Lawyers profiting from wrongly convicted? [View All]

[The Straight Story]

Lawyers profiting from wrongly convicted?


DALLAS, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- A lawsuit charges that a lawyer with the Innocence Project of Texas is getting a cut from compensation paid to the wrongly convicted after their release.

Jeff Blackburn, the Innocence Project's chief counsel, told The Dallas Morning News he is "shocked" by the suit.

Steven Charles Phillips, a Dallas-area man wrongly imprisoned for 25 years for sex crimes he did not commit, said Kevin Glasheen, a Lubbock lawyer who represented him in his compensation case, and Blackburn tried to collect almost $1 million in fees from him. In legal papers, the suit charges Blackburn referred compensation cases to Glasheen, who would split the fee with him.

Phillips is being represented in the suit by Randy Turner, whose wife was formerly a member of the Innocence Project board.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/12/12/Lawyers-profiting-from-wrongly-convicted/UPI-15311260601924/