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American Morning

Bush on the Road; Atlanta Murders; Midlife Crisis

Aired May 09, 2005 - 09:01   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Russian pride and the Russian military on full display in Moscow. President Bush a guest of honor at the celebrations this morning.
Another deadly weekend in Iraq. At least seven American troops among those killed. Now the coalition is taking the battle to the insurgents in a new offensive.

And bullets fly in California as police take no chances to end a high-speed chase. Now the investigation begins on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. A tick past 9:00 in the morning on a Monday. Good to have you along with us today.

We are looking at this story in Atlanta this morning. Police are reopening one of the most notorious serial murder cases ever in this country, the Atlanta child murders of the late '70s and early '80s. Wayne Williams convicted on two different murder counts, but was there a rush to judgment?

The man who prosecuted that case is our guest here in a few minutes. We'll get his reaction in a moment.

O'BRIEN: Also this morning, a CNN "Security Watch," looking this morning at what some experts call the most dangerous two miles in America. It might be much more vulnerable than anybody realized. We're going to talk with a reporter this morning with "The New York Times" about security problems that he discovered.

HEMMER: Also, we're going to the classroom with Jack today online.

Good morning.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Indiana University, Bill, has a study out. A majority, a significant majority of America's high school students only do three hours of homework a week. And the colleges across the country say, when these kids get here, they're not prepared, they're not ready. Twenty-five percent of them need remedial classes before they can even start doing college level work.

Should high school kids be forced to do more work, homework? AM@CNN.com.

HEMMER: Got it. Thank you, Jack.

To the headlines again, top of the hour. Here's Carol Costello with those. We start in Iraq.

Good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We do. Good morning. Good morning to all of you.

"Now in the News," U.S. forces launching a new offensive in Iraq. The fighting said to be near Iraq's border with Syria. The U.S. military says at least 75 insurgents have been killed so far. No word on American casualties.

Police in the Los Angeles area this morning are investigating a shootout caught on tape. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNFIRE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It sounds like firecrackers, but these were gunshots flying. Sheriff's deputies opened fire, hitting the suspect multiple times. He remains in stable condition this morning.

One of the sheriff's deputies was struck by a stray bullet. He's said to be doing OK, too. There have been a number of shootings in this particular area recently.

In Santa Maria, California, actor Macaulay Culkin could soon take the stand on behalf of Michael Jackson. The defense is trying to dispel the pop star has a history of molesting young boys. No word yet on whether Jackson will take the stand. More on what's expected today just ahead.

And in Houston, Texas, power being restored to thousands of residents after a series of thunderstorms. Egg-sized hail and winds gusting up to 65 miles per hour swept through parts of the state on Sunday. As much as five inches of rain fell.

No word on any major injuries, but the weather is improving. And that is good news.

O'BRIEN: All right. Carol, thanks.

Well, President Bush in Moscow just hours ago, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. It was the president's third stop on a four-nation tour.

Mr. Bush is heading this hour to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. There, he is expected to repeat a message that is causing some tension with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the question of whether Russia is turning its back on democracy and trying to influence politics in the former Soviet republics.

CNN's Dana Bash reports on the day's events in Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cannons fired. The Soviet, now Russian anthem, plays.

In Red Square, hundreds of soldiers march lockstep, carrying flags bearing the hammer and sickle. Flower-holding veterans ride in vintage Soviet war vehicles. And next to Lenin's tomb in the reviewing stand, the American president, among the dozens of heads of state here, paying tribute to the 27 million Soviets killed in World War II.

An extraordinary gathering. Sitting side by side, the victors of 60 years ago and the adversaries they defeated, leaders from Germany, Japan, and Italy.

Open nostalgia for the Soviet war legacy, a seemingly awkward event for the president to attend, especially one hoping to make spreading democracy his legacy. But he's here to honor Russia's incredible sacrifice and show respect for his friend, Vladimir Putin.

Taking a seat of honor, Mr. Bush temporarily put aside increasingly public concern the Russian leader's retreating from democratic ideals.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's a lot we can do together.

BASH: At one-on-one meetings the night before, Bush aides say he did press his fear Mr. Putin is backsliding on freedoms for Russians and trying to intimidate his neighbors moving toward democracy.

