Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: talking to attourney about murder - rules

1. Yes, but he can't let the client take the stand and deny committing the crime. And I note that the plea isn't "innocent" but rather "not guilty." They are not quite the same thing, since a jury's finding of not guilty means only that they have at least a reasonable doubt and not that they have determined the defendant is actually innocent.

2. No. In fact, in addition to not being required to report the crime, the lawyer is actually forbidden to do so. The attorney-client privilege requires that all confidential conversations with a client about the subject of the lawyer's representation (or, in this case, potential representation) are confidential unless and until the client decides otherwise. An attorney is required to protect client confidences and has a duty of undivided loyalty to each client. Reporting such a conversation to the police would violate both of these principles. There is only one very narrow exception to this rule, and it is addressed in my answer to your next question.

3. The law on this question varies from state to state and there is an ongoing dispute about how a lawyer should respond to such a disclosure. In some jurisdictions, the lawyer must report this type of statement. In others, he may report it but is not required to. There may be others which forbid him to do so. The law here in California is not entirely clear, but it seems that California would permit but not require the disclosure; even then, disclosure would only be appropriate if the client had stated his intent to eminently harmed a specific person and if his statement reasonably appeared to be serious. Additionally, this disclosure would only be allowed where the client has threatened to kill or seriously injure someone; threats to commit nonviolent crimes would remain confidential.