A Problem in Privilege

This question has been giving me nightmares. You must, absolutely, keep your client from a possible capital charge and get this other guy out of jail as quickly as possible.

My fist guess is to use your privilege to get as much information from your client as possible about the crime. If you can determine some fact, some clue that, if applied would undermine the state's case against the innocent man without - in any way - implicating your client then perhaps you can use it. The obvious problem is that, presumably, any risk to your client could not be taken and you could likely only share any information with his consent.

I wonder, instead, if there is some way to leverage the particular circumstances to convince the DA that further incarceration of this man is politically imprudent. Basically, would he/she rather lose a case/release someone wrongly convicted after a short time in prison, or be forced to do so years later when, presumably, the harm is greater and the publicity more damaging? Perhaps some kind of deal can be made where any punishment that your client (who already plans to die in jail) might receive would run concurrently to his sentence in exchange for the information. If your client agreed, then this might work. This seems pretty wrong, however, because even deals can be broken and this course forces you to put your client in harm’s way.

It is not even something that you can just trade your license for, since, as I understand it, breaches of privilege aren’t admissible as evidence.

Someone in this class can figure this out, though, I am sure.

-- AdamCarlis - 23 Mar 2008