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Why You Should Never Confess A Crime To Your Lawyer

30 December 2020 by Louise Boyd

Some people are tempted to discuss their feelings of guilt with a lawyer. This can be for emotional reasons, or it might be from the misplaced belief that the attorney needs to know everything.

Criminal lawyers almost always discourage their clients from confessing offenses to them, though. Here is why that is and how it might affect your case.

Ability to Present Several Defenses

Under criminal law, an attorney can't openly present an argument that contradicts what they know to be the truth. If a lawyer doesn't know for sure what your whereabouts were at the time of an offense, they can present arguments indicating you were elsewhere or that a different person committed the crime. Conversely, they're not allowed to pose anything that contradicts what you've told them.

This is particularly the case in defenses where the central claim is you had no involvement. The so-called SODDI defense, meaning "some other dude did it," is only presentable if your attorney has a plausible reason to believe that might be true.

While it's not impossible to present a case after a defendant has confessed, it is limiting. A criminal lawyer may have to focus on procedural elements, such as showing the police didn't search with probable cause.

Also, it hamstrings the attorney's ability to present multiple defenses at once. Oftentimes, a lawyer will try to poke holes in procedural and civil rights issues while simultaneously asserting a defendant wasn't present at a crime scene.

Obligation to Disclose Evidence

Suppose a defendant told an attorney where they hid a weapon related to an assault case. If the police find out that the lawyer knows, the lawyer is supposed to divulge the location.

This can create a scenario where criminal lawyers are damned either way. Under the right set of circumstances, an attorney may have to choose between suffering sanctions for not zealously representing their client and suffering sanctions for hiding evidence. In the most extreme circumstances, a lawyer may be disbarred or even tried as a co-defendant.

Don't Presume Your Guilt

As much as a juror is supposed to not presume a defendant's guilt, neither should you presume you did anything illegal. Criminal lawyers can sometimes help clients provide legally acceptable justifications for what happened. For example, you might be able to assert a self-defense claim. Under those circumstances, there just isn't a crime for the client to confess.

Remember, it's the prosecution's job to prove that you're guilty. Don't do their job for them.

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