Is It a Valuable Judgment on the Part of the Attorney?

As a defense attorney, you might be able to be productive in not having your client get punished more than he ought to be. But ultimately, the the attorney will not determine the sentence. This is parallel to the question of whether or not the attorney considers his client to be innocent. The attorney must make some sort of value judgment on this,. but ultimately, it isn't the attorney who determines guilt or innocence it's the trier of fact, if it's jury trial.