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CHICAGO (AP) - A former death row inmate whose case helped launch an emotional campaign against the death penalty in Illinois was convicted Friday of drugs and weapons violations following a tumultuous trial.
Aaron Patterson, 41, turned down an offer to hear the verdict by teleconference. He had been banished from the courtroom after defiantly refusing to be cross-examined and shouting to the jury that he was the victim of "a legal lynching."
Patterson could get from 15 years to life in prison when federal Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer sentences him. The sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 4.
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