Silencing the dead: judicial double standards.

• Author: Balko, Radley
• Position: Attorney-client privilege - Brief article

Is AN ATTORNEY released from the attorney-client privilege after his client dies? In North Carolina, the answer apparently is yes--but only flit helps prosecutors.

Lee Wayne Hunt is serving time in that state for a double murder he insists he did not commit. He was convicted in part due to lead-bullet analysis, a discredited forensic technique formerly used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI now admits the technique is flawed but insists it's under no obligation to do anything about the people convicted because of it.

The other evidence against Hunt, an admitted marijuana dealer, was testimony from two fellow dealers. After one of those dealers, Jerry Cashwell, committed suicide in prison, his lawyer came forward to say that prior to his death, Cashwell told him he alone committed the two murders for which Hunt was convicted. Upon learning that Hunt had been convicted based on faulty forensic evidence and the word of a convict who...