JJ, how is a lawyer’s job different (besides dealing with technical procedural issues)?
CTL, IMHO if the client tells the lawyer that he is guilty it is immoral to provide alternative theories (unless, of course, the attorney thinks that the client is not telling the truth for some reason). Rather if the client refuses a plea agreement he should withdraw from the case. A really interesting scenario would be if the lawyer is a witness to the crime and his name pops up on the public defender list. Would he cross-examine himself? BTW, there is an article on this subject called WHEN THE LAWYER KNOWS THE CLIENT IS GUILTY: CLIENT CONFESSIONS IN LEGAL ETHICS, POPULAR CULTURE, AND LITERATURE, which was delivered in a shorter form as a lecture at the UCLA law school.