Individuals facing trial in a criminal case often attempt to withhold vital information from their defense attorney. The individuals might believe that an admission of guilt or their involvement in the case might alter the criminal defense lawyer’s motivation to defend them, or that the defense lawyer might not fight as hard for them if they have admitted their guilt.
However, the truth could not be further from the truth. A dedicated criminal defense lawyer is committed to providing a zealous defense for his client without regard to an admission of guilt or a personal opinion on the case. A dedicated criminal defense lawyer stands between you and the prosecutor and defends his client with everything he has at his disposal.
Therefore, the wise course of action is to make certain that your criminal defense lawyer knows as much as you know, and definitely more than the prosecutor knows. Otherwise, a criminal defense lawyer without the benefit of the client’s complete knowledge of the case risks heading blindly into an area that he would not have if he had known everything the client knew. Conversely, the criminal defense lawyer may identify a defense or a theory leading to a positive resolution based upon facts learned from his client.
One unshakeable tenant of law in this country is that an individual is innocent until proven guilty. The prosecutor is charged with the task of proving a defendant’s guilt while the criminal defense lawyer’s role is precisely the opposite. A dedicated criminal defense lawyer is beholden to legal principles, such as the presumption of innocence, and also defends these bedrock principles as well, and would never alter in that pursuit.
Providing your criminal defense lawyer with the benefit of the entire truth gives your lawyer the opportunity to determine which defenses and issues to raise, and just as important, which defenses and issues not to raise. The competent and dedicated criminal defense lawyer is not involved in passing judgment of his client, but rather he is solely purposed with preventing you from being convicted of the alleged criminal conduct.