Wrongful Incarceration Causes Substantial Bodily Harm: Why Lawyers Should Be Allowed to Breach Confidentiality to Help Exonerate the Innocent
![handle is hein.journals/cathu69 and id is 778 raw text is:
WRONGFUL INCARCERATION CAUSES
SUBSTANTIAL BODILY HARM:
WHY LAWYERS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO
BREACH CONFIDENTIALITY TO HELP
EXONERATE THE INNOCENT
Vania M. Smith'
Because four attorneys signed [a] notarized forty-five word affidavit ... on
March 17, 1982 roughly only one month after my arrest and felt duty-bound
to keep it secret, I served twenty-six years in prison, almost half of my life at the
time, for a murder I didn't commit.
- Alton Logan
In February 1982, Alton Logan was arrested on the south side of Chicago,
charged with the murder of a security guard.2 In March 1982, Andrew Wilson
was asked by his attorneys if he committed the crime for which Logan was
awaiting trial.3 Wilson confessed.4 After this confession, the attorneys had to
decide either to maintain the confidential relationship with their client by
keeping this confession secret, or to disclose the confession in an effort to clear
Logan. One of the attorneys met with a judge who advised that the client's
confidence must be kept.5 After consideration, the attorneys decided to create a
signed affidavit, outlining the details of the confession, which was kept hidden
in a strongbox.6 At trial, Logan was convicted of the crime and sentenced to life
' J.D., The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law (2020); M.P.A., The George
Washington University (2001); B.A. Political Communication, The George Washington University
(1998). The author would like to thank Professor A.G. Harmon for inspiring the topic, Professor
John Sharifi for aiding in its selection, Victoria Kawecki, Esq. for her expert advice, Vallyn L.
Merrick, M.S.Ed., family, and friends for their support. This Comment is dedicated in loving
memory to Karen Denise King, Ph.D.
1. ALTON LOGAN, JUSTICE FAILED xli (2016).
2. Id. at 11-15.
3. Id. at 29, 31-32. Two attorneys for an individual named Andrew Wilson (Dale Coventry
and Jaime Kunz) were approached by Marc Miller, attorney for Logan's cellmate, Edgar Hope. Id.
at 29-30. Hope admitted to being an accomplice of Wilson and asserted that Wilson, not Logan,
was the perpetrator of the crime for which Logan was incarcerated. Id. at 29. After being
approached by Miller with this information, Coventry and Kunz interviewed Wilson at which time
Wilson admitted to the crime. Id. at 31-32.
4. Id.
5. Id. at 35. Kunz met with a judge who was a former defense attorney. The judge warned
that there was nothing to be done and whether or not Logan faced the death penalty had no bearing
on the attorneys' obligation to maintain privilege. Id.
6. Id. at 32-33, 39.
769](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/cathu69&div=31&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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