There are good, honest lawyers out there,

and then there are all the rest.
An innocent man was behind bars. His name was Alton Logan. He did not kill a security guard in a McDonald's restaurant in January 1982.

"In fact," the document said, "another person was responsible."

They knew, because Andrew Wilson told them: He did it.

But that was the catch.

Lawyer-client privilege is not complete; most states allow attorneys to reveal confidences to prevent a death, serious bodily harm or criminal fraud. But this case didn't offer that kind of exception.

So when Andrew Wilson told his lawyers that he, and not Alton Logan, had killed the guard, they felt powerless — aware of information that could free a man they believed to be innocent, but unable to do anything with that knowledge. And for decades, they said nothing...

Go ahead, read all of it. I swear, this society lost something when we got rid of the whipping post in the town square. Because, after being disbarred, these dirtbags should be strung up to it and gone after with a flagrum.

Now the lawyers had two big worries: Another killing might be tied to their client, and "an innocent man had been charged with his murder and was very likely ... to get the death penalty," Kunz says.

But bound by legal ethics, they kept quiet.

'Legal Ethics' my ass. And here's why the legal profession tends to be regarded as lower than some useful profession like pond scum:
Kunz says he mentioned the case dozens of times over the years to lawyers, never divulging names but explaining that he knew a guy serving a life sentence for a crime committed by one of his clients.

There's nothing you can do, he was told. [emphasis mine]

So these members of the bar described the problem to a bunch of other noble members of the bar, and they all said "Gee, that's bad, but don't do anything to help the innocent guy."

Kunz says he knows some people might find his actions outrageous. His obligation, though, was to Andrew Wilson.

"If I had ratted him out ... then I could feel guilty, then I could not live with myself," he says. "I'm anguished and always have been over the sad injustice of Alton Logan's conviction. Should I do the right thing by Alton Logan and put my client's neck in the noose or not? It's clear where my responsibility lies and my responsibility lies with my client..."

You know, I thought lawyers were supposed to have some small regard for those concepts of Truth and Justice, but apparently I was wrong: their 'ethics' override all.