If you have committed a crime, what should you do?  If no one is aware you committed the crime, should you turn yourself in?  If you are being investigated as a suspect, should you simply confess to the crime?  Or if you have been arrested and are on trial for a crime, should you plead guilty to the crime?  While from a moral standpoint you may believe that you should turn yourself in, confess, or plead guilty to the crime, the decision may not be so clear cut from a legal standpoint.  In fact, a criminal defense attorney is going to advise you to do anything but confess to or plead guilty to the crime.

The job of a criminal defense attorney is to defend you against charges brought against you.  Even if you committed a crime and tell your attorney that you did so, the criminal defense attorney is still obligated to give you the best defense possible.  The attorney does this by gathering and presenting evidence to minimize the punishment you receive, if any.  Your attorney will advise you and perform different responsibilities depending on when he is brought into the case.

No one is aware you committed the crime. If no one knows that you committed a crime, then from a purely legal perspective, a criminal defense attorney will likely advise you to keep it this way.  While a criminal defense attorney cannot legally advise you to tamper with evidence of the crime, they can advise you on steps to take such that the crime is less likely to come to light, such as simply not telling anyone else about it.

You are being investigated as a suspect for the crime. If you are being investigated for a crime, a criminal defense attorney will review any evidence they can that the prosecution may be using to build a case against you.  The defense attorney will also attempt to uncover or present evidence to the police that will convince them not to file charges against you for the crime.  Again, in this situation, a criminal defense attorney will likely advise you not to confess to the police that you committed the crime.

You have been arrested and are going on trial for the crime. If you have been arrested for a crime you committed and are awaiting trial, a criminal defense attorney will again generally advise you not to confess to or plead guilty to the crime.  As in the investigation process, a criminal defense attorney will review the evidence of the prosecution and attempt to refute the evidence, in an attempt to lead to a not guilty verdict.

One of the few times when a criminal defense attorney may advise you to plead guilty to a crime is in the case of a plea bargain.  A plea bargain is when the defendant is willing to plead guilty to a lesser crime than what he was charged with originally, in exchange for receiving a lesser sentence.  A plea bargain may be a possibility in a case when the prosecution knows that obtaining a guilty verdict may be a long, difficult, and expensive process, and the defense does not want the case to go to trial out of fear that his client will be found guilty.

While a plea bargain would result in a lesser sentence, it also means the defendant will have a criminal record.  Therefore, pleading guilty to a crime should not be done lightly, even in the case of a plea bargain.

How can I contact a criminal defense attorney to get guidance on a crime I committed?

If you would like to discuss your situation with a criminal defense attorney, you can do so by completing the short form found at http://www.criminaldefensehome.com/eval_bar.php.  This discussion is free of charge and does not obligate you to anything further.  Perhaps most importantly if you committed a crime, any conversation you have with a criminal defense attorney is protected by attorney-client privilege.  This means that the attorney cannot tell anyone else what you share with them, even if you inform them that you committed a crime.

Given the serious penalties you may receive if you are found guilty of a crime, do not take your situation into your own hands.  Please take advantage of this opportunity to get advice from a trained criminal defense attorney today.

by Mark Johnston

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