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American Morning
Primaries Today in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas; Convicted D.C.-Area Sniper to be Sentenced Today
Aired March 09, 2004 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin in Iraq, though, where another U.S. soldier has been killed in a roadside bomb attack. The incident took place near Baquba (ph). That is north of Baghdad. The soldier was a member of the 1st Infantry Division.
Turning to U.S. politics now, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has an edge over President Bush in a recent CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup Poll. Among likely voters, 52 percent back Senator Kerry, 44 percent said they support the president.
Kerry met with voters yesterday in Florida ahead of primaries there today. Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi also have Democratic contests today.
Lowering cholesterol far below current standards prevents heart problems and gives the best chances of survival. According to a new study published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" found aggressive treatment with statin drugs was extremely beneficial to heart patients and improved heart attack survival. We'll have a little more on this later in the program.
DirecTV is accusing O.J. Simpson of pirating its satellite TV signal. In a lawsuit filed last week, the company demands at least $20,000 from the former football star. Federal agents removed satellite TV equipment from the Simpson house in a raid in 2001. DirecTV says the devices were boot loaders for unscrambling signals. His attorney says Simpson has been a loyal, paying customer for years.
And scientists are saying they may have found the British space probe Beagle II. The problem is it might be Beagle 63 or something -- lots of pieces. The probe has been missing since its scheduled landing on Mars set for Christmas Day of last year. Photographic images of the planned landing area show at least four bright spots that could be the remains of the probe. More proof is needed.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: That would be an amazing discovery, though, if that's what they've been able to find.
M. O'BRIEN: If they could at least see it.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: And maybe they could at least figure out what went wrong.
S. O'BRIEN: Right. M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: But they can't get it back.
M. O'BRIEN: The Beagle is not phoning home, though, no.
S. O'BRIEN: No. Not going to be bringing that thing back.
M. O'BRIEN: No.
(WEATHER BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Democrats in four southern states go to the polls today. The primaries in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas are contests in name only. They'll only serve to boost Senator John Kerry toward the official Democratic presidential nomination.
Florida's voting will no doubt be the most closely watched on account of its electoral recent past.
John Zarrella is at a polling station in Plantation, Florida, with more for us this morning.
John -- good morning.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, the polls here in Florida opened about 30 minutes ago. And as you can see, voter turnout is really, really light this morning with Senator Kerry's nomination all but wrapped up. They expected light turnout here today. But, of course, that will not be the case in the general election in November, where Florida is again considered to be a toss-up state that could come down to a few hundred votes, once again. And it could ultimately be decided by Independent voters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Four years later, Democrats in Florida still feel the sting of the 2000 election defeat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, there are a lot of hurt feelings from people who feel like the election was stolen right here in the state of Florida. But you can't win an election looking in the rearview mirror.
ZARRELLA: In many ways, the 2004 presidential race here is shaping up as a mirror image of the 2000 vote. The state is still split almost equally between Democrats at 41 percent and Republicans at 39 percent. Seventeen percent are Independent.
North of Orlando is largely Republican territory. The Democrats are strongest in the southeast. And an area called the I-4 corridor is the dividing line. It stretches from Tampa on the West Coast to Daytona Beach on the East Coast. The voters who live along the corridor could very well determine whether President Bush or Senator Kerry takes the state and its 27 electoral votes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those folks are the ones that are going to determine who wins Florida. Always have for the last, oh, five or six years, and I don't see that changing in this election.
ZARRELLA: Both parties will fall all over themselves coddling the corridor crowd. They are mostly suburbanites, younger than much of the state's population. They are working folks who tend to make up their minds late, and many are the registered Independents. The importance of the I-4 vote to both parties is already clear.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am so happy to be in Florida.
ZARRELLA: The day after his Super Tuesday wins, Kerry was in Orlando the epicenter of the corridor. The president had already kicked off the race.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Gentlemen, start your engines.
ZARRELLA: And the race for corridor voters with appearances in Daytona and later in Tampa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Soledad, it kind of gives me shivers to hold this up. That's an official ballot from the 2000 election, the old punch card ballots, don't have these anymore in Florida. In 15 of the counties, we have these electronic voting machines, including here, of course, in Broward County, optical scanners in much of the rest of the state of Florida. Done away with the punch cards. Don't have to worry about hanging chads. But, as everybody knows, machines aren't perfect. And come November, there still could be some problems all of this new technology. But Florida has finally gotten into the 21st century -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: But the potential for controversy, as you point out, springs eternal, right? John Zarrella for us this morning. John, thanks.
