Legal Research

Attorney Client Privilege Causes 26 Wrongful Years in Prison

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime and Justice News, March 10, 2008.

"After two trials and 26 years in prison, Alton Logan has never given up hope that one day he would be freed and his name cleared in the 1982 shooting death of a fast-food restaurant security guard, says the Chicago Sun-Times. How long it took for the evidence that might vindicate him is a tough pill to swallow, he told CBS' '60 Minutes.' Cop killer Andrew Wilson told his two attorneys that he killed the security guard. Attorney- client privilege kept that information from going any further, even though Logan was about to go on trial."

"One of the lawyers told the program: 'It's not morally clear, but we're in a position to where we have to maintain client confidentiality, just as a priest would or a doctor would.' Logan told CBS: 'If you know this is an innocent person, why would you allow this person to be prosecuted, convicted?' The attorneys put the confession into an affidavit, sealed it in a lockbox and eventually persuaded Wilson to make the confession public once Wilson was dead. He died last year."

Chicago Sun-Times

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on March 10, 2008 (boomark / email).