Aaron Patterson, a wrongfully convicted inmate released from death row and pardoned by former Illinois Governor George Ryan is running for Congress.

Patterson was one of four 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. He received a $161,500 settlement from the state for his faulty conviction and has filed a $30 million federal lawsuit against police officers and others involved in his case.

Patterson's congressional platform includes,:

...abolishing the death penalty, cracking down on police misconduct and investigating the cases of other inmates who claim they were wrongfully convicted.

We recently wrote about Mr. Patterson here, following a long profile, Live from Death Row, that appeared last month in the Chicago Tribune.

Update: Patterson's candidacy has been cleared by the Ill. State Board of Elections.