This really, really disturbs me.
From CNN we learn the story of Alton Logan, who was sent to prison 26 years ago after being convicted of murder.
He’s just been granted a new trial and freed on bail – after attorneys for another criminal, who died in jail, came forward to state that their client had confessed to the murder of which Logan was convicted.
Two attorneys recently revealed that their former client, Andrew Wilson, admitted committing the crime that sent Logan to prison, but attorney-client privilege had kept them from coming forward.
Wilson’s death last year allowed the attorneys to unseal an affidavit stating that Logan was not responsible for the fatal shooting of security guard Lloyd Wickliffe at a McDonald’s restaurant in January 1982.
Dale Coventry, one of the attorneys who signed the affidavit, said Friday night that he hopes prosecutors will acknowledge that they went in the wrong direction with the case.
“Poor Mr. Logan was locked up all these years for something he didn’t do, and that’s unfortunate that it worked out the way it did,” Coventry said. “I wish [the release] had happened a lot sooner, but unfortunately, there was no way to do anything.”
I find this almost unbelievable. As a retired pastor I know that the pastor-penitent relationship is protected, and in some cases (e.g. Roman Catholic priests administering the sacrament of Reconciliation, also known as ‘confession’) the priest may never reveal the contents of a confession to anybody, even the Pope. If he does, he’s automatically excommunicated.
However, I can’t accept that lawyer-client privilege is of the same order of importance. These lawyers knew – for Heaven knows how many years! – that an innocent man was behind bars . . . and yet they did nothing about it! Surely there must be some mechanism whereby such information could be conveyed to the appropriate authorities? It’s a travesty of justice that a criminal’s right to attorney-client privilege means that an innocent man must suffer needlessly!
Alton Logan has lost 26 years of the prime of his life, all for no purpose whatsoever. He will probably never recover fully from the effects. I doubt whether he’ll receive any monetary compensation remotely adequate to make up for those years.
Could any lawyers or judges among my readers please educate me? Is it right, is it even remotely morally justifiable, to esteem lawyer-client privilege so highly that it condemns an innocent man to jail?
I just can’t see it. To my mind, the lawyers who concealed the truth and kept Mr. Logan behind bars should be jailed themselves, for as long as he was.
Peter
I’d suggest taking the situation to its next logical step — what if rather than 26 years it had been a case of capital punishment and he had been executed?
Though I support capital punishment, it is situations such as this one that make that support terribly difficult.
I have little regard for the legal profession, which in the main has built our legal system to suit its own purposes (yes, legislatures make laws, but many/most members are lawyers).
But then of course, like everyone else, when needed, I’d look for a “good” lawyer, whatever that is.
When I read about this a few weeks ago, the two attorneys admitted that they felt horrible about it and have begun asking for a change in the ethics rules so that an attorney in the same situation is not bound to be silent.
I think Alton Logan should be paid some reparations by those dirtbag attorneys.
It seems like that without incriminating their client, they could have let law enforcement know they’d barked up the wrong tree, at the very least? Anonymously, perhaps?
Why do people dislike attorneys? Hmmm…
It is truely sad that this gentleman lost those 26 years in prison for something he didn’t do.
But, there are some factors here that play into this.
1) He had a trail, with appeals, and apparently, lost them.
2) The two lawyers that had a client that told them he committed the crime could NOT tell unless given permission to do so by thier client. To do otherwise means the following…
a) They both get disbarred, losing thier careers.
b) The confession CAN NOT be used in the other trial as it is not LEGALLY admisable for EITHER side.
Our legal system is nowhere near perfect. It can be tweaked and fixed more. But its the best on the planet so far.
As for the capital punishment part, the ONLY arguement agains capital punishment I can agree with I have heard is the one sited here. If you find out later the person was innocent you can’t bring back the dead. But, I can accept the loss of an innocent to get the vast majority of the guilty, even if it is a loved one or myself.
The betterment of all normally requires sacrificing some of the good to stop at least some of the bad. And the innocent often must suffer in order that others do not.
It sucks, it’s not right but, it is what it is. LEGAL does NOT equal FAIR or Morally Right. It equals legal under the law.
I’m not sure Mr. Logan will even get compensation because there was nothing done wrong…LEGALLY.
Therefore, there is no LEGAL recourse.