John Grisham's "The Client" was published in 1993, and subsequently made into a movie.
An eleven year old (going on thirty), Mark Sway, and his younger brother, Ricky, sneak away from their Memphis mobile home park to smoke cigarettes in the woods. They come upon a car, idling, with one end of a hose inserted in the tailpipe and the other end stuffed into one of the windows. The driver, Jerome Clifford, the sole occupant, is a lawyer for the mob. He's drunk and wants to die.
Mark figures out the driver's intentions and sneaks up and removes the hose. Clifford gets out, sees the hose dislodged from the tailpipe, looks around, re-inserts it, and gets back in the car. Mark pulls it out again. Clifford gets out and re-inserts it again. Finally, Clifford catches Mark and forces him into the car, while Ricky watches in terror from the reeds.
Jerome Clifford, Attorney at Law, slaps Mark around, offers him some whiskey, and figures, in his drunken state, he won't die alone. Mark is one of those kids that questions everything. So, a conversation ensues. Mark learns that Clifford represents a mob hit-man. This hit-man killed a United States Senator, for which the FBI has not yet found the body. Clifford discloses to Mark where the body is buried. He doesn't mind telling the kid because the kid's going to la-la land too.
Mark escapes and watches from the reeds while Clifford staggers out of the car, looks around, puts a gun to his head, and takes his own life. Little Ricky goes into shock.
At home, Marks calls 911, trying to disguise his voice. He returns to the scene to watch the police, and accidently gets caught by an officer.
To make a long story short (although I will not reveal the ending), Ricky goes to the hospital. Mark's mother (divorced and single) stays glued to Ricky. Mark sneaks out of the hospital and hires a lawyer. The mob and the U.S. Attorney figure out that Mark knows more than he's telling; they found Mark's fingerprints inside the car. A local newspaper man breaks the story with Mark's picture on the front page.
The problem is, Mark won't disclose what was said to him inside the car. He fears for his life and that of his family.
Mark is taken into custody and placed in a juvenile detention center. On the way to the center, Mark asks the cops why they didn't read him his rights. No response. So, Mark yells out, "I have a right to remain silent."
Up to this point, the Feds have not officially offered the Witness Protection Program to Mark and his family. Remember: Government and its agents have no legal duty to protect unless government and its agents promise to do so; then, and only then, do they become liable.
Mark is hauled in Juvenile Court under the pretext that he's obstructing justice by not disclosing the contents of his conversation with Clifford in the car; that it is a citizen's duty and obligation to cooperate in a criminal investigation, even if the witness fears for his or her life by doing so.
In Chapter 25, upon questioning by the judge, Mark pleads the Fifth, which is not applicable here. What we have here is a collision between the witnesses' Right to Remain Silent versus the Fed's charge of Obstruction of Justice. What the Fed wants is for the witness to disclose the information without any promise by the Fed to protect him and his family.
The Public Duty Doctrine has been around since 1850 or so. In Grisham's Chapter 25, Grisham does not mention, through the character of the Judge, that government and its agents have no legal duty to protect; that they can't be held liable for failure to protect because there was no legal duty to protect in the first place, except if an offer to do so was granted and accepted.
Grisham is a lawyer and one of the most popular writers of our time. I know this is a work of fiction. Fiction or not, this most fundamental concept, The Public Duty Doctrine, should have been included into the storyline.
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