So this is what I'm going to have to deal with?

Diane,
We were discussing a case in Professional Responsibility today that got to me a little. This man, Alton Logan, was tried and convicted of the 1982 killing of a MacDonald's security guard. The problem was, he was innocent, and the lawyers for the man responsible for the murder knew it.
The moral thing to do is to prevent an innocent man from going to prison, but that's not how the justice system works. A lawyer's first, last, and only duty is to live within the ethical rules of the legal system, giving the best defense possible to their client and keeping what is told to them confidential under attorney-client privilege. The lawyers knew that Logan was innocent, but their hands were tied by the law.
*Side Note: They were able to come forward now because they had worked out a deal with their client that if he died they could take his sworn confession public, as he could no longer face punishment for the crime. He's dead, and they came forward.
Logan was convicted and sentenced to life in prison when the death penalty vote wasn't unanimous. The ironic part of this is that to save his life, they would have had to vote to kill him. The death penalty vote was 10-2 in favor and had the 2 members of the jury that spared his life voted to kill him, the lawyers with knowledge that he was innocent would have been allowed to break privilege to save his life. But sending him to jail for the rest of his days is okay by system standards.
While it's awful to think that this happens, you can't blame the lawyers. Had they broken privilege and come forward, the evidence would have been suppressed because it came from a broken Attorney-Client Privilege. Don't hate the player, hate the game.
I swallow hard when thinking about keeping these things to myself, but I know it has to be done. Upholding the system is the most important part of a lawyer's oath to himself and his profession. It may not make for the greatest morality discussion when you discuss the rules with people who don't have to deal with lawyers, but in the situation that someone needs legal help, you can rest assured that what you tell your lawyer stays between you and him. I just need to start thinking more like an attorney and less like a lay-man.

Here's the 60 Minutes video link of the story:
http://http//www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4126194n&tag=related;photovideo