Professor Lisa Lerman from Catholic Law School will present “Re-examining the Lake Pleasant Bodies Case: A Case Study in Ethical Decision-making” on Monday, Nov. 10 at 3 p.m. in Room 151 at Akron Law. Coffee and cookies will be served along with this presentation.
More than 30 years ago, two American lawyers named Frank Armani and Francis Belge represented an accused murderer, Robert Garrow. Garrow told his lawyers that he had killed several teenagers, and he told the lawyers where their bodies were located. The lawyers tried to negotiate a plea for their client but were turned down.
During a trial of the first murder charge, Garrow confessed to the murders under oath. The press and the public then realized that the lawyers had known all along about their client's crimes, and there arose a hue and cry against the lawyers. The lawyers faced criminal charges, a disciplinary investigation, death threats, ostracism within their community, and extensive damage to their law practices.
The case remains a central one in legal ethics instruction because it offers a vivid illustration of the potential moral conflict presented by the duty to protect confidences.
Professor Lerman's talk will revisit the many difficult ethical decisions that confronted Armani, and will use the case to illustrate the pedagogical value of in-depth study of legal ethics cases.