Well, one thing that President Bush and Senator John Kerry share in common is their Yale University education, but well before his Yale days, Senator Kerry attended a prestigious boarding school in Switzerland, while his father was a State Department lawyer in Berlin.
Alessio Vinci had a peek at Kerry's personal school file.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALISSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So this is the application form of John Kerry, No. 2587...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
VINCI: ... written by his mother, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
VINCI (voice-over): At the exclusive Institute Montana in Tuk (ph), Switzerland, discretion about who attends is of the essence. Its current director is Daniel Fridez.
DANIEL FRIDEZ, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE MONTANA: UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mother mentioned about the pupil's character, he's outgoing and friendly but needs to learn more self control and concentration.
VINCI: Kerry spent only one academic year here 50 years ago when he was 11 years old. The director agreed to let us take a peek at parts of Kerry's personal file, which includes correspondence between the school and Kerry's parents and his report cards. The file suggests Kerry was top of his class in many subjects. The director, however, asked us not to reveal his grades, but there is other insight about the 11-year-old in notes from the dean at the time.
FRIDEZ: And that just at the moment he has developed a rather excessive amount of self confidence due to his achievement, which was perfect, of course, we find it necessary to take a gentle repressive measure from time to time.
VINCI (on camera): A gentle repressive measure.
FRIDEZ: Yes.
VINCI: What is that? A stick?
FRIDEZ: Well, no idea. No stick at all, of course.
VINCI: No stick.
FRIDEZ; But probably personal meetings with deans or directors.
VINCI (voice-over): In a letter dated May 1955, Kerry's mother wrote the school about her son's linguist preferences.
FRIDEZ: Well, the mother said that, my husband and I have decided to let John drop German and take Italian instead.
VINCI (on camera): Language that...
FRIDEZ: Language-wise, yes. He seems to have a definite allergy to German, and he has picked up a certain amount of Italian, and evidently romance languages appeal to him.
VINCI (voice-over): Fridez says he has tried to contact the Kerry campaign, hoping to get more information about the candidate's time here for historical records and media outlets seeking details, but he has heard nothing back.
CNN asked the Kerry campaign for a comment, but so far they have not had a response.
Alessio Vinci, CNN, Tuk (ph), Switzerland.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: In the interest of fairness, we did some research on the president's academic past. Before Yale, Mr. Bush attended the prestigious Phillip's Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. One of his yearbooks says that the president was an average student who never made the honor roll -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Convicted D.C.-area sniper John Muhammad is scheduled to be sentenced just hours from now in Virginia. Jurors previously recommended the death sentence for Muhammad, but a judge has the option of reducing that to life in prison.
Jeanne Meserve live at the courthouse in Manassas, Virginia, with more on that.
Hello -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.
This is it, the end of John Muhammad's trial, but this trial will almost certainly not be the last.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): A jury gave John Muhammad death for his role in the sniper slayings. Muhammad's lawyers will argue for a reduction in that sentence.
In court filings, Muhammad's attorneys say the loss of his children and marriage, poverty, neglect and abuse transformed him. John Muhammad is not the born murderer and instrument of the devil that some claim he is, they argue. But legal experts say the likelihood of Muhammad's sentence being reduced to life in prison is just about nil.
PAUL BUTLER, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: It's very unlikely. Judges in Virginia almost always follow the jury's recommendation in death cases.
MESERVE: In the case of Lee Malvo, who has a parallel appearance Wednesday, the judge has no option but to finalize the jury's sentence of life without parole. Because sniper killings took place in many jurisdictions, Muhammad and Malvo could be tried elsewhere. And one prosecutor says they should be.
DOUGLAS GANSLER, STATE'S ATTONREY, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLAND: There's always the possibility of appeal and reversal on appeal, and that we should try these men in other states applying other laws to other facts.
MESERVE: But more prosecutions of Malvo may be put on hold until after the Supreme Court decides next year whether juvenile death sentences are constitutional.
BUTLER: Prosecutors may wonder if it's worth their resources to spend another time getting the same sentence. You can only serve one life term in prison.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: Yesterday afternoon, Muhammad's lawyers filed another motion, urging the judge to reduce their client's sentence. They said it violated fundamental fairness that he should receive the death penalty and Lee Malvo only receive life in prison for the same crimes.
Miles -- back to you.
M. O'BRIEN: CNN's Jeanne Meserve in Manassas, Virginia.
Our guest tomorrow will be the former Montgomery County police chief, Charles Moose, who, of course, spearheaded that investigation.
S. O'BRIEN: Interesting.
Well, still to come this morning, searching for sympathy for Martha.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNIE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you feel at all sorry for Martha Stewart?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course, I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel absolutely sorry for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little bit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: Our Jeanne Moos asks folks on the street if it should be pity or prison.
