"The Devil's Advocate" dies at 88

Jacques Vergés, a lawyer known as "the devil's advocate" for defending some of the worst monsters of the 20th century, died this week in France.

When Morley Safer interviewed Vergés in 2004 for 60 Minutes, he asked the French lawyer how he could represent the world's most vile war criminals, like Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie who played a role in the torture, execution and deportation to death camps of thousands of French citizens.

Safer: You must have hated what he represented.
Vergés: I am not able of hating. I am not able of hating.
Safer: Even the worst monster you are not able to hate?
Vergés: No. I am curious to understand. I am condemning, but I am not hating.

Vergés' client list included Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal and Cambodia's Khmer Rouge head of state, Khieu Samphan.

According to a statement released by his publisher, Vergés died in Paris at the house where the philosopher Voltaire once lived. Vergés was 88 years old.

An edited excerpt of Safer's interview is included above.