Exonerated in 2010: How DNA and New Evidence Freed Five Wrongly Accused

Maurice Patterson

Conviction: First-degree murder
Year of Conviction: 2003
Exoneration Date: 10/8/10
Sentence Served: 8 Years
Contributing Causes: Eyewitness Misidentification

Patterson was accused of fatally stabbing a man in Chicago in 2002. Three people who claimed to have seen the attack identified Patterson as the killer several weeks after the incident.  Crucial evidence was prevented from entering into the trial: that the victim’s blood and the blood of another suspect were on a knife found near the scene of the crime and Patterson’s DNA was not indeed on the knife. Crime lab reports showed that Cook County prosecutors and Chicago police incorrectly declared that blood from the victim was not on the knife.  After DNA evidence was introduced, confirming Patterson’s story, Patterson was freed in October 2010 after eight years in prison.