M. O'BRIEN: Listen up, Jack Cafferty. Those pictures from Mars keep coming in. Still lots of rocks up there. We'll talk with NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration. He'll make you excited about rocks. Promise.
S. O'BRIEN: And if you're feeling pain at the pump, you're not alone. We're going to find out in our next hour just what is behind those soaring gas prices across the country. Stay with us, everybody. AMERICAN MORNING returns right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Last week, the Mars rovers made a splash, if you will, be revealing the Red Planet's watery past. Today, the focus is on the Hubble Space Telescope, and it's good that it is in focus after all that's happened with that craft.
In about two hours, NASA will reveal a Hubble picture showing the deepest ever view of the visible universe. It takes us back to the very beginning of time. It's a mind bender. Anyway, we'll show it to you once it's revealed. That's at 9:30 Eastern Time.
Now, thanks to those intrepid Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, the images from the Red Planet are still pouring in. Jack Cafferty hitting that Web site every day, looking at those rocks.
Jim Garvin is NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration. He joins us from Washington. And it's his mission to make Jack Cafferty excited about Mars. And if anybody can do it, it is you, Jim Garvin. Good to have you with us.
JIM GARVIN, NASA'S LEAD SCIENTIST FOR MARS EXPLORATION: Hey, Miles. Thanks for having me.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, you know, I keep hearing all these little -- I don't know -- I guess, Mars rumors, if you will, that there might be something bigger coming from Mars. What do you think is going to happen? Will they turn over a rock and find a fossil, or will there be something even more dramatic, which comes out of these rovers? What's your thought on that?
GARVIN: Well, Miles, we've just begun to explore. And, you know, just last week, we showed you how some rocks, like the one I'm holding here, actually contain the record of being soaked by water in a way that we hadn't anticipated. So, to say what's coming next, you know, I guess I would like to say, stay tuned, because you haven't seen anything yet.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So, that's a little piece of geracite (ph) you got in your hand there. Is that what that is? Or what is that?
GARVIN: Miles, this is a piece of a volcanic rock that's been altered by hydrothermal processes in Iceland. And this yellow-orange stuff is sulfur coating the rock. And inside it is a piece of lava. And this is the kind of soaking that we think probably went on at the Merdioni (ph) site on Mars.
M. O'BRIEN: So, if you're a scientist, you get excited when you see a rock like that, right? That's big stuff.
GARVIN: Oh, my god!
M. O'BRIEN: That's huge.
GARVIN: Huge.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, let's take a look at some pictures, some recent stuff, which has come down from both Spirit and Opportunity, and this is from the Spirit location. And, you know, once again, to the untrained eye that looks like, you know, some part of Nevada, maybe. What is it about this location that intrigues you? And where do you go from here as far as trying to figure out where that water might have gone?
GARVIN: Well, Miles, what we're seeing is a forest of rocks. As we get close to the rim of this fairly big impact crater that excavated Mars, it gets really rough and tough. In fact, the Apollo astronauts, they wandered up into these kinds of terrains on the moon. Here we are seeing it on Mars.
And in some of the rocks, as we announced last week, as we look at this kind of landscape, we see the signs that there may have even been water involved in the making of those rocks as well -- very small amounts. This is in the Gusev (ph) crater.
So, we're searching for clues inside rocks of the passage of water. Some volcanic rocks made, of course, in volcanoes erupt with water as part of the eruption, making veins of minerals inside of them. So, we're looking for those at the Spirit site.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. And let's remind people why this quest for water is of such uppermost interest.
GARVIN: Well, Miles, water is one of the keystones to life. Of course, we're looking for life. It's a tough nut to crack. Pardon that pun. And where you have water, and particularly where the water is sustained for long enough, you produce what might be called a habitat -- a potential place where life could reside. We're trying to find those places, and we're getting the clues now from the surface, from these rovers.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So, what's your take? Do you think that Opportunity is sitting on what used to be a big ocean or some huge body of water?
GARVIN: Well, Miles, I'm an optimist. Mars has never let me down. But, you know, the public will take their own view. But I would say that we're sitting in a place where water has processed the rocks in a way that makes it a really attractive place to bring those rocks back here to Earth to figure out whether there was the story of life in them.
M. O'BRIEN: And what happens if we turn over a rock and there's a fossil looking right back at us?
GARVIN: Well, I think then we would -- some of us would declare victory and, you know, basically say we found the holy grail. In fact, I brought one of those rocks, not from Mars. This is from Earth, from a crater on Earth.