DAN BARTLETT, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: What President Bush's message is, is simple. Is that democracies are a good thing, that having democracies on your borders of Russia should be in the interests of the Russian people.

BASH: But this was a day to put aside differences about the course of the future, and instead, honor the past and the unknown soldiers who never returned from what the Russians call the great patriotic victory.

(on camera): Despite the public niceties, Russia is clearly irritated Mr. Bush is also visiting former Soviet states on this trip, publicly challenging Mr. Putin on democratic reform. The White House says the Russian leader is talking more about freedoms, but one top official admits is he yet to turn those words into deeds.

Dana Bash, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: President Bush is expected to address the issue of democracy in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia in a speech which is scheduled for tomorrow -- Bill.

HEMMER: About seven minutes past the hour, Soledad.

Back in this country now, 25 years later, part of the Atlanta child murders case has been reopened. Wayne Williams was convicted back in 1982. He's serving two life sentences. But the police chief in DeKalb County, Georgia, does not believe Williams is guilty.

Here's Sara Dorsey this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For three years, starting in 1979, the city of Atlanta, and gradually the rest of the nation, watched with horror as 29 African-Americans, mostly boys and young men, disappeared and turned up dead.

In 1981, an emotional sigh of relief nationwide, as this man, Wayne Williams, was arrested. He was eventually convicted of two murders and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Most of the evidence against Williams circumstantial, based on fiber analysis of a carpet material called Wellman 181-B.

JOSEPH DROLET, CITY COURT OF ATLANTA SOLICITOR: They did a search warrant on his home, but the home was carpeted in the Wellman 181-B fiber that was found on all of these victims. They also found that there were as many as 11 different items from that home matched fibers found on victims.

DORSEY: Williams has always maintained his innocence. Since his conviction, controversy has surfaced over the very evidence that put him behind bars. His attorney says the jury was completely misled.

MICHAEL JACKSON, WAYNE WILLIAMS' DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The tri-level fiber that they used to try to tie these cases together was much more common than they led the jury to believe at trial. And there were tens of thousands of other fibers on the victims that they never ran down, that weren't connected to Wayne Williams that were never explained.

DORSEY: Louis Graham agrees. He was the assistant police chief in Fulton County, Georgia, at the time, and part of the missing and murder task force.

CHIEF LOUIS GRAHAM, DEKALB COUNTY POLICE: I don't think Wayne Williams is responsible for anything.

DORSEY: Today, Graham is police chief in adjacent DeKalb County, where four of the victims lived. Their cases were shelved when Williams went to jail.

GRAHAM: I felt an emptiness when he was convicted. I've felt that emptiness sense. And, yes, it has had a hold of me ever since. And you know I just can't seem to turn it loose.

DORSEY: Now that he's in charge, Chief Graham is reopening those cold cases, armed with technology not available 25 years ago, seeking answers in the deaths of Patrick Baltazar, Curtis Walker, Joseph Bell and William Barrett.

GRAHAM: If we can solve one case, then I'm satisfied with that.

DORSEY: Sara Dorsey, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Joseph Drolet prosecuted Wayne Williams about 25 years ago. He's my guest now in Atlanta.

And we welcome you for your perspective on this story. And good morning.

JOSEPH DROLET, ATLANTA CITY COURT SOLICITOR: Good morning.

HEMMER: Do you have any evidence, any new evidence that would support the chief's claim?

DROLET: No, and it's really interesting that this matter comes up right now. Every two or three years, and sometimes more frequently, people come up with new claimed evidence that's going to reopen the case, or they found some new bit of item of information and everything that changed things.

So we've been going through this pretty much consistently for 23 years. There's no new evidence that I'm aware of that has come forward right now.

HEMMER: You just said something interesting. You say it's interesting why this case is being reopened now. What are you alluding to?

DROLET: Well, see, the cases have really not been closed. The only ones that were closed are the two in which Wayne Williams was convicted, which was in 1982. And then the case was affirmed in 1983 by the Supreme Court.

The other victims in the case -- and there were 30 cases overall -- the convictions were on the two cases. So those were obviously closed. The other 28, although 22 of those 28 were presumed to be cleared by police agencies by the conviction of...

