For some time, I’ve been meaning to do a post about attorney-client confidentiality in extreme circumstances. For example, in this Chicago case, defendant X, who was charged with one murder, admitted to his lawyers that he had also committed another murder, one with which defendant Y had been charged. There was other evidence in the second case that lined up with the confession, so the lawyers representing defendant X were certain that defendant Y was completely innocent. But they watched as defendant Y was tried capitally, convicted, sentenced to life in prison, and served 26 years. Meanwhile, defendant X was convicted of the first murder and also sentenced to life in prison. Only after defendant X died did his lawyers come forward with the information that defendant Y was innocent and that defendant X was responsible for the murder. Defendant Y has since been formally exonerated, as described here. The lawyers who represented defendant X said they consulted with “legal scholars, ethics commissions, [and] the bar association” and were consistently told that the ethics rules prohibited them from disclosing what their client had said. And, of course, Rule 1.6 does provide that “[a] lawyer shall not reveal information acquired during the professional relationship with a client” unless the client consents or one of the Rule’s exceptions apply. The only exception that could have any application here is set forth in Rule 1.6(b)(3), “to prevent reasonably certain death or bodily harm.” Some of you may recall that a similar situation arose in [...]
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