Posted by
Peter V. Bella on Sunday, January 20, 2008 7:00:08 AM
The social justice adherents and some members of the legal community rant, rage, and rail about law enforcement and prosecutors trying and convicting alleged innocent people.
Now This
For a quarter of a century, defense lawyers Dale Coventry and Jamie Kunz were bound by the rules of law to hold onto a secret that now could mean freedom for a man serving a life sentence for murder.
The secret -- memorialized in a notarized affidavit that they locked in a metal box -- was that their client, Andrew Wilson, admitted that he shotgunned to death a security guard at a McDonald's restaurant on the South Side in January 1982.
Bound to silence by attorney-client privilege, Kunz and Coventry could do nothing as another man, Alton Logan, 54, was tried and convicted instead.
Note: Their client, Andrew Wilson, was charged with the murder of two Chicago Police Officers. Though he made claims of police torture, every court, including the SCOTUS, upheld his conviction. He died in prison last year.
Attorney-client privilege is a sacred bond in the legal community. In other professions it has been breached through legislation. Professionals- physicians, therapists, social workers, etc. are mandated reporters in many states. Lawyers are excluded. Is it time to change the rules?