HEMMER: All right. Let me try and cut through this a little bit then. What do you think is the motivation for the chief, then?

DROLET: Well, the chief has always been of the opinion that we had the wrong man. It's as simple as that. You know, he voiced this years ago. He and Sidney Dorsey, who is the sheriff in DeKalb County, who had worked on some of the cases, you know, both of them, they've been on competing programs, "Nightline" and so forth, and this kind of thing for years that "We don't think he's guilty," and that "Somebody else may have done it."

So, you know, this is really nothing new. And now Chief Graham is chief of the police department, and he's opening four of the city's cases.

HEMMER: OK. I understand your position on that point.

Try and clear up this other point about science today. We are 25 years down the line. With all the DNA evidence out there now and available to scientists, to investigators, could that change possibly the outcome in 1982 with all this technology that's now available in a case like this?

DROLET: I don't believe so. For example, DNA, this is not a DNA case. It wasn't a blood case.

There was some minor -- there were some blood stains that simply corroborated the blood type of two victims who were peripheral to the case. So this isn't really a DNA case. And, in fact, DNA testing's been available under -- under our state law here. Mr. Williams could ask for it at any time.

HEMMER: What would you say to those who say -- we had his attorney on earlier today out in Los Angeles, Wayne Williams' attorney. He says it was junk science used in the early 1980s and there were thousands of fibers that were simply discounted.

How would you react to that claim?

DROLET: Well, it's not junk fiber -- I mean, junk science. We had experts, we had the best experts in the world.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police testified, one of the experts from the FBI's crime laboratory in Washington, as well as our best expert here in Georgia. And all of them testified that it was virtually impossible that the fibers found in this case could have come from any other place except the environment of Wayne Williams.

So it's hardly junk science. That science is really basically the same now as it was 25 years ago. There haven't been that many changes in that. We had evidence from microspectrophotometers and things like this, all kinds of rather elaborate scientific testing equipment that was used in that trial by these various experts.

HEMMER: Thank you for your time. We'll leave it there. Joseph Drolet. We'll watch for the news out of DeKalb County in Georgia. Thank you, sir.

DROLET: You're welcome.

HEMMER: Here's Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Let's get right to the forecast now. Chad Myers has got a day off. But Rob Marciano is at the CNN Center. He's watching the latest forecast.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: In a moment here, a problem that affects as many as 15 million women, midlife crisis. How can they cope? Some advice coming up in a moment on that.

O'BRIEN: Also, one state tackles sky-high hospital costs and saves uninsured patients a bundle. We'll explain how that happened just ahead.

HEMMER: Also, the most dangerous two miles in America. Twelve million Americans at risk of a potentially lethal terror attack. Why is it then so loosely guarded? We'll get to it after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Despite the jokes, there is nothing funny about somebody who is entering a midlife crisis. The gut-wrenching changes that many women go through is the cover of this week's "TIME" magazine, where our next guest is featured.

She's "Wall Street Journal" columnist Sue Shellenbarger, and she's the author of a new book which is called "The Breaking Point."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: You have a wildly popular column that I follow and I love. And I was surprised to read that you really got the genesis for this book because of your own midlife crisis.

What did that feel like? What was it?

SUE SHELLENBARGER, AUTHOR, "THE BREAKING POINT": It began with a feeling of emotional deadness and almost meaninglessness. I had had a rich life, balancing work and family for many years, helping...

O'BRIEN: A great job.

SHELLENBARGER: And a great job, enjoyed it very much. But the meaning, I was looking for new meaning.

I was looking to stretch myself, find new experiences. I had a feeling of emotional deadness, a feeling my old values didn't matter as much anymore. I was really eager to try new things. And...

O'BRIEN: I thought only men had midlife crises.

SHELLENBARGER: That's a popular stereotype. And I think in the past it was more true.

Today's women have more experiences that tend to bring on midlife crises. They have career stress, they have higher income than at any time in history. Women are better educated, they have more high- pressure jobs, more professional managerial jobs.

O'BRIEN: So you follow the stories, really the -- the whole life stories of 50 women that you picked through in the book. Did you get their stories from these e-mails from readers that followed your original column?

