This story is a interesting offshoot of the 60 Minutes bullet lead analysis story:
A lawyer named Staples Hughes had a client named Jerry Cashwell who, 20 years ago, confessed to being the lone killer of a Fayetteville couple, although another man went to prison for life for murdering the couple. (Cashwell went to prison too.) Now Cashwell is dead and so Hughes has come forward, hoping that the crucial facts that attorney/client privilege had previously prevented him from telling will now help to get a new trial for a man who is likely innocent.
But was Hughes really relieved of attorney/client privilege by the death of his client? Some people think not, and a grievance has been filed against Hughes with the North Carolina state bar. The morality of the situation is clear. Unfortunately the law may not be.
The News Observer has the rest of the story.
The Bar hates an honest attorney. He ruins the reputations of 99% of the rest.
Tricky legal ethics question. And its been the source of any number of episodes of TV law shows – the “Practice” comes to mind.