Why Guilt or Innocence May Not Matter to Your Criminal Defense Attorney
An attorney has a duty to zealously represent his clients in criminal matters—regardless of the person’s guilt. Under our criminal justice system, everyone charged with a crime has a right to a vigorous defense. This is a protection all accused people have under the United States Constitution. An attorney does not have a duty to prove a client’s innocence, so it does
not really matter to him whether the person is guilty. His duty is to prove the person’s defenses to show that he is not legally guilty.
Guilt is also not that important because criminal defense attorneys often feel like they never really know whether their clients are guilty or not. Even if someone confesses to his attorney, it does not mean that he really did it. He could be covering for someone else or have another reason for lying. In addition, he may not be guilty of this offense, but could have committed a less serious offense. For these and other reasons, attorneys often do not ask about guilt when talking to clients in criminal cases and instead focus their questions to clients on building a strong defense.
While your attorney has a duty to provide you with a defense if there is one to raise, this does not mean that he can lie for you. If he knows that you are guilty of the crime, he could not claim that you did not commit the crime as a defense. However, this does not preclude him from raising defenses that show the weaknesses in the prosecutor’s case against you.
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