SHELLENBARGER: That was the starting point. I got many stories in the e-mails. I advertised in newspapers. I networked.

I did usual reporting techniques to find women who had experienced midlife turbulence. And those were the women I signed on for -- to tell me their stories for the book.

O'BRIEN: What were the common themes that you discovered?

SHELLENBARGER: There were -- there were always -- there was always one central desire that was resurfacing for women at midlife. This is about integrating your personality and being all that you can be. And each and every woman had some resurgent desire or need or wish that she wanted to fulfill basically before she died.

And in order to accomplish that, old values fell away. These women found themselves tackling old fears.

The adventurer came out in many of them. They'd take up bungee jumping, new sports, testing themselves, marathon running.

Others wanted to become leaders for the first time in their lives. They wanted to make a mark on the world.

O'BRIEN: You're sort of talking about two of the categories, adventurer, leader, that you break down in the book. What are the other categories?

SHELLENBARGER: Right. The leader often founded new companies. The artist was a woman who sought self-expression.

There was one bed and breakfast owner who changed careers. She said, "I don't want to live out my life in any other way but to be an artist."

The lover is the one we're most familiar with. With a midlife crisis, many people think that means having an affair. It means much more than that.

These women were looking for deeper relationships, for intimacy, for a soul-mate. One woman at age 50 tackled her inner demons, found, met and married the love of her life for the first time at age 50. There were women I categorized as gardeners. These women looked to deepen the lives they already had.

O'BRIEN: It's a really great book. It's called "The Breaking Point" by Sue Shellenbarger.

Thanks for coming in to talk to us about it. Your column, of course, is also just fabulous. And I love it.

SHELLENBARGER: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: About 20 minutes past the hour now. Get a break here.

Star witnesses like Debbie Rowe backfired on prosecutors in Michael Jackson's trial. Is the same thing happening now to the defense? Good question. We'll get to it after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Welcome back, everyone. Here is Jack and the "Question of the Day."

CAFFERTY: Thank you, Bill.

A majority of our high school students spend less than three hours a week doing homework, and they still get good grades. According to a study out today by Indiana University, 55 percent of students devote no more than three hours a week to class preparation, but 65 percent of these kids are all getting A's or B's. And while 80 percent of the students say they plan to attend college, research shows that many of these children are unprepared for college level work.

So the question this morning is this: should high school students be made to work harder?

Jim in Massachusetts, "While colleges complain about the abilities of incoming freshmen, they still accept them. If colleges tightened their standards and enforced the ones most likely already in place, high schools and their pupils would have to improve their work habits either at school or at McDonald's."

Des in Aiken, South Carolina, "What we should be doing is offering a four-year apprenticeships program in building trades and culinary schools during high school. First, it would curtail the need for illegal immigrants. And second, it would offer students not inclined toward college an opportunity to enter the workforce with a skill set."

D.K., a retired public school teacher in Michigan, writes, "High school students do very little to get a high school diploma. Parents in many cases protest the amount of homework assigned, saying that their kid has other classes, a job, and it's boring."

Forest in Washington writes this: "Jack, you're a fat head. I'm a high school student and I've been up literally all night finishing my scant amounts of homework, and don't very much appreciate you, a man of 100 and something, complaining that I don't have enough. Please take your asinine opinion and go shove it."

HEMMER: Yeah!

O'BRIEN: I'm impressed that Forest is watching morning news.

HEMMER: Yes.

CAFFERTY: You need to get some sleep, Forest. You won't be -- you won't be quite so cranky.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: Wow! You know, Forest is grow into you when he goes... HEMMER: He's a smart head.

O'BRIEN: What?

CAFFERTY: You know...

O'BRIEN: I'm sorry.

CAFFERTY: ... is Diane Sawyer that nasty to the people she works with over there on "Good Morning America?"

O'BRIEN: I'm not being nasty. I'm not being nasty.

CAFFERTY: She's not, is she?

O'BRIEN: Oh, here. I'm sending you lots of love.

CAFFERTY: Maybe I'll a call sometime to see if she has -- see if she has...

O'BRIEN: But I won't touch you because I'm still sick. Thanks, Jack.

