Attorney Client Privilege/ Alton Logan Ethical Dilemma

[countzero]

Or, perhaps free a guilty one! The case cited by okiedokietoo blows my mind to the extent that I've formed immediate dislike of any AL theory, regardless how flawlessly stated.
When folks begin to play God vis a vis esoteric legal theory (a la Lyons, Dershowitz, et al), I'm overcome by profound distrust and disdain. 'nuff said. I'm jaded for the duration
of the Casey Anthony trial.

In my neck of the woods, no Caylee coverage, lots political and sports though.

I imagine that if I can read the Orlando news about Andrea L the folks in Orlando will have too and will form opinions which aren't kind to her. Anyone in Orlando know what Kathy B. ratings are?

 

[Verité]

IMO There's something inherently wrong with a "code" that would force members of any discipline to make a false and immoral choice such as this. Sometimes one just has to do What Is Right...........and accept the consequences of following your conscience. If not being able to practice is the consequence - then there are meaningful contributions to be made elsewhere, hopefully in an arena that makes it easier to face yourself in the mirror each day.

What you say is so GOOD that it bears repeating. I think I'm even gonna do it up in calligraphy and frame it and hang it on my wall. And memorize it, too.
And put music to it and sing it on You-Tube.

I thank you for your "Truth."

 

[whiteangora]

IMO There's something inherently wrong with a "code" that would force members of any discipline to make a false and immoral choice such as this. Sometimes one just has to do What Is Right...........and accept the consequences of following your conscience. If not being able to practice is the consequence - then there are meaningful contributions to be made elsewhere, hopefully in an arena that makes it easier to face yourself in the mirror each day.

It takes a lot for me to say this but, I am in shock!
How does this monster sleep at night? And she has the audacity
to call herself an Angel?:furious:

 

[Tiki]

IMO There's something inherently wrong with a "code" that would force members of any discipline to make a false and immoral choice such as this. Sometimes one just has to do What Is Right...........and accept the consequences of following your conscience. If not being able to practice is the consequence - then there are meaningful contributions to be made elsewhere, hopefully in an arena that makes it easier to face yourself in the mirror each day.

That story made me sick.
Don't lawyers swear to uphold the law or something?
How can letting an innocent person suffer in prison b/c you think you should be loyal to your guilty client?!? I might be able to understand if her client was acquitted and no innocent person was convicted.

Is she proud of what she did?
Is this "justice" in America?

If this is her mode of operation, I'm worried about JG.

I just can't get my mind around it.

Lawyers, please, please explain this if you can.

.

 

[trixi491]

As bad as it sounds, deep down I want KC to have the worst representation possible that will most likely get her convicted. She was a terrible mother and should have a terrible attorney representing her. She wasn't fair to Caylee and the system shouldn't be fair to her IMO. Plus I really don't think she would get an appeal based on ineffective counsel down the road. Like someone had previously mentioned, it takes a LOT to get an appeal based on that and even though JB is a joke, he is still surrounding himself with the best of the best to give him advice (even if he isn't taking it). She has a ton of top co-counsel attorneys and forensic experts on her team which I'm sure would hurt any chance of appeal.

Honestly, after yesterdays hearing, I see KC wanting to get rid of AL in the future. Her body language showed her trying to distance herself from her. She shook her hand and greeted her very quickly, as if she didn't care. AL appeared to have written KC a little note that told her to straighten up. KC spent more time schmoozing with JB at the end then she did thanking or acknowledging the woman who will devote herself to sparing her the death penalty. As we all know, KC is extremely stubborn and selfish and I see her choosing a less experienced attorney than someone she doesn't like, even if they have a better chance of saving her life. Seeing how vain she is too, I'm sure she doesn't want an unattractive female as her lead either.

 

[JBean]

I hope someone who knows Kathi B's e-mail address will make sure she has this info.
She does her homework and probably has it, but all the talking heads are ga-ga over this lawyer . . . the public deserves to know the whole story.

.

Alton Logan is a very famous case. I would guess she knows about it. It is very controversial and it is an excellent case study.

 

[Searchfortruth]

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/hottype/080131/

The Greater of Two Evils
When is it OK to let an innocent man rot in jail?
By Michael Miner
January 31, 2008 (quotes from article)

John Conroy (on WBEZ) and Maurice Possley (in the Tribune) recently reported on two lawyers, Dale Coventry and Jamie Kunz, who have known since 1982 that an innocent man was behind bars for a murder their own client committed. The reporters explained the legal reason for this travesty: the absolutism of the client-attorney privilege, which guarantees that anything a client tells his lawyers will be kept in confidence forever.


http://depaullaw.typepad.com/library/2008/03/60-minutes-segm.html
(quotes from article)
March 11, 2008
"60 Minutes" Segment on the Local Case of Alton LoganThis past Sunday, the television news program, "60 Minutes", featured a story about a Chicago resident , Alton Logan, who has been in jail for 26 years for a killing, that lawyers, Dale Coventry and Jamie Kunz, have known he did not commit. One of the clients of the two attorneys, was Andrew Wilson, who confessed to them that he was the one who had killed the person that Logan had been convicted of murdering.



JMO which is more important - making sure an innocent man doesn't spend 26 years in prison or a license to practice law?

OMG, this is sickening. I have never heard of this case before...it does need to be out in the open ! How do these people sleep at night ?

 

[Just Jayla]

That story made me sick.
Don't lawyers swear to uphold the law or something?
How can letting an innocent person suffer in prison b/c you think you should be loyal to your guilty client?!? I might be able to understand if her client was acquitted and no innocent person was convicted.

Is she proud of what she did?
Is this "justice" in America?

If this is her mode of operation, I'm worried about JG.

