Alan Dershowitz: Why I defend guilty and innocent people

Alan Dershowitz is one of America’s most high profile lawyers.

He told Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur that his job is to represent the guilty, the innocent and everybody in between.

"In both of our countries most people who are charged with crime are in fact guilty and the reason that is the case is because defence attorneys like me zealously defend the guilty along with the innocent.

"That's the way we prevent the government from charging too many innocent people. That's the way the system works and it works well," he said.

Watch the full interview on BBC iPlayer (UK only)