Less than a year after being released from death row,...

Less than a year after being released from death row, Aaron Patterson is running for the Legislature with a pledge to change some of the laws he says wrongly put him behind bars. Patterson filed Monday to run in the March primary. He'll face Rep. Patricia Bailey, a fellow Democrat in her 1st term serving Chicago's southwest side. Patterson was 1 of 4 men pardoned in January as part of then-Gov. George Ryan's historic clearing of death row in his final days in office. Patterson, who was convicted of killing an elderly Chicago couple in 1986, spent 17 years on death row, despite his claims police tortured him into confessing to the crime. "I feel like the very laws that put me on death row, I want to go down there and change them," Patterson said in a telephone interview. Patterson, 39, is a former gang leader with a prior record for gang activities. Illinois law allows former criminals to run for state office once they've served their sentence. Patterson's agenda includes abolishing the death penalty, cracking down on police misconduct and investigating the cases of other inmates who claim they were wrongfully convicted. Patterson worries that his candidacy may be challenged because state law requires candidates to live in the district for at least 2 years before running for office. The prison is in Pontiac.