26-Year Secret Kept Innocent Man In Prison

[eppie]

I'd like to think I'd do the same here. My job isn't worth 26 years (or one year) of someone's life. Perhaps there is a greater wrong that comes to pass if lawyers break their ethical obligations towards their clients for short term justice, however, and someone that studies ethics and law would need to weigh in on that one.

i.e. Is there a greater good served by allowing extreme injustices to happen to individuals because what someone would need to do to save them would cause even more harm? No clue.

These things should not be looked at as if this is just one not connected case.
Laywers don't need to keep silent about things theire clients tell them for nothing. If the lawyer in case would have stepped to the judge this would make it less and less likely that in other cases people admit to things that others have been convicted for.

You can compare it to paying ransom for a kidnapped person. Of course the persons life is worth more than 1 million dollars, but if you always pay kidnappers without problems, very likely the number of kidnappings will increase.