As a former career prosecutor, if I believed a defendant could give up bigger criminal fish, I generally tried to convince them to plead guilty and cooperate by providing truthful information about others who committed crimes. However, I wasn't always successful in securing cooperation from defendants. Some defendants wanted their trial, and I was always happy to give it to them. However, in the event of conviction, I generally stepped back to the defendant, though their counsel, and made one final run at cooperation in exchange for a somewhat reduced sentence.