What happen to the idea that it is better to let 10 guilty men go free than keep one innocent in jail? Oh that's right we are talking about protecting the lawyers and they get to make the rules. So much for justice.

Attorney client privilege does nothing to protect the lawyers - it protects the client.

It seems to me that there's an exception to most every privilege when imminent harm is involved. I cannot imagine that the privilege is so inviolable that it would serve to protect a dead man and allow an innocent man to be harmed by the injustice of wrongful imprisonment. But I'm not a judge in the deep south, either.

But, at a minimum, privilege should die with the client.

Perhaps from a legal standpoint, as well as a logistical one, this makes sense. And perhaps Hughes is correct on the ethics of the thing, as well, I don't know. these seem a lot of questions attached.

For example, I wonder if the deceased's family, etc was affected by this revelation. Other than the defendant being defended, what were the ramifications of the revelation? Could all the possibilities... the whole matrix of them... be accounted for properly by a law? Lawmakers, I fear, like to think... unjustifiably... that they can see all ends.

You call this statement what you will, but it appears to me clear that the one thing this case does is make it clear that morality is never as simple as a mere rulebook.

It's more complicated than that, because a defendant may have committed an the action which underlies the crime, but still not be guilty of the crime. For example, if you kill someone in the heat of passion, you're not guilty of first degree murder, because you didn't satisfy the "premeditated" element of the charge.

Additionally, you can defend someone you know is guilty without lying to the court. All you have to do is argue that there is a reasonable doubt, not that the client is not guilty. Additionally, a defense attorney is obligated to plea what his client wants. That said, in some jurisdictions a lawyer might be ethically bound to encourage a client to plea guilty in such circumstances. But a lawyer can't MAKE the client plea guilty.