Alton Logan was sen­tenced to life in prison for the 1982 mur­der of a secu­ri­ty guard in a McDonald’s restau­rant in Illinois. The state had orig­i­nal­ly sought the death penal­ty. New infor­ma­tion in the form of a con­fes­sion has now come for­ward from an attor­ney in anoth­er case indi­cat­ing that Logan may not be guilty of the crime. Soon after the restau­rant mur­der, two Chicago police offi­cers were shot to death, and a man named Andrew Wilson was charged with their mur­der. Wilson was asked by his defense lawyers, Dale Coventry and Jamie Kunz, if he – not Logan — was also involved in the McDonald’s mur­der. He grinned and said, ​“That was me.”

At the time, Coventry and Kunz were bound by attor­ney-client priv­i­lege and could not inter­vene on Logan’s behalf. Wilson told his attor­neys that they could reveal this infor­ma­tion after his death. Coventry and Kunz drew up an affi­davit detail­ing what Wilson said, then had it nota­rized and sealed in a met­al box. Wilson died last November and the box and its con­tents were final­ly released to the courts and pub­lic.

The two defense attor­neys told the Chicago Tribune how the evi­dence of Logan’s inno­cence, and their inabil­i­ty to legal­ly dis­close it until Wilson died, had haunt­ed them over the years. Kunz, now 70, said, ​“It was a relief. Oh my God, I have been want­i­ng this. I have con­sid­ered this to be the truth. I have been want­i­ng this to come out for years. I don’t know any­thing about Alton Logan. It hurts to know some­body is in prison all these years and is inno­cent.” Alton Logan’s co-defen­dant also had said that Logan was not involved in the restau­rant mur­der.
(“Inmate’s free­dom may hinge on secret kept for 26 years,” by Maurice Possley, Chicago Tribune, January 19, 2008). See Innocence.

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