gang members as his campaign staff. He lost badly.

``What drove him was this feeling of all those lost years and wanting to change things when he got out,'' said one of his lawyers at the time, Flint Taylor. ``He wanted to change the world overnight.''

Authorities did not believe Patterson's talk about leaving gang life. They insisted he went to prison a vicious gang leader, helped run the gang from his cell and kept it up when he walked out.

Investigators arrested him in 2004 and accused him of brokering heroin sales to a government witnesses, buying marijuana and buying a machine pistol and other weapons. Patterson said he was just trying to expose police corruption.

``A review of the last 20 years of Patterson's life reveals an unbroken string of crime and violence,'' they wrote in court papers after a jury convicted him in July 2005.

While cross-examining Weiner on Monday, prosecutors pointed out that Patterson appeared at a news conference with her on the same day he was recorded making a drug deal.

Still, Patterson's supporters look past that evidence to the powerful symbol they say he still is.

Def, who met Patterson five years ago at a symposium, called the former death row inmate ``a good man'' and said he doesn't believe he's guilty of the most recent charges, either.

``He's definitely an asset to the community,'' Def testified. ``He cares a great deal for his people.''

Aaron Patterson -- the ever-outspoken freed Death Row

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