M. O'BRIEN: Good to point that out.
GARVIN: This is from a crater in West Germany known as the Reece (ph). It's a carbonate, a limestone, laid down when the crater filled up as a lake. And inside that crater was the record of life preserved in stone.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
GARVIN: If we saw something like this, I think, you know, we would have just won the Super Bowl in science.
M. O'BRIEN: You might even win over Jack Cafferty if you find that. All right.
GARVIN: I hope so.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Jim Garvin, who heads the Mars scientific expedition for Nasdaq, always a pleasure chatting with you. Thanks for dropping by.
GARVIN: Thanks, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. still to come on the program, she may be rich, but a lot of people are saying poor Martha. Our own Jeanne Moos has the word on the street when AMERICAN MORNING continues. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Martha Stewart may have lost her trial, but in the court of public opinion she's starting to win some points.
As Jeanne Moos reports, some people are starting to show a little sympathy for the homemaking guru.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MOOS (voice-over): Only the paparazzi would dare call Martha Stewart sweetheart. She went from baking cookies to getting caught with her hand in the cookie jar. After months of ridicule, Martha Stewart lying, Martha Stewart living behind bars, polishing handcuffs, Martha is finally getting some sympathy.
(on camera): Do you feel at all sorry for Martha Stewart?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course, I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel absolutely sorry for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little bit.
MOOS (voice-over): No one will be sorrier to see the Martha Stewart saga end than comedians.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Martha Stewart and I'm on a boatload of anti-anxiety medication right now. It's a good thing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Middle-aged white women are rioting and looting to protest the Martha Stewart verdict. It's wild waspy (ph) mayhem!
MOOS: After all those jokes about prison stripes, always appropriate when working in your rock garden, or love the outfit, thanks. It's from the new Martha Stewart collection. Reality is catching up with the cartoons.
(on camera): If it were up to you, how much jail time -- would she get jail time?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd say probably five years would do it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I give her a year.
MOOS (voice-over): Others opted for community service.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The most humble task, get down and dirty.
MOOS: The Martha story hasn't quite pierced the blissful ignorance of some.
(on camera): You've heard of her, though. I mean, you have heard of her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vaguely.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just can't picture Martha Stewart in jail.
MOOS (voice-over): But cartoonists can, turning a cell commode into a lovely vase, showing how to make the perfect shiv (ph), handcrafting tasteful tattoos on fellow inmates. How can you not feel sorry?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a way, I do. In a way, I don't.
MOOS: Now that her goose is cooked.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: See, that's what I'm talking about. It's too easy. It's too easy.
S. O'BRIEN: She's an easy target.
M. O'BRIEN: We could all draw those cartoons.
All right, Jack Cafferty is here for questions.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: We're asking viewers, Miles and Soledad, whether they think Martha Stewart ought to do some jail time on this thing. She met with a probation officer yesterday. She'll be sentenced in June.
Laura in Columbus, Ohio, writes this: "No. Hit her in the pocketbook. Yes, if she were a rich white man, her outcome would have been different. To make an example out of Martha is not justice."
Shannon Dillsburg, Pennsylvania: "Yes, a jury of her peers said she's guilty, and she should pay. I'm tired of seeing the rich held to different standards than the rest of us."
June in Belle Fourche, South Dakota: "With Ken Lay roaming free in my own former representative trying to get his second-degree murder conviction set aside so he can practice law again, where do you put Martha on this scale?"
Florence in Denver: "Definitely. When the greed of a billionaire reaches such levels that she would cheat to save about $40,000 and then lie about it, she belongs in prison. No one is above the law. I'm also tired of people who are complaining about her being targeted because she's a woman. Playing the sex card is as bad as playing the race card."
And Daniel in Fort Pierce, Florida: "Like most people, my kids have gotten punished more for covering up or lying than for any misdeed they have done. It took them well into their teenage hood to understand Martha is just learning."
AM@cnn.com. A lot of people saying cut her a break. Get all of these other weasels out there running around.
M. O'BRIEN: There certainly are plenty to choose from in the weasel department.
CAFFERTY: Many weasels.
S. O'BRIEN: Cut her a break meaning, don't give her any jail time at all, or give her a minimum sentence? Like 10 months sounds like it would kind of on the low end.
CAFFERTY: The consensus is under the federal guidelines, she'll get something between 10 and 16 months. But, you know, it could be more or less, depending on the opinions the judge has. I mean, contrition and all of these other things play a big role, and the judge has some latitude within those guidelines. So, we'll see.
