Defense attorneys clash with prison over recorded meetings

[friendly_iconoclast]

http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Defense-attorneys-clash-with-prison-over-recorded-9186774.php

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Defense attorneys who represent inmates at a privately run federal prison in Kansas were livid after learning that their meetings with clients had been recorded on video, despite repeated assurances from the penitentiary that the conversations were private.

The recordings that came to light this month had no audio, but the complaints raise the question of whether nonverbal interactions such as body language or the exchange of legal documents are protected under attorney-client privilege.

"We never had any idea we were being recorded," said Laine Cardarella, a federal public defender in Missouri whose clients include detainees at the Leavenworth prison. "This has had a chilling effect."

A federal judge said the recordings might have violated the Sixth Amendment rights of hundreds of inmates and ordered them stopped.