Lawyer's revelation of confession may ruin him

Staples Hughes' career is in jeopardy for having disclosed the confession of a client, now dead, that he alone killed a couple

Lawyer Staples Hughes was trying to do the right thing when he disclosed information that could help prove a man innocent of murder.

Now it may cost him his law license.

Hughes, the state's appellate defender, disclosed earlier this year that his client, a co-defendant in the murder, had confessed 20 years earlier that he alone killed Roland and Lisa Matthews in Fayetteville.

After his client, Jerry Cashwell, died, Hughes spoke up. The confession, coupled with challenges to how bullet evidence was analyzed, could get a new trial for Lee Wayne Hunt, who was convicted of the slayings 21 years ago and sentenced to life in prison.

It also puts Hughes in a fight for his career.

During a hearing to seek a new trial for Hunt, a Cumberland County Superior Court judge said he would file a complaint with the N.C. State Bar over Hughes' testimony about the confession. As Cashwell's attorney, Hughes was bound by attorney-client privilege to keep the confession secret. But Hughes believed that his duty to Cashwell died with his client.

Judge Jack Thompson rejected Hughes' testimony, and Hunt's bid for freedom. Hughes was later notified that a bar grievance had been filed against him.

"It crossed my mind a thousand times that somebody might report me to the bar," Hughes said. "I'm sure he thought he was doing what he thought was right, and I thought I was doing what was right under the circumstances. It was a sobering moment."

Hughes said he has filed a response to the complaint, but it is unclear when the bar will make a decision. The N.C. Supreme Court could determine whether Hughes is right or wrong when Hunt's attorneys ask the court to review the murder case.

Meanwhile, the issue has exposed a thorny ethical dilemma that cuts to the heart of a lawyer's mission -- serving justice.

Client confides

Hunt had been a notorious drug dealer in Fayetteville but maintained from the start that he had not murdered the Matthewses.

In March 1984, the couple were found shot and stabbed to death in their home on a rural road in Cumberland County. About one year later, Hunt, Cashwell and Kenneth Wayne West were arrested and charged with the murders.

Hughes interviewed Cashwell at the Cumberland jail in the weeks after the arrest. That's when Cashwell confessed that he was the sole killer. Hughes, a young public defender assigned to the case, was stunned, but he couldn't tell anyone.

"All of a sudden, time just stands still in a way," Hughes said. "I don't know whether ethical behavior is always the same as being a moral hero. Maybe if I were some moral hero, I would have told. But it was very clear-cut to me that the only ethical course was that it was not in my client's interest to reveal it, and of course I did not."

Cashwell was tried first, convicted of the double murder and sentenced to two life terms.

Hunt was tried later and convicted in October 1986. He also received two life sentences.

The only physical evidence connecting Hunt to the crime was a bullet lead analysis conducted by the FBI. It appeared to show that crime-scene bullets matched those in a box that Hunt owned. Scientists now say the bullet lead analysis that the prosecutor relied on is misleading and should not be used as evidence.

The remaining evidence against him was from Hunt's co-defendants: drug dealers who had agreed to testify against Hunt in exchange for immunity or reduced prison time for their roles in the crime.

"It was awful, because I know what's going on in the courtroom down the hall from my office is a bunch of fabrications," Hughes said, recalling his reaction to Hunt's trial years ago.