He didn't do it -- and they knew
CRIME | Attorneys say they didn't reveal their client's murder confession 26 years ago as Alton Logan served prison term
March 11, 2008
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter/sesposito@suntimes.com
Twenty-six years ago in a Cook County jail cell, accused cop killer Andrew Wilson grinned and hugged himself.
Wilson's lawyers had just told him about a man charged in the murder of a security guard during a robbery at a South Side McDonald's in January 1982.
"He was tickled pink," one of those attorneys, W. Jameson Kunz, said in an interview Monday.
That's because during that same conversation Wilson had admitted to killing the security guard, the lawyers now say.
Bound by the near sacred relationship between attorney and client, Kunz and Dale Coventry say they were forced to keep the confession secret for 26 years, and in so doing, helped keep an innocent man in prison.
Now, Kunz and Coventry have come forward with their secret, hoping to use it to finally free 54-year-old Alton Logan. Wilson died last year while serving a life term for the slayings of Chicago Police Officers William Fahey and Richard O'Brien. Wilson told his attorneys they could reveal the truth about Logan after his death.
Among the issues Cook County Judge James Schreier must now consider is Logan's attorney's request to allow Kunz and Coventry to testify at a hearing about whether Logan deserves a new trial for the murder of the security guard, off-duty Cook County sheriff's employee Lloyd Wickliffe. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office has yet to announce whether it will fight the request.
Back in 1982, even before Wilson's confession to the Wickliffe murder, Kunz and Coventry said they suspected Wilson was responsible; that's because Edgar Hope -- also charged and later convicted as an accomplice in the guard killing -- allegedly cast suspicion on Wilson.
On Monday, Hope's attorney in that case, Marc Miller, testified before Schreier that Hope has insisted all along that Logan was innocent.
In March 1982, Hope "ordered me to tell Logan's attorney that . . . he represented an innocent man," Miller testified Monday. Miller said he did that and also spoke with Kunz and Coventry. Soon after, Kunz and Coventry confronted Wilson.
But while Miller, Kunz and Coventry agonized over the secret information, all of them felt they would be violating strict ethics rules if they went to authorities.
Neither Logan's family nor Harold Winston, one of Logan's current attorneys, appears to blame the lawyers who kept the secret for 26 years.
They say police and prosecutors should have done a better investigation in 1982.
"There is no physical evidence that links Alton Logan to this case," Winston told reporters Monday.
Kunz, who watched Monday's proceedings in court, said he regrets that Logan has spent 26 years in prison, but he doesn't regret what he didn't do back in 1982.
"If I had come forward while Wilson was still alive, I would have been inviting the indictment of Andrew Wilson on a capital case -- that would have made me feel guilty," Kunz said. "That, I can't stand to do; it violates the marrow of my being."
The case resumes April 18.
CRIME | Attorneys say they didn't reveal their client's murder confession 26 years ago as Alton Logan served prison term
March 11, 2008
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter/sesposito@suntimes.com
Twenty-six years ago in a Cook County jail cell, accused cop killer Andrew Wilson grinned and hugged himself.
Wilson's lawyers had just told him about a man charged in the murder of a security guard during a robbery at a South Side McDonald's in January 1982.
"He was tickled pink," one of those attorneys, W. Jameson Kunz, said in an interview Monday.
That's because during that same conversation Wilson had admitted to killing the security guard, the lawyers now say.
Bound by the near sacred relationship between attorney and client, Kunz and Dale Coventry say they were forced to keep the confession secret for 26 years, and in so doing, helped keep an innocent man in prison.
Now, Kunz and Coventry have come forward with their secret, hoping to use it to finally free 54-year-old Alton Logan. Wilson died last year while serving a life term for the slayings of Chicago Police Officers William Fahey and Richard O'Brien. Wilson told his attorneys they could reveal the truth about Logan after his death.
Among the issues Cook County Judge James Schreier must now consider is Logan's attorney's request to allow Kunz and Coventry to testify at a hearing about whether Logan deserves a new trial for the murder of the security guard, off-duty Cook County sheriff's employee Lloyd Wickliffe. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office has yet to announce whether it will fight the request.
Back in 1982, even before Wilson's confession to the Wickliffe murder, Kunz and Coventry said they suspected Wilson was responsible; that's because Edgar Hope -- also charged and later convicted as an accomplice in the guard killing -- allegedly cast suspicion on Wilson.
On Monday, Hope's attorney in that case, Marc Miller, testified before Schreier that Hope has insisted all along that Logan was innocent.
In March 1982, Hope "ordered me to tell Logan's attorney that . . . he represented an innocent man," Miller testified Monday. Miller said he did that and also spoke with Kunz and Coventry. Soon after, Kunz and Coventry confronted Wilson.
But while Miller, Kunz and Coventry agonized over the secret information, all of them felt they would be violating strict ethics rules if they went to authorities.
Neither Logan's family nor Harold Winston, one of Logan's current attorneys, appears to blame the lawyers who kept the secret for 26 years.
They say police and prosecutors should have done a better investigation in 1982.
"There is no physical evidence that links Alton Logan to this case," Winston told reporters Monday.
Kunz, who watched Monday's proceedings in court, said he regrets that Logan has spent 26 years in prison, but he doesn't regret what he didn't do back in 1982.
"If I had come forward while Wilson was still alive, I would have been inviting the indictment of Andrew Wilson on a capital case -- that would have made me feel guilty," Kunz said. "That, I can't stand to do; it violates the marrow of my being."
The case resumes April 18.