S. O'BRIEN: Interesting -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, still to come in the program, pumping your gas, putting a big squeeze your wallet. We don't need to tell you that, of course. We'll ask an expert from the AAA what's behind the big price hikes. Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
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Convicted D.C.-Area Sniper to be Sentenced Today>
Aired March 9, 2004 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin in Iraq, though, where another U.S. soldier has been killed in a roadside bomb attack. The incident took place near Baquba (ph). That is north of Baghdad. The soldier was a member of the 1st Infantry Division.
Turning to U.S. politics now, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has an edge over President Bush in a recent CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup Poll. Among likely voters, 52 percent back Senator Kerry, 44 percent said they support the president.
Kerry met with voters yesterday in Florida ahead of primaries there today. Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi also have Democratic contests today.
Lowering cholesterol far below current standards prevents heart problems and gives the best chances of survival. According to a new study published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" found aggressive treatment with statin drugs was extremely beneficial to heart patients and improved heart attack survival. We'll have a little more on this later in the program.
DirecTV is accusing O.J. Simpson of pirating its satellite TV signal. In a lawsuit filed last week, the company demands at least $20,000 from the former football star. Federal agents removed satellite TV equipment from the Simpson house in a raid in 2001. DirecTV says the devices were boot loaders for unscrambling signals. His attorney says Simpson has been a loyal, paying customer for years.
And scientists are saying they may have found the British space probe Beagle II. The problem is it might be Beagle 63 or something -- lots of pieces. The probe has been missing since its scheduled landing on Mars set for Christmas Day of last year. Photographic images of the planned landing area show at least four bright spots that could be the remains of the probe. More proof is needed.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: That would be an amazing discovery, though, if that's what they've been able to find.
M. O'BRIEN: If they could at least see it.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: And maybe they could at least figure out what went wrong.
S. O'BRIEN: Right. M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: But they can't get it back.
M. O'BRIEN: The Beagle is not phoning home, though, no.
S. O'BRIEN: No. Not going to be bringing that thing back.
M. O'BRIEN: No.
(WEATHER BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Democrats in four southern states go to the polls today. The primaries in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas are contests in name only. They'll only serve to boost Senator John Kerry toward the official Democratic presidential nomination.
Florida's voting will no doubt be the most closely watched on account of its electoral recent past.
John Zarrella is at a polling station in Plantation, Florida, with more for us this morning.
John -- good morning.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, the polls here in Florida opened about 30 minutes ago. And as you can see, voter turnout is really, really light this morning with Senator Kerry's nomination all but wrapped up. They expected light turnout here today. But, of course, that will not be the case in the general election in November, where Florida is again considered to be a toss-up state that could come down to a few hundred votes, once again. And it could ultimately be decided by Independent voters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Four years later, Democrats in Florida still feel the sting of the 2000 election defeat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, there are a lot of hurt feelings from people who feel like the election was stolen right here in the state of Florida. But you can't win an election looking in the rearview mirror.
ZARRELLA: In many ways, the 2004 presidential race here is shaping up as a mirror image of the 2000 vote. The state is still split almost equally between Democrats at 41 percent and Republicans at 39 percent. Seventeen percent are Independent.
North of Orlando is largely Republican territory. The Democrats are strongest in the southeast. And an area called the I-4 corridor is the dividing line. It stretches from Tampa on the West Coast to Daytona Beach on the East Coast. The voters who live along the corridor could very well determine whether President Bush or Senator Kerry takes the state and its 27 electoral votes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those folks are the ones that are going to determine who wins Florida. Always have for the last, oh, five or six years, and I don't see that changing in this election.
ZARRELLA: Both parties will fall all over themselves coddling the corridor crowd. They are mostly suburbanites, younger than much of the state's population. They are working folks who tend to make up their minds late, and many are the registered Independents. The importance of the I-4 vote to both parties is already clear.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am so happy to be in Florida.
ZARRELLA: The day after his Super Tuesday wins, Kerry was in Orlando the epicenter of the corridor. The president had already kicked off the race.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Gentlemen, start your engines.
ZARRELLA: And the race for corridor voters with appearances in Daytona and later in Tampa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Soledad, it kind of gives me shivers to hold this up. That's an official ballot from the 2000 election, the old punch card ballots, don't have these anymore in Florida. In 15 of the counties, we have these electronic voting machines, including here, of course, in Broward County, optical scanners in much of the rest of the state of Florida. Done away with the punch cards. Don't have to worry about hanging chads. But, as everybody knows, machines aren't perfect. And come November, there still could be some problems all of this new technology. But Florida has finally gotten into the 21st century -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: But the potential for controversy, as you point out, springs eternal, right? John Zarrella for us this morning. John, thanks.
Well, one thing that President Bush and Senator John Kerry share in common is their Yale University education, but well before his Yale days, Senator Kerry attended a prestigious boarding school in Switzerland, while his father was a State Department lawyer in Berlin.