Still head this morning, a stay in the hospital can break the bank for the uninsured. But one state is managing to cut those high costs in half. A closer look at the solution is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: It is almost 9:30 here in New York. Want to get you down to Wall Street right now as they kick things off on the stock march today.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired May 9, 2005 - 09:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Russian pride and the Russian military on full display in Moscow. President Bush a guest of honor at the celebrations this morning.
Another deadly weekend in Iraq. At least seven American troops among those killed. Now the coalition is taking the battle to the insurgents in a new offensive.

And bullets fly in California as police take no chances to end a high-speed chase. Now the investigation begins on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. A tick past 9:00 in the morning on a Monday. Good to have you along with us today.

We are looking at this story in Atlanta this morning. Police are reopening one of the most notorious serial murder cases ever in this country, the Atlanta child murders of the late '70s and early '80s. Wayne Williams convicted on two different murder counts, but was there a rush to judgment?

The man who prosecuted that case is our guest here in a few minutes. We'll get his reaction in a moment.

O'BRIEN: Also this morning, a CNN "Security Watch," looking this morning at what some experts call the most dangerous two miles in America. It might be much more vulnerable than anybody realized. We're going to talk with a reporter this morning with "The New York Times" about security problems that he discovered.

HEMMER: Also, we're going to the classroom with Jack today online.

Good morning.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Indiana University, Bill, has a study out. A majority, a significant majority of America's high school students only do three hours of homework a week. And the colleges across the country say, when these kids get here, they're not prepared, they're not ready. Twenty-five percent of them need remedial classes before they can even start doing college level work.

Should high school kids be forced to do more work, homework? AM@CNN.com.

HEMMER: Got it. Thank you, Jack.

To the headlines again, top of the hour. Here's Carol Costello with those. We start in Iraq.

Good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We do. Good morning. Good morning to all of you.

"Now in the News," U.S. forces launching a new offensive in Iraq. The fighting said to be near Iraq's border with Syria. The U.S. military says at least 75 insurgents have been killed so far. No word on American casualties.

Police in the Los Angeles area this morning are investigating a shootout caught on tape. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNFIRE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It sounds like firecrackers, but these were gunshots flying. Sheriff's deputies opened fire, hitting the suspect multiple times. He remains in stable condition this morning.

One of the sheriff's deputies was struck by a stray bullet. He's said to be doing OK, too. There have been a number of shootings in this particular area recently.

In Santa Maria, California, actor Macaulay Culkin could soon take the stand on behalf of Michael Jackson. The defense is trying to dispel the pop star has a history of molesting young boys. No word yet on whether Jackson will take the stand. More on what's expected today just ahead.

And in Houston, Texas, power being restored to thousands of residents after a series of thunderstorms. Egg-sized hail and winds gusting up to 65 miles per hour swept through parts of the state on Sunday. As much as five inches of rain fell.

No word on any major injuries, but the weather is improving. And that is good news.

O'BRIEN: All right. Carol, thanks.

Well, President Bush in Moscow just hours ago, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. It was the president's third stop on a four-nation tour.

Mr. Bush is heading this hour to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. There, he is expected to repeat a message that is causing some tension with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the question of whether Russia is turning its back on democracy and trying to influence politics in the former Soviet republics.

CNN's Dana Bash reports on the day's events in Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cannons fired. The Soviet, now Russian anthem, plays.

In Red Square, hundreds of soldiers march lockstep, carrying flags bearing the hammer and sickle. Flower-holding veterans ride in vintage Soviet war vehicles. And next to Lenin's tomb in the reviewing stand, the American president, among the dozens of heads of state here, paying tribute to the 27 million Soviets killed in World War II.

An extraordinary gathering. Sitting side by side, the victors of 60 years ago and the adversaries they defeated, leaders from Germany, Japan, and Italy.

Open nostalgia for the Soviet war legacy, a seemingly awkward event for the president to attend, especially one hoping to make spreading democracy his legacy. But he's here to honor Russia's incredible sacrifice and show respect for his friend, Vladimir Putin.

Taking a seat of honor, Mr. Bush temporarily put aside increasingly public concern the Russian leader's retreating from democratic ideals.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's a lot we can do together.