I just can't get my mind around it.

ETA: sorry for the OT

Lawyers, please, please explain this if you can.

.

Me & my moms were talking about this today.....What is scary is that so many things can be traced back to JG that the A's have said and done, if one were not familiar with the case, JG could look iffy....Fortunately, JG had the polygraph and his cell phone pings will not put him at the scene during the time of death (Dear God, I hope JG did not do something as stupid as go to her house during that month). Don't think reasonable doubt based on the "JG did it theory" can work, if the SA can show JG could not have been involved.

JB called him a suspect yesterday, it is definately game on as far as using him for their defense.

 

[Searchfortruth]

Lyon tells me that “of course” she’d have acted to prevent Logan’s execution, though she doesn’t know how. “[Death] would have been much, much worse. There’s a difference—even though it’s awful that Logan has been in prison all this time for something he didn’t do—there’s something different between that and sanctioning his murder by the state by remaining silent.”

Lyon reminds me that the prosecutors in the McDonald’s trial were Scott Arthur and Ray Garza, who were both singled out by Possley and Ken Armstrong in a 1999 Tribune series on prosecutorial misconduct.

I just CAN NOT believe this...so she is saying what in this last paragraph ? Is she saying that the Prosecutors were as much to blame ? This is so sickening. Rules that were convenient to follow, is that how they justified an innocent man being locked away in prison night after night ?

 

[JBean]

more discussion about Alton Logan
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58832&highlight=alton+logan
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77350&highlight=alton+logan
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82419&highlight=alton+logan

 

[Gaia713]

OMG, this is sickening. I have never heard of this case before...it does need to be out in the open ! How do these people sleep at night ?

An ethical atty would recuse himself/herself from a case like this. I have an atty friend who says she doesn't WANT to know guilt - it makes it too hard to do her job.

 

[Searchfortruth]

“His life meant more to me than my license. I know that,” says Kunz. “On the other hand, there are a lot of clients I’ve subsequently represented who’d be sorry if I didn’t represent them. So I’m glad I kept my license.”

What BS !

 

[Muzikman]

I haven't seen it and I have looked at all the news outlets...did she file it yesterday ? Thanks Muzikman for ALL you do for us !!!

Alright, give me a few and I will post a link here. I think it was actually filed today, one of the docs has a 5/29 date on it.

 

[Searchfortruth]

The following article reports on Casey's new DP qualified attorney, Andrea L., and her part in an innocent man's incarceration for 26 years.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/hottype/080131/

 

[JBean]

Did anyone follow this story last year? I think we might have a thread on it. Anyway,it was really interesting and eye opening:
Inmate’s freedom may hinge on secret kept for 26 years


For a quarter of a century, defense lawyers Dale Coventry and Jamie Kunzwere 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 ametal 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.
The two lawyers testified in court last week that they were bound by theattorney-client privilege and Wilson’s admonition that they only reveal hisadmission after his death. Wilson, who was serving a life sentence for themurders of two Chicago police officers, died of natural causes Nov. 19.
snip


http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/jan/19/news/chi-secretjan19

Next time try the handy "Search" function!

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58832

The following article reports on Casey's new DP qualified attorney, Andrea L., and her part in an innocent man's incarceration for 26 years.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/hottype/080131/

all the same dude.

 

[Spangle]

She does get a lot of people off with Life and not Death. What I found so odd/wrong is that in the article all four attorneys said they would have done something if he had been sentenced to death. IMO the attorneys sentenced him to the possibility of Death by doing nothing. 26 years in prison is a long time. Accidents happen in prison.

I think it's easier to get folks live over death these days. It's more accepting mode of punishment. Death use to be seen as the only choice. Now days, folks realize that life is nastier. Cause its' an ongoing punishment.

And folks now realize that if the person is DEAD, the only ones being punished is their loved ones.

 

[Verité]

all the same dude.

Thanks so much for this JB! I really must educate myself in order to stop
jumping into that big lake called premature conclusions.

 

[Searchfortruth]

I know attorney-client priviledge exists for a reason. It is important that the client can tell his attorney anything and not worry about it being disclosed....BUT, can't there be some sort of exception to this rule ? I do believe the attorney's in the Logan case should have somehow directed the truth to someone in a position to do something. These lawyer's, IMO, selfishly chose their law license over a man's freedom, 26 years of it. I have to have hope that there are some good, decent attormey's out there who would do the right thing in the same circumstance, no matter the cost.

 

[faefrost]

I know attorney-client priviledge exists for a reason. It is important that the client can tell his attorney anything and not worry about it being disclosed....BUT, can't there be some sort of exception to this rule ? I do believe the attorney's in the Logan case should have somehow directed the truth to someone in a position to do something. These lawyer's, IMO, selfishly chose their law license over a man's freedom, 26 years of it. I have to have hope that there are some good, decent attormey's out there who would do the right thing in the same circumstance, no matter the cost.

There are things that will break the privelege and may force a judge to compel testimony. To use the Caylee case as an example, MN could not break privilege if he simply knew where the body was based on conversations exclusively with his clients, GA and CA.

if that same comunication was to come from JB, KC, DC or some other third party then however no privilege exists.

If the lawyer crosses the line and gets involved in an illegality themselves in regards to the crime or the evidence (ie sending a team of clowns to MOVE the body or in other ways destroy or tamper with evidence) Then much of the privilege may be lost. Privilege does not extend to illegal acts done on behalf of a client. But that loss will only reflect the specific illegal actions and not every conversation they have had with a client while representing them in good faith. (I believe)

 

[mitzi]

The following article reports on Casey's new DP qualified attorney, Andrea L., and her part in an innocent man's incarceration for 26 years.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/hottype/080131/

WOW, just WOW!