The Trials of Claus von Bülow: The Professor — Ep. 3 | MK Confidential
The Megyn Kelly Show
Alan Dershowitz recounts defending Klaus von Bülow in a high-profile murder case, using science and law to overturn a conviction based on flawed evidence. The trial became a landmark in legal history, exposing systemic f
Key takeaways
- Case hinged on disputed insulin evidence
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) It is April 1st, 1982, April Fool's Day. The phone rings in the office of a Harvard Law Professor. On the other end is a man the entire country has just watched get convicted of attempted murder, asking the professor to take his case. The Harvard man thinks it's a prank. He very nearly hangs up, but he doesn't. Over the next three years, that professor and 18 law students will take the most famous conviction in America and turn it completely inside out. The professor's name is Alan Dershowitz, a kid from Brooklyn, a graduate of Yale Law, with a reputation as the top lawyer of last resort, and a friend of mine. So rather than tell you what happened with Alan Dershowitz and his students, we decided to ask him directly. Coming up, Alan breaks it down in his own words, the notes, the needle, the science, and any doubt he's still carried. I'm Megan Kelly, and this is MK Confidential. 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Use my promo code Megan at hometitlelock.com to get a free title history report plus a free trial of million dollar triple lock protection so you can make sure you're not already a victim. That's home titlelock.com promo code Megan or use the link in our description. A quick word about this episode. Most of what you're going to hear is a conversation. Yours truly and Alan Dershowitz. The man who engineers one of the most stunning reversals in American legal history. You will also hear a few moments from the 1990 Oscar-winning film made based on Allen's book, Reversal of Fortune, starring Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close. So let's start at the beginning with your relationship with Klaus. He called you for the first time on April Fool's Day. You did not believe it was actually Klaus von Buehlo. So what actually made you take Klaus von Buello's case? Well, first of all, my son, I thought was him who called me. My son, Ilan, always was calling me, pretending to be famous people. He called me pretending to be Michael Jackson. I believed him. And so I thought he was Klaus von Bulo. But then when he told me everybody thinks I'm guilty, I said, that's my kind of case. I'm going to do it. And everybody said there's no way you would win the appeal. There's no way you'd win a retrial. So it was a challenge, and I love challenges. And this was not, to him, an ordinary appeal. So what was at stake for Klaus? Alan spoke to that. He said, Alan, this is a capital case. I said, but you haven't been sentenced to death. You've been sentenced to 30 years. He said, Alan, I'm not going into prison. I'm going to do what a gentleman does. If you don't reverse my conviction, I'm not going to prison. He was going to kill himself. And so we did regard the case as a case. capital case because I know he meant it. Alan has said that he would never even have been allowed into Newport, into Clarendon Court, with all its glitz and glamour. But Klaus is the ultimate insider, the accent, the title, the Fifth Avenue apartment. So why does Klaus von Buello call a kid from Brooklyn to help him? He was the man who recommended me to be his lawyer. I didn't know Klaus von Buehle and he didn't know me, but he sort of recommendation. from a former Supreme Court Justice of the United States, who was then retired. And the justice said, I can't do it. I'm retired. But Dershowitz is a really good appellate lawyer. Hire him. And so actually, the justice took notes on the side of the briefs, and I used some of his notes in my argument. There's a famous scene in reversal fortune where your character says to him something like, You're very odd, Klaus. And Jeremy Irons, playing Klaus, responds, You have no idea. Was he odd? He was odd, but my son, Elon, wrote that line. You're a very strange man. You have no idea. I had told my son, Elon was one of the producers of the movie, and of course he knew me very well. And I told him about my actual encounter with Klaus that I said to him, You know, Klaus, I don't understand you. You are, I just, we are totally different. You seem so, so weird and strange. And he said back, yeah, but you don't really have any idea about how strange I am. And then Elon wrote it into, you have no idea. And they used that in the Lion King as well. And it became kind of a famous line in motion picture. But it was a very important line in the movie. So you, like everybody else, when you'd been. looking at it from the outside thought for sure this guy is guilty. Oh, of course. Then you get on the inside and did you change your mind about his almost certain guilt? Yeah, I changed it first from almost certain guilt to I'm not sure to finally there was no crime here. There was just no crime. She did it to herself. We found all the evidence that she was self-destructive and she was drinking and eating things. she wasn't supposed to drink and eat. And then we were able to prove scientifically that there was never any insulin and the government's entire theory collapsed. And at that point, I was fairly confident that we'd win the appeal. So you decide to assemble a dream team of lawyers and lawyers in