<p>Admittedly, I don’t do high-profile (or even mid ;)) criminal work anymore but my standard speech goes like this:</p>
<p>You can lie to your Momma. You can lie to your preacher. You can even lie to God if you have to. But $%$%^%$ (insert profanity of your choosing), you better not lie to me. I can guarantee you, it never works out well. If I find myself with my underwear around my ankles in trial because you lied to me, I will not be happy. Trust me, you want to keep me happy.</p>
<p>Usually gets my point across. If they say they did it, they don’t testify. Ever. Waaay too risky. Even if it wasn’t against the rules, my folks aren’t good enough liars to pull it off. (In fairness, even if they say they didn’t do it, I usually don’t let them testify in the guilt/innocence phase.)</p>