Lawyers profiting from wrongly convicted?

[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/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I'm just the opposite.

I agonize on my representation of even traffic tickets.

In NJ, attorneys are assigned indigent clients. I was assigned someone already imprisoned. I was afraid I couldn't get him released as it was my first time. Not only did I get him out, but I went with him like a mom to his parole visits biweekly and his anger management courses to make sure he stayed out of prison.

I can't imagine the depravity or the coarse indifference to a client. If my client were wrongly convicted, it would be my mission to get him/her released and exonerated. Either it was "the System" or I would have to undo anything I did or didn't do.