The Crime

In the early morning of April 3, 2002, Robert Head was beaten and stabbed repeatedly during an altercation with an unknown assailant. He died in the hospital (before he was able to give a statement) as a result of 14 stab wounds and other injuries obtained from the beating. 

The Investigation and Identification

Three people witnessed the fight, fleetingly and in the dark, and a fourth witness claimed to have seen a man with blood on his hand hiding from the police. All four witnesses identified Maurice Patterson in a live lineup weeks after the attack, but they only testified regarding these identifications after being threatened with Contempt of Court. 

A bloody knife was found near the scene and sent to Orchid Cellmark for DNA testing. STR test results excluded Patterson, indicating a mixture of the victim’s profile and an unknown profile. Comparison to the State CODIS DNA database revealed that the unknown profile belonged to a drug addict with a history of violence. Though the State Police Forensic Science Center had been notified that the sample included the victim’s blood, this information was never directly communicated to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors continued with the case against Patterson regardless of the exculpatory results, presumably believing that the knife was unrelated to the Head murder. 

The Trial

Patterson’s alibi was that he was at home with his wife and stepdaughters when the murder occurred, but none of them were called to testify. Patterson’s trial counsel did not present any witnesses, nor did he permit Patterson to testify. Throughout the trial, Patterson maintained his innocence.

The prosecution argued that since the victim’s DNA was not found on the knife, it was not the murder weapon; so Maurice Patterson could easily be the perpetrator. Their case relied completely on the testimony of the four eyewitnesses who had indentified Patterson in a live lineup although their testimonies were hesitant and unreliable.

On November 19, 2003, Patterson was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison. 

Post-Conviction and Exoneration

While he was incarcerated, Maurice Patterson filed a Freedom of Information request for the lab report on the knife. In 2008, Patterson’s appellate attorneys were informed that the victim’s blood actually had been found on the knife, disproving the prosecution’s main argument and confirming that the knife found near the crime scene was the murder weapon. With this information, the judge ordered a new trial in November 2009; Patterson remained behind bars for 11 months awaiting trial. 

On October 8, 2010, with the assistance of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, prosecutors dropped all charges against Maurice Patterson and he was released after seven years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.