Post No. 7,000

In the category of "Now it can be told"

The Chicago Tribune has this story of two public defenders who kept the secret of their client's murder confession, until his recent death.

Closer to home, a Virginia lawyer who represented a co-defendant in the Daryl Atkins case came forward with information that created doubt about his client's confession and led the circuit court to change Atkins' sentence to life in prison, as described here in the New York Times and here in the Washington Post. A timeline of the case is here.

Back in West Virginia, the justice who dined with Don Blankenship in the Riviera decided to recuse himself, after all, as described here in the New York Times.