Alton Logan

[wheezer]

26 YEAR "SECRET" KEPT "INNOCENT" MAN IN PRISON???

Lawyers Tell 60 Minutes They Were Legally Bound From Revealing Secret


Alton Logan spent 26 years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit. Two lawyers knew he was innocent, but in a bizarre twist, tell Bob Simon they were legally bound to keep that information secret.



http://journals.aol.com/foxxgiavani/shaken-but-not-stirred/entries/2008/03/07/innocent-man-servied-26-years-in-prison-for-a-crime-he-didnt-commit/1753



I didn't c/p this story. It is someone's AOL journal. I am going to try and find a newspaper article on it.

This is just a crazy situation. I am in complete shock that there was no way for these lawyers to tell someone without getting into trouble.

[wheezer]

Recently the Chicago Tribune ran an article that I found very depressing and upset me on many levels. According to the article, more than 25 years ago Alton Logan was tried and convicted of a murder for which he is currently serving a life sentence. However, recent information provided by attorneys Jamie Kunz and Dale Coventry reveals that Logan is serving time for a crime that their own client, Andrew Wilson, committed.

Wilson, who was already serving a life sentence for a separate crime, simply laughed at the wrongful conviction of Logan, according to the article. Bound by attorney-client privilege laws, Kunz and Coventry were forced not to reveal this information until after Wilson's death.

When I read this I found myself struggling with the injustice of the situation. I can't imagine the pain that Logan, 54, and his family have endured over the years as the truth remained unspoken. At the thought of Logan sitting in jail for 26 years, I couldn't help wondering how one would begin to make up for all that was lost.

I thought of my own family, my own life and all the tiny moments that it has been composed of, and I couldn't imagine having it all stripped away. Snapshots of past Christmases, birthdays, weddings and graduations ran through my head, and my heart ached for the man who had it all stolen in the second it took for the guilty verdict to be read.

I believe that it is the fits of laughter and tiny moments of joy that when strung together make up a life. It's the embarrassing moments, crazy dreams and hours spent with friends and family that are most treasured. These are the things that were taken from Logan, and it saddens me.

I have so many plans for myself and things I want to accomplish that I wonder how devastating it would be to know that they would remain unlived dreams. It's the plans and hopes that we hold for the future that drive us; it's for the possibility of tomorrow that we live today. When that's gone, what do we have left?

In this life we are given one chance to do with it what we can - one opportunity to love deeply, learn profoundly and hopefully grow into a person we can say we wanted to be. That opportunity was given to each of us the moment we were born. That same opportunity has been taken from Logan every single day he lives behind bars - where he never should have been.

http://daily-chronicle.com/articles/2008/02/06/opinions/opinions02.txt

[wheezer]

For a quarter of a century, defense lawyers Dale Coventry and Jamie Kunz were 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 a metal 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 the attorney-client privilege and Wilson's admonition that they only reveal his admission after his death. Wilson, who was serving a life sentence for the murders of two Chicago police officers, died of natural causes Nov. 19.

Their testimony sets the stage for what could be a legal battle over the admission of the secret in court.

"The prosecution should put on the white hat and get this poor innocent man out," Coventry said Friday.

Assistant Illinois Atty. Gen. Richard Schwind, who is representing the state, declined to comment because the case is pending.

Coventry and Kunz both recounted separately how they had been haunted over the years by knowing that they had evidence of Logan's innocence, but could not legally disclose it until Wilson died.

"It was a relief," said Kunz, 70. "Oh my God, I have been wanting this. I have considered this to be the truth. I have been wanting this to come out for years. I don't know anything about Alton Logan. It hurts to know somebody is in prison all these years and is innocent."

The saga began with the Jan. 11, 1982, robbery at the McDonald's at 11421 S. Halsted St., where security guard Lloyd Wickliffe (the name as published has been corrected here and in a subsequent reference in this text) was killed by a shotgun blast and another security guard, Alvin Thompson, was wounded. The gunmen got no money, but stole the guards' handguns.

On Feb. 5, 1982, Edgar Hope was arrested after he fatally shot one police officer and wounded another on a CTA bus on East 79th Street. He was carrying the gun taken from Thompson at the McDonald's.

Two days later, on Feb. 7, Logan was arrested and, along with Hope, charged with robbery and murder in the McDonald's case, based on the testimony of witnesses who said he shotgunned Wickliffe.

The ink was barely dry on the charges when, on Feb. 9, Chicago police officers William Fahey and Richard O'Brien were shot to death near 8500 S. Morgan St. Their guns were taken. The crime triggered a massive search for Andrew Wilson and his brother, Jackie.

On Feb. 13, police raided a beauty parlor where they thought Andrew Wilson had been hiding. While they did not find Wilson, they did find the revolvers belonging to Fahey and O'Brien, as well as a shotgun. Firearms tests linked the shotgun to a shotgun shell found at the McDonald's restaurant, according to court records.

But with two men already charged in the McDonald's shootings, which witnesses said involved only two gunmen, authorities never charged Wilson in that case.

The arrest of the Wilson brothers for the murder of the two police officers has become infamous in Chicago because the Wilsons asserted that Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge and some of his detectives tortured them during questioning. Those assertions were later proved and ultimately led to the department firing Burge and further allegations by scores of defendants that they were tortured by Burge or his detectives.

Coventry and Kunz, both then assistant Cook County public defenders, were assigned to be Andrew Wilson's lawyers. In March, just a few weeks later, Marc Miller, then the attorney defending Edgar Hope, came to Kunz and Coventry to say that his client was contending that Logan was innocent.

