How does attorney-client privilege work? And how is it not perjury to defend the innocence of someone who admitted their guilt to you?
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It gets slightly different depending on where you are in the world. It comes down to a lawyer cannot lie or mislead the court so KNOWING someone is guilty makes it difficult to defend, but you can defend someone you think is guilty but don’t know (ie you can think personally that they are guilty as sin, but unless the person confessed to you or something similar, then you don’t actually know that they are guilty)
From what others are saying it sounds like in the USA that the criminal can tell their lawyer they are guilty and the lawyer can say what he likes in court. Don’t know if that’s the right interpretation
In the UK, and I believe many other countries, lawyers rarely represent someone in a criminal case where they KNOW they are guilty as it greatly limits what the lawyer can do. It is because the lawyer cannot lie or deliberately mislead the court. So they can’t say or suggest their client was on the other side of the city at the time of the crime when they know they weren’t. It’s for this reason that criminals rarely admit their guilt, especially the full extent.
It means that lawyers may represent people who they believe are guilty but don’t know they are guilty. It’s also about giving the person a fair trial and process
What the defence can do is argue that the evidence doesn’t support the prosecution’s argue ment (eg that the witness couldn’t have seen that for xyz reasons, that their fingerprints/dna being there doesn’t mean they were there at that time but at some point before or after, etc)
I found this interesting article written by barrister in the uk that explains a lot of it
https://metro.co.uk/2018/08/01/people-ask-me-how-i-sleep-at-night-as-a-barrister-representing-criminals-who-might-be-guilty-is-just-part-of-my-job-7750268/
A lawyer can’t refuse to defend someone on the basis that they don’t like the client, or forms of discrimination, but they can refuse or step down for other reasons, but the client can also fire their barrister. The barrister has to honest with the client and tell them the restrictions they are under and what they think their chances are of a win. If the client thinks “shit. I said too much and this guy knows I’m guilty so won’t be able to argue that I’m not. I should get another lawyer and keep my trap shut” the. The client has a right to choose a new lawyer
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