Do offenders admit their crime(s) to their lawyers?

Some do, some don’t, it depends more on the person than anything else. But, there are upsides to both – the more lawyers know, the more they can prepare, but they also cannot knowingly put the defendant on the witness stand to perjure themselves, so it can both help and hinder, depending upon exactly what they know.

In the movies, I’ve seen defense attorneys tell their guilty clients they don’t want to know what happened, because the truth will limit their options. Instead, he wanted to focus on countering the evidence brought forth by the prosecutor. I have no idea how that corresponds to reality.

“Do offenders admit their crime(s) to their lawyers?”

The stupid ones might.

A wise man once told me that you can get away with anything, as long as you don’t tell anyone. There are many ways of telling… even unintentionally. Cover your tracks well.

Most defense attorneys refuse to ask and refuse to let their clients tell them. As @Aethelflaed notes, one downside is the possibility of an ethics committee hearing. Perjury is the major issue, but every part of the defendant’s case becomes subject to review if the defense attorney knows his client is guilty. Few lawyers care so much about their clients that they will risk going to prison in order to let their clients go free. The only major exception I can think of is mob lawyers, who are typically part of the overall operation anyway.

Some defense attorneys don’t want to know.

I worked for a public defender for a while many years ago. In my experience, almost every client agreed that they did what the police had charged them with, but they didn’t consider themselves “guilty” for one reason or another. For instance, there was one case of a guy who had a duffel bag filled with drugs in his car, but he swore up and down they were his friend’s, and his friend had set him up and sold him out to the cops.

A lawyer is required to give the best defense possible. It helps to have as much information as the defendant can provide. If the person committed the crime and there were witnesses then the lawyer might work on trying to get the person off on a technicality.

Not all of them or even many of them.

How could the lawyer be subject to perjury when what the client tells him is subject to attorney/client privelege?

@jca The lawyer is not open to perjury charges. He is open to a charge of suborning perjury. The lawyer doesn’t have to say or reveal anything, meaning he never violates the attorney/client privilege. What he does is knowingly allow his client to do something illegal (viz., to lie on the stand while under oath). Even lawyers have a code of professional ethics to which they are expected to conform. If they do not do so, they are open to criminal charges and professional sanctions.