Alessio Vinci had a peek at Kerry's personal school file.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALISSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So this is the application form of John Kerry, No. 2587...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
VINCI: ... written by his mother, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
VINCI (voice-over): At the exclusive Institute Montana in Tuk (ph), Switzerland, discretion about who attends is of the essence. Its current director is Daniel Fridez.
DANIEL FRIDEZ, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE MONTANA: UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mother mentioned about the pupil's character, he's outgoing and friendly but needs to learn more self control and concentration.
VINCI: Kerry spent only one academic year here 50 years ago when he was 11 years old. The director agreed to let us take a peek at parts of Kerry's personal file, which includes correspondence between the school and Kerry's parents and his report cards. The file suggests Kerry was top of his class in many subjects. The director, however, asked us not to reveal his grades, but there is other insight about the 11-year-old in notes from the dean at the time.
FRIDEZ: And that just at the moment he has developed a rather excessive amount of self confidence due to his achievement, which was perfect, of course, we find it necessary to take a gentle repressive measure from time to time.
VINCI (on camera): A gentle repressive measure.
FRIDEZ: Yes.
VINCI: What is that? A stick?
FRIDEZ: Well, no idea. No stick at all, of course.
VINCI: No stick.
FRIDEZ; But probably personal meetings with deans or directors.
VINCI (voice-over): In a letter dated May 1955, Kerry's mother wrote the school about her son's linguist preferences.
FRIDEZ: Well, the mother said that, my husband and I have decided to let John drop German and take Italian instead.
VINCI (on camera): Language that...
FRIDEZ: Language-wise, yes. He seems to have a definite allergy to German, and he has picked up a certain amount of Italian, and evidently romance languages appeal to him.
VINCI (voice-over): Fridez says he has tried to contact the Kerry campaign, hoping to get more information about the candidate's time here for historical records and media outlets seeking details, but he has heard nothing back.
CNN asked the Kerry campaign for a comment, but so far they have not had a response.
Alessio Vinci, CNN, Tuk (ph), Switzerland.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: In the interest of fairness, we did some research on the president's academic past. Before Yale, Mr. Bush attended the prestigious Phillip's Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. One of his yearbooks says that the president was an average student who never made the honor roll -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Convicted D.C.-area sniper John Muhammad is scheduled to be sentenced just hours from now in Virginia. Jurors previously recommended the death sentence for Muhammad, but a judge has the option of reducing that to life in prison.
Jeanne Meserve live at the courthouse in Manassas, Virginia, with more on that.
Hello -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.
This is it, the end of John Muhammad's trial, but this trial will almost certainly not be the last.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): A jury gave John Muhammad death for his role in the sniper slayings. Muhammad's lawyers will argue for a reduction in that sentence.
In court filings, Muhammad's attorneys say the loss of his children and marriage, poverty, neglect and abuse transformed him. John Muhammad is not the born murderer and instrument of the devil that some claim he is, they argue. But legal experts say the likelihood of Muhammad's sentence being reduced to life in prison is just about nil.
PAUL BUTLER, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: It's very unlikely. Judges in Virginia almost always follow the jury's recommendation in death cases.
MESERVE: In the case of Lee Malvo, who has a parallel appearance Wednesday, the judge has no option but to finalize the jury's sentence of life without parole. Because sniper killings took place in many jurisdictions, Muhammad and Malvo could be tried elsewhere. And one prosecutor says they should be.
DOUGLAS GANSLER, STATE'S ATTONREY, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLAND: There's always the possibility of appeal and reversal on appeal, and that we should try these men in other states applying other laws to other facts.
MESERVE: But more prosecutions of Malvo may be put on hold until after the Supreme Court decides next year whether juvenile death sentences are constitutional.
BUTLER: Prosecutors may wonder if it's worth their resources to spend another time getting the same sentence. You can only serve one life term in prison.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: Yesterday afternoon, Muhammad's lawyers filed another motion, urging the judge to reduce their client's sentence. They said it violated fundamental fairness that he should receive the death penalty and Lee Malvo only receive life in prison for the same crimes.
Miles -- back to you.
M. O'BRIEN: CNN's Jeanne Meserve in Manassas, Virginia.
Our guest tomorrow will be the former Montgomery County police chief, Charles Moose, who, of course, spearheaded that investigation.
S. O'BRIEN: Interesting.
Well, still to come this morning, searching for sympathy for Martha.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNIE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you feel at all sorry for Martha Stewart?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course, I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel absolutely sorry for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little bit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: Our Jeanne Moos asks folks on the street if it should be pity or prison.
