Confidentiality and the Lee Wayne Hunt case

Instructions

For the Unit 4 Assignment, you will discuss a case about attorney-client privilege. Lee Wayne Hunt was sentenced to life in prison for a crime that he did not commit. After the crime was committed, Jerry Cashwell, a co-defendant who was not represented by the same attorney, confessed to committing the crime to his attorney. Though the attorney believed what Cashwell had told him, he refused to breach attorney-client privilege until after Cashwell had died. Before you begin your Assignment, read the article associated with the Lee Wayne Hunt case and review the relevant North Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct related to confidentiality listed below.

Lee Wayne Hunt

Waggoner, M. (2019, April 10).Confession failed to free NC man, who has died as a prisoner. ABC. https://wlos.com/news/local/confession-failed-to-free-nc-man-who-has-died-as-a-prisoner

North Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct

North Carolina State Bar. Index to the Rules of Professional Conduct. https://www.ncbar.gov/for-lawyers/ethics/rules-of-professional-conduct/index-to-the-rules-of-professional-conduct/

Based on your readings, write assignment using Microsoft Word that addresses the questions below. Be sure to discuss and apply the relevant North Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct in your analysis.

1. Describe the rule that the attorney used to support his initial position to keep Cashwell's confession confidential.
2. Explain whether the attorney could have used an exception to this rule to testify about what Cashwell had told him if Hunt had been sentenced to death, as opposed to life in prison.
3. Discuss why the attorney eventually decided to testify about Cashwell's confession after he had committed suicide, and discuss how the judge responded to the attorney's decision to testify.
4. Discuss whether you believe attorney-client privilege should ever be breached.