Reversal of Fortune1990

Alan Dershowitz:
We've got two big problems here. The case against him is very strong but more importantly is the absolute certainty that Claus is guilty, finding grounds for reversal won't be enough here. Judges on the Rhode Island Supreme Court will have to go home to their wives and explain to them why they reversed. To do that we have to totally obliterate the States case so that they have no other reason to affirm. Total victory or we are dead in the water. Now, I assumed you've all had a chance to go over the transcripts and materials, first impressions?

[Minnie raises her hand]

Alan Dershowitz:
Yeah, Minnie.

Minnie:
I think this whole case stinks! I think von Bülow stinks! He's obviously guilty of something pretty despicable and if we free him we become his accessories, accomplices after the fact. I'm really shocked with your reputation for defending the poor and oppressed that you've taken this case. [Stands up] I won't have anything to do with it, and I hope my fellow students won't either.

Alan Dershowitz:
Can I exercise my First Amendment right to free speech? If lawyers only defended innocent clients there would only be 12 defense attorneys and none of you would be able to find a job.

Minnie:
Why help guilty people get off?

Alan Dershowitz:
Oh you're sure he's guilty, 100% sure?

Minnie:
He had a lawyer. He had a trial. He was convicted.

Alan Dershowitz:
Are you sure he had a fair trial?

Minnie:
Come on!

Alan Dershowitz:
It's the basis of the whole legal system! Everyone gets a defense. So the system is there for the innocent person falsely accused. OK, say it's you OK? You decide you're gonna get a divorce, you're gonna divorce your husband. A week later you're accused of child abuse. [Minnie smiles in disbelief] Oh, no don't give me that people do it all the time. Suddenly you're alone it's a disaster. Everyone thinks that you are guilty. Even the mailman is looking at you a little funny. There's only one person who can help you. There's only one person who you can trust, your lawyer.

Minnie:
Yeah, okay, so, someone's got to defend Claus. But why you, why us?

Alan Dershowitz:
Look, you're my student, you, you have a choice. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do; that is your choice. The reason I take cases -- and here I'm unlike most other lawyers, who are not professors and therefore have to make a living -- I take cases because I get pissed off. And I am pissed off here. The family hired a private prosecutor: unacceptable! They conducted a private search! Now if we let them get away with that, rich people won't go to the cops any more. You know what they're going to do? They're going to get their own lawyers to collect evidence -- and then they are going to choose which evidence they feel like passing on to the DA. And the next victim isn't going to be rich, like von Bülow -- but it's going to be some poor schnook in Detroit who can't afford, or who can't find, a decent lawyer. I think it's a little more complicated than your simple moral superiority, hmm?