M. O'BRIEN: Listen up, Jack Cafferty. Those pictures from Mars keep coming in. Still lots of rocks up there. We'll talk with NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration. He'll make you excited about rocks. Promise.
S. O'BRIEN: And if you're feeling pain at the pump, you're not alone. We're going to find out in our next hour just what is behind those soaring gas prices across the country. Stay with us, everybody. AMERICAN MORNING returns right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Last week, the Mars rovers made a splash, if you will, be revealing the Red Planet's watery past. Today, the focus is on the Hubble Space Telescope, and it's good that it is in focus after all that's happened with that craft.
In about two hours, NASA will reveal a Hubble picture showing the deepest ever view of the visible universe. It takes us back to the very beginning of time. It's a mind bender. Anyway, we'll show it to you once it's revealed. That's at 9:30 Eastern Time.
Now, thanks to those intrepid Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, the images from the Red Planet are still pouring in. Jack Cafferty hitting that Web site every day, looking at those rocks.
Jim Garvin is NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration. He joins us from Washington. And it's his mission to make Jack Cafferty excited about Mars. And if anybody can do it, it is you, Jim Garvin. Good to have you with us.
JIM GARVIN, NASA'S LEAD SCIENTIST FOR MARS EXPLORATION: Hey, Miles. Thanks for having me.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, you know, I keep hearing all these little -- I don't know -- I guess, Mars rumors, if you will, that there might be something bigger coming from Mars. What do you think is going to happen? Will they turn over a rock and find a fossil, or will there be something even more dramatic, which comes out of these rovers? What's your thought on that?
GARVIN: Well, Miles, we've just begun to explore. And, you know, just last week, we showed you how some rocks, like the one I'm holding here, actually contain the record of being soaked by water in a way that we hadn't anticipated. So, to say what's coming next, you know, I guess I would like to say, stay tuned, because you haven't seen anything yet.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So, that's a little piece of geracite (ph) you got in your hand there. Is that what that is? Or what is that?
GARVIN: Miles, this is a piece of a volcanic rock that's been altered by hydrothermal processes in Iceland. And this yellow-orange stuff is sulfur coating the rock. And inside it is a piece of lava. And this is the kind of soaking that we think probably went on at the Merdioni (ph) site on Mars.
M. O'BRIEN: So, if you're a scientist, you get excited when you see a rock like that, right? That's big stuff.
GARVIN: Oh, my god!
M. O'BRIEN: That's huge.
GARVIN: Huge.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, let's take a look at some pictures, some recent stuff, which has come down from both Spirit and Opportunity, and this is from the Spirit location. And, you know, once again, to the untrained eye that looks like, you know, some part of Nevada, maybe. What is it about this location that intrigues you? And where do you go from here as far as trying to figure out where that water might have gone?
GARVIN: Well, Miles, what we're seeing is a forest of rocks. As we get close to the rim of this fairly big impact crater that excavated Mars, it gets really rough and tough. In fact, the Apollo astronauts, they wandered up into these kinds of terrains on the moon. Here we are seeing it on Mars.
And in some of the rocks, as we announced last week, as we look at this kind of landscape, we see the signs that there may have even been water involved in the making of those rocks as well -- very small amounts. This is in the Gusev (ph) crater.
So, we're searching for clues inside rocks of the passage of water. Some volcanic rocks made, of course, in volcanoes erupt with water as part of the eruption, making veins of minerals inside of them. So, we're looking for those at the Spirit site.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. And let's remind people why this quest for water is of such uppermost interest.
GARVIN: Well, Miles, water is one of the keystones to life. Of course, we're looking for life. It's a tough nut to crack. Pardon that pun. And where you have water, and particularly where the water is sustained for long enough, you produce what might be called a habitat -- a potential place where life could reside. We're trying to find those places, and we're getting the clues now from the surface, from these rovers.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So, what's your take? Do you think that Opportunity is sitting on what used to be a big ocean or some huge body of water?
GARVIN: Well, Miles, I'm an optimist. Mars has never let me down. But, you know, the public will take their own view. But I would say that we're sitting in a place where water has processed the rocks in a way that makes it a really attractive place to bring those rocks back here to Earth to figure out whether there was the story of life in them.
M. O'BRIEN: And what happens if we turn over a rock and there's a fossil looking right back at us?
GARVIN: Well, I think then we would -- some of us would declare victory and, you know, basically say we found the holy grail. In fact, I brought one of those rocks, not from Mars. This is from Earth, from a crater on Earth.
