a dog-eared town

I don’t normally watch 60 Minutes but it was on, and I happened to watch something that was chilling in it’s disregard for human life. While normally people think of killers and bad people as having no regard for life, the following story shows that it’s not just killers that have no morals, but lawyers too.

Logan, who maintains he didn’t commit the murder, thought they were “crazy” when he was arrested for the crime.

Attorneys Dale Coventry and Jamie Kunz knew Logan had good reason to think that, because they knew he was innocent. And they knew that because their client, Andrew Wilson, who they were defending for killing two policemen, confessed to them that he had also killed the security guard at McDonald’s - the crime Logan was charged with committing.

It actually gets much worse the further this story goes on. It really does show that you can wear a pin suit and still have no regard for a human being.

The problem was the killer was their client. So, legally, they had to keep his secret even though an innocent man was about to be tried for murder.

“I know a lot of people who would say, ‘Hey if the guy’s innocent you’ve got to say so. You can’t let him rot because of that,’” Simon remarked.

“Well, the vast majority of the public apparently believes that, but if you check with attorneys or ethics committees or you know anybody who knows the rules of conduct for attorneys, it’s very, very clear-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. It’s just a requirement of the law. The system wouldn’t work without it,” Coventry explained.

Can you believe that? Here we have two lawyers stating that it’s not morally clear to speak up when an innocent man is about to be tried on a capitol murder case. It’s not morally clear? Good god man, if you can’t see how this is morally wrong, you really have some mental issues.

“So it’s just okay to prevent his execution if necessary, but it was not okay to prevent his going to prison for the rest of his life?” Simon asked.

“Morally there’s very little difference and were torn about that, but in terms of the canons of ethics, there is a difference, you can prevent a death,” Coventry replied.

“But the minute he was not sentenced to death, the minute he was sentenced to life in prison, you decided to do nothing?” Simon asked.

“Yes,” Kunz said. “I can’t explain it. I don’t know why that made the difference but I know it did.”

I can explain it counselor. The both of you have no moral sense. You are both sociopaths in the truest sense of the word. And you’re horrible human beings.

But don’t worry, they know how to handle PR in the modern age. They know the correct words to say to try and garner sympathy.

“Alton, whether or not you can understand it, we’ve been hurting for you for 26 years,” Kunz said.

Ah yes. The pain. The horrible pain as they travel the world and spend time with their families and make money and have comfortable lives. How can a wrongly convicted man not know their pain. Pardon me while I throw up.

“I don’t think I considered that as much as I considered my responsibility to my client. I was very concerned to protect him,” Coventry explained.

“But here is a case where two men, you two were caught up in this bind. And chose to let a man rot away in jail,” Simon remarked.

“It seems that way. But had we come forward right away, aside from violating our own client’s privilege, and putting him in jeopardy, would the information that we had have been valued? Would it have proved anything?” Coventry said.

Probably not, they say, because as a violation of attorney-client privilege, it would never have been allowed in court. They insist that for them, there was no way out.

“In terms of my conscience, my conscience is that I did the right thing. Do I feel bad about Logan? Absolutely I feel bad about Logan,” Coventry admitted.

Personally counselors, neither of you have a conscience. You have proven that by perverting justice in order to follow the rules.

At one time in this country it was the law that black folks and white folks couldn’t marry, and black folks couldn’t sit in the front of the bus or vote or do many things. And you would have upheld those rules because it was the law.

And that is the problem.

These officers of the court were more willing to follow the law than do the right thing. They choose to do what is legal rather than what is moral. What did they gain as human beings in allowing an innocent man to go to jail, and continue defending their guilty client? It would seem to me that they chose to give up their humanity to do a good job.

To watch this sad spectacle, you can see the video here.

To contact the Illinois Attorney General about fixing this injustice, contact the AG here. If you do contact the AG, please remember to be nice, as this is literally a person’s life in the balance.

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