"Hope said that [Logan] had nothing to do with the McDonald's case, and that it was Andrew Wilson who was with him and Andrew Wilson who shotgunned the security guard," Kunz said.

Coventry and Kunz said they confronted Wilson with Hope's claim.

"He kind of chuckled over the fact that someone else was charged with something he did," Coventry, 64, recalled.

Kunz said, "Wilson said, 'Yeah' or 'Uh-huh,' nodded, grinned, and said, 'That was me.'"

At the time, the lawyers were bound by attorney ethics not to disclose Wilson's statement, but he said they could reveal it after his death. Under attorney-client privilege, conversations between a client and his lawyer are almost always confidential, unless the client agrees to disclose them. The principle has proven unassailable in court, even as prosecutors and others have sought to force lawyers to break it.

On March 17, 1982, Coventry and Kunz drew up an affidavit:

"I have obtained information through privileged sources that a man named Alton Logan who was charged with the fatal shooting of Lloyd Wickliffe at on or about 11 Jan. 82 is in fact not responsible for that shooting that in fact another person was responsible."

Each lawyer signed it, as did a witness and a notary public. Then they sealed it in a metal box.

"We were freaked out because it was really volatile and because the state was seeking the death penalty against Logan," said Coventry, who has kept the box ever since.

Kunz added that they prepared the document "so that if we were ever able to speak up, no one could say we were just making this up now."

Assistant Cook County public defender Harold Winston, who is currently representing Logan in a motion for a new trial, said that he had heard rumors for years that Kunz and Coventry had information about Wilson's involvement in the McDonald's case. After Wilson died, he reached out to Kunz.

Kunz contacted Coventry, who found the metal box and unsealed the envelope. Both were summoned to court Jan. 11, where Criminal Court Judge James Schreier ruled that they could reveal the conversation with Wilson and the contents of the affidavit. After hearing their testimony, the judge asked for legal briefs on the admissibility of Wilson's statement that he -- not Logan -- killed the McDonald's guard.

Richard Kling, the attorney for Hope who has been seeking to prove Hope is innocent, likely will oppose any statement that could be used against his client. But he also said, "I admire Jamie Kunz and Dale Coventry for coming forward as soon as they were able with a document showing that the wrong man was convicted."

Hope and Logan were convicted of the McDonald's case and Hope was sentenced to death. Logan was sentenced to life in prison.

Jack Rimland, who defended Logan at that trial, said he always believed Andrew Wilson had killed the security guard because the shotgun used in the killing was found with the guns Wilson and his brother had taken from the slain police officers.

"Logan told me all along that he didn't do it," Rimland said. "I would like to see the guy get justice."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-secretjan19,0,6475630,print.story?coll=chi_tab01_l ayout

[Claudia]

Horrifying. That could happen to anyone. I am all for attorney-client privilege, but there has to be some way to override it. That poor man has lost a huge chunk of his life because of it, and something needs to be done. It is simply outrageous.

[wheezer]

CHICAGO, March 7 (UPI) -- A man who spent the last 26 years in an Illinois prison after allegedly being wrongfully convicted of murder may be legally exonerated, a report said.

Alton Logan, 54, was found guilty of killing a security guard during a robbery in 1982, even though another man, Andrew Wilson, admitted to his own lawyers that he was responsible for the slaying, CBS reported.

Lawyers Jamie Kunz and Dale Coventry were Wilson's public defenders when he made his admission so they were legally unable to help Logan from being falsely convicted. The attorney-client privilege rule restricted them from revealing their client committed the crime.

Kunz and Coventry were legally freed to come forward about their client's admission in late 2008 after his death. The court reportedly will hear evidence March 10, in an effort to give Logan a new trial.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/07/wrongfully_convicted_man_may_be_exonerated/1926/

[packy]

This is so horrible. All those years can never be given back.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/06/60minutes/main3914719.shtml?source=mostpop_story

"They watched Logan’s trial to see whether he got a life or death sentence. "We thought that somehow we would stop at least the execution," Coventry tells Simon. "Morally, there’s very little difference and we were torn about that, but in terms of the canons of ethics, there is a difference -- you can prevent a death."

Logan doesn't see it that way. "There is no difference between life in prison and a death penalty, none whatsoever. Both are a sentence of death," says Logan, who pointed out that it is easy to be murdered in a dangerous prison.

The lawyers say it was hard on them mentally. "There’s nothing you can say [to Logan]," says Coventry. "It's been difficult for us. But there’s no comparison whatsoever to what it's been for this poor guy," he says "Alton, whether or not you can understand it, we’ve been hurting for you for 26 years," says Kunz. "How often did I think about it? Probably 250 times a year. I mean I thought about it regularly."

It’s little consolation to Logan. "Everything that was dear to me is gone," he tells Simon. "

[packy]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-alton-logan_11mar11,0,6969947.story

"main question during the hearing will be whether Hope agreed to waive his attorney-client privilege to allow his former attorney, Miller, to testify. The judge ordered Hope's current attorney, Richard Kling, to visit him in prison to determine whether Hope waived his rights. Kling also noted in court that Hope still contends that he never knew Logan.

More than a dozen members of Logan's family, some traveling from other states, appeared in court on Monday. They said they are hopeful and anxious for the judge's decision."

(And if Hope didn't really waive his privilege? The information is out there now.)