NATION : Lawyer Silence on Suicide Upheld

BOSTON —  Charles Stuart’s lawyer does not have to testify to a grand jury about a conversation he had with his client the day before Stuart leaped to his death from a bridge, the state Supreme Court ruled today.

The court ruled that John T. Dawley’s attorney-client privilege was not undone with his client’s suicide last Jan. 4 that threw a final twist in the mysterious plot to kill Stuart’s wife, Carol.

The Suffolk County district attorney’s office had wanted Dawley to testify before a grand jury gathering evidence in the death of Carol Stuart, a tax attorney who was shot and killed Oct. 23, 1989.

Dawley met with Stuart for about two hours last Jan. 3, and investigators contend that the 30-year-old fur store manager admitted to his lawyer that he killed his wife. The next day, Stuart jumped to his death off a bridge into Boston Harbor.