Freed 8 years after wrongful conviction

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2786532,CST-NWS-release09.article

Accused of murder, Patterson says his faith never wavered

October 9, 2010

BY ART GOLAB Staff Reporter [e-mail]

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.

[Hepburn]

1. The apology should be a ton of money from the State for ruining his life.

Fuck the judge.

Edit for typo

[grantcart]

2. How does somebody survive that? It boggles the mind.

[mrcheerful]

4. Worse is now when he seeks employment he has to inform the employer that the reason he hasn't worked

for 8 years is because he was in prison. Yeah his chances of gainful employment are going to be good, well you see I was convicted of murder, I went to prison for 8 years then was released because I was innocent. Oh in that case your hired, yeah right, it will then be he was in prison 8 years so even if he was innocent what did he learn in prison will make him a risk, no ty I can't hire a convict.

[mrcheerful]

3. What gets me is even after a few hundred innocent people are released after wrongful

convictions people still believe only the guilty go to prison. Ever notice that when the justice system fails and the innocent are convicted the system always uses the excuse that they did the best they could with the information they were presented during trial, never mind facts like the justice system has been corrupted to the point where if the person is brown or poor he has less of a chance at being proven innocent then the rich.

The sad part of this is even though the guy has been proven innocent of the crime he was convicted of he will never be able to get those lost years back nor will ever escape the stigma of having been a convict nor will people ever fully trust them again, the belief is well he got off because the system failed, even though the opposite is true, the belief is he had to have been guilty of something or he would have never been charged in the first place.

In fact just being charged with a crime is a stigma, how many times have you heard law enforcement and citizens say a person proven innocent in a court of law was really guilty and they only got off because the system failed to convict them. There is a judge in my city that brags every election cycle that in the election year he has a 100% conviction rate, he keeps getting voted in because the people think he is tough on crime and he is keeping them safe. I vote against him every election year because the only way to get a 100% rate is to sentence everyone that enters his court so much for proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

[lunatica]

5. Meanwhile the real murderer has had 8 years of freedom

and will probably be free for the rest of his life. Does anyone get those old murder files to re-investigate?

[dragonlady]

6. It's still possible the real murderer will receive justice

The DNA evidence that freed this man is now in the databases and may turn up a match with the real killer, now or in the future. It's also possible that he is already in prison for another crime, at least we can hope so. The man who was released here was lucky in the sense that some DNA evidence existed in his case--that doesn't happen especially often in murder cases.