By AP/KWMU
Springfield, Ill – A former death row inmate wants to be elected to the Illinois Legislature to change some of the laws that he says wrongfully put him behind bars.
Aaron Patterson, of the Chicago area, today filed as a Democratic candidate in the sixth representative district for the March primary election.
He will run against Representative Patricia Bailey who was elected to that seat last November.
Patterson was convicted of killing an elderly Chicago couple in 1986 and served 17 years on death row.
But he claimed police tortured him into confessing to the crime and he was one of four men pardoned by former Governor George Ryan in January.
Patterson says he will push to abolish the death penalty and for other criminal justice reforms to help get more innocent people out of prison.