M. O'BRIEN: Good to point that out.
GARVIN: This is from a crater in West Germany known as the Reece (ph). It's a carbonate, a limestone, laid down when the crater filled up as a lake. And inside that crater was the record of life preserved in stone.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
GARVIN: If we saw something like this, I think, you know, we would have just won the Super Bowl in science.
M. O'BRIEN: You might even win over Jack Cafferty if you find that. All right.
GARVIN: I hope so.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Jim Garvin, who heads the Mars scientific expedition for Nasdaq, always a pleasure chatting with you. Thanks for dropping by.
GARVIN: Thanks, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. still to come on the program, she may be rich, but a lot of people are saying poor Martha. Our own Jeanne Moos has the word on the street when AMERICAN MORNING continues. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Martha Stewart may have lost her trial, but in the court of public opinion she's starting to win some points.
As Jeanne Moos reports, some people are starting to show a little sympathy for the homemaking guru.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MOOS (voice-over): Only the paparazzi would dare call Martha Stewart sweetheart. She went from baking cookies to getting caught with her hand in the cookie jar. After months of ridicule, Martha Stewart lying, Martha Stewart living behind bars, polishing handcuffs, Martha is finally getting some sympathy.
(on camera): Do you feel at all sorry for Martha Stewart?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course, I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel absolutely sorry for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little bit.
MOOS (voice-over): No one will be sorrier to see the Martha Stewart saga end than comedians.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Martha Stewart and I'm on a boatload of anti-anxiety medication right now. It's a good thing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Middle-aged white women are rioting and looting to protest the Martha Stewart verdict. It's wild waspy (ph) mayhem!
MOOS: After all those jokes about prison stripes, always appropriate when working in your rock garden, or love the outfit, thanks. It's from the new Martha Stewart collection. Reality is catching up with the cartoons.
(on camera): If it were up to you, how much jail time -- would she get jail time?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd say probably five years would do it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I give her a year.
MOOS (voice-over): Others opted for community service.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The most humble task, get down and dirty.
MOOS: The Martha story hasn't quite pierced the blissful ignorance of some.
(on camera): You've heard of her, though. I mean, you have heard of her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vaguely.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just can't picture Martha Stewart in jail.
MOOS (voice-over): But cartoonists can, turning a cell commode into a lovely vase, showing how to make the perfect shiv (ph), handcrafting tasteful tattoos on fellow inmates. How can you not feel sorry?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a way, I do. In a way, I don't.
MOOS: Now that her goose is cooked.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: See, that's what I'm talking about. It's too easy. It's too easy.
S. O'BRIEN: She's an easy target.
M. O'BRIEN: We could all draw those cartoons.
All right, Jack Cafferty is here for questions.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: We're asking viewers, Miles and Soledad, whether they think Martha Stewart ought to do some jail time on this thing. She met with a probation officer yesterday. She'll be sentenced in June.
Laura in Columbus, Ohio, writes this: "No. Hit her in the pocketbook. Yes, if she were a rich white man, her outcome would have been different. To make an example out of Martha is not justice."
Shannon Dillsburg, Pennsylvania: "Yes, a jury of her peers said she's guilty, and she should pay. I'm tired of seeing the rich held to different standards than the rest of us."
June in Belle Fourche, South Dakota: "With Ken Lay roaming free in my own former representative trying to get his second-degree murder conviction set aside so he can practice law again, where do you put Martha on this scale?"
Florence in Denver: "Definitely. When the greed of a billionaire reaches such levels that she would cheat to save about $40,000 and then lie about it, she belongs in prison. No one is above the law. I'm also tired of people who are complaining about her being targeted because she's a woman. Playing the sex card is as bad as playing the race card."
And Daniel in Fort Pierce, Florida: "Like most people, my kids have gotten punished more for covering up or lying than for any misdeed they have done. It took them well into their teenage hood to understand Martha is just learning."
AM@cnn.com. A lot of people saying cut her a break. Get all of these other weasels out there running around.
M. O'BRIEN: There certainly are plenty to choose from in the weasel department.
CAFFERTY: Many weasels.
S. O'BRIEN: Cut her a break meaning, don't give her any jail time at all, or give her a minimum sentence? Like 10 months sounds like it would kind of on the low end.
CAFFERTY: The consensus is under the federal guidelines, she'll get something between 10 and 16 months. But, you know, it could be more or less, depending on the opinions the judge has. I mean, contrition and all of these other things play a big role, and the judge has some latitude within those guidelines. So, we'll see.
S. O'BRIEN: Interesting -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, still to come in the program, pumping your gas, putting a big squeeze your wallet. We don't need to tell you that, of course. We'll ask an expert from the AAA what's behind the big price hikes. Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
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Convicted D.C.-Area Sniper to be Sentenced Today>
