Ethical Dilemma: Public Defenders or Public Nuisance?
This is in response to “Bar Counsel’s” column, “Testing
Hoffman,” which appeared in the July/August 2009 issue of Washington
Lawyer. In the column, Gene Shipp and Sara Walshe wrote about two
public defenders who refused to disclose that their client had murdered
a security guard and that another man had been convicted and was serving
time for this offense. (Editor’s Note: The public defenders
were following Illinois professional ethics guidelines, which did not
allow for disclosure to expose a wrongful conviction.)
I was disappointed that the column did not offer another alternative for the public defenders: How about finding another line of work? Wouldn’t coming forward—and being courageous—while suffering an economic loss have amounted to relatively less suffering than letting an innocent man serve 26 years in prison? Or, to keep true to both values, and yet still not be concerned about “the truth,” how about one of the lawyers falsely confess to the murder their client committed? In that situation, the public defenders would have been afforded the protection of a trial.
Historically, we have not released the Nazis from responsibility for “just following orders.” Why does such inaction by lawyers go unaccountable?
Moreover, who wants to be part of a profession where such confidential communication outranks getting to the truth and correcting such a horrendous wrong? Give me an honest job on a farm or in a store rather than in the practice of law if this is where the lines are drawn.
I agree with the rabbis in Ronald Goldfarb’s “Books in the
Law” column on page 40 of the same issue. When asked if they would
have kept secret the confession of a murder when others were convicted
and serving time for the crime, the rabbis responded: “Of course
not.”
—Lizabeth A. McKibben
Wayzata, Minnesota
More Access to Brandeis
In Ronald Goldfarb’s review of Melvin I. Urofsky’s Louis
D. Brandeis: A Life (September 2009 issue), he writes in closing:
“A more accessible and concise Brandeis volume for the general
public may follow someday.” Mr. Goldfarb may be unaware of Brandeis:
A Free Man’s Life by Alpheus Thomas Mason (The Viking Press,
1946). The book is 644 pages of text with 69 additional pages of notes.
Maybe a short novel for the “public” might someday be written,
but it would not do justice of Brandeis’ magnificent life and
work.
Mason also wrote The Brandeis Way (1938). This remains an excellent
book.
—Dean E. Sharp
Clifton, Virginia