BASH: At one-on-one meetings the night before, Bush aides say he did press his fear Mr. Putin is backsliding on freedoms for Russians and trying to intimidate his neighbors moving toward democracy.

DAN BARTLETT, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: What President Bush's message is, is simple. Is that democracies are a good thing, that having democracies on your borders of Russia should be in the interests of the Russian people.

BASH: But this was a day to put aside differences about the course of the future, and instead, honor the past and the unknown soldiers who never returned from what the Russians call the great patriotic victory.

(on camera): Despite the public niceties, Russia is clearly irritated Mr. Bush is also visiting former Soviet states on this trip, publicly challenging Mr. Putin on democratic reform. The White House says the Russian leader is talking more about freedoms, but one top official admits is he yet to turn those words into deeds.

Dana Bash, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: President Bush is expected to address the issue of democracy in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia in a speech which is scheduled for tomorrow -- Bill.

HEMMER: About seven minutes past the hour, Soledad.

Back in this country now, 25 years later, part of the Atlanta child murders case has been reopened. Wayne Williams was convicted back in 1982. He's serving two life sentences. But the police chief in DeKalb County, Georgia, does not believe Williams is guilty.

Here's Sara Dorsey this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For three years, starting in 1979, the city of Atlanta, and gradually the rest of the nation, watched with horror as 29 African-Americans, mostly boys and young men, disappeared and turned up dead.

In 1981, an emotional sigh of relief nationwide, as this man, Wayne Williams, was arrested. He was eventually convicted of two murders and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Most of the evidence against Williams circumstantial, based on fiber analysis of a carpet material called Wellman 181-B.

JOSEPH DROLET, CITY COURT OF ATLANTA SOLICITOR: They did a search warrant on his home, but the home was carpeted in the Wellman 181-B fiber that was found on all of these victims. They also found that there were as many as 11 different items from that home matched fibers found on victims.

DORSEY: Williams has always maintained his innocence. Since his conviction, controversy has surfaced over the very evidence that put him behind bars. His attorney says the jury was completely misled.

MICHAEL JACKSON, WAYNE WILLIAMS' DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The tri-level fiber that they used to try to tie these cases together was much more common than they led the jury to believe at trial. And there were tens of thousands of other fibers on the victims that they never ran down, that weren't connected to Wayne Williams that were never explained.

DORSEY: Louis Graham agrees. He was the assistant police chief in Fulton County, Georgia, at the time, and part of the missing and murder task force.

CHIEF LOUIS GRAHAM, DEKALB COUNTY POLICE: I don't think Wayne Williams is responsible for anything.

DORSEY: Today, Graham is police chief in adjacent DeKalb County, where four of the victims lived. Their cases were shelved when Williams went to jail.

GRAHAM: I felt an emptiness when he was convicted. I've felt that emptiness sense. And, yes, it has had a hold of me ever since. And you know I just can't seem to turn it loose.

DORSEY: Now that he's in charge, Chief Graham is reopening those cold cases, armed with technology not available 25 years ago, seeking answers in the deaths of Patrick Baltazar, Curtis Walker, Joseph Bell and William Barrett.

GRAHAM: If we can solve one case, then I'm satisfied with that.

DORSEY: Sara Dorsey, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Joseph Drolet prosecuted Wayne Williams about 25 years ago. He's my guest now in Atlanta.

And we welcome you for your perspective on this story. And good morning.

JOSEPH DROLET, ATLANTA CITY COURT SOLICITOR: Good morning.

HEMMER: Do you have any evidence, any new evidence that would support the chief's claim?

DROLET: No, and it's really interesting that this matter comes up right now. Every two or three years, and sometimes more frequently, people come up with new claimed evidence that's going to reopen the case, or they found some new bit of item of information and everything that changed things.

So we've been going through this pretty much consistently for 23 years. There's no new evidence that I'm aware of that has come forward right now.

HEMMER: You just said something interesting. You say it's interesting why this case is being reopened now. What are you alluding to?

DROLET: Well, see, the cases have really not been closed. The only ones that were closed are the two in which Wayne Williams was convicted, which was in 1982. And then the case was affirmed in 1983 by the Supreme Court.

The other victims in the case -- and there were 30 cases overall -- the convictions were on the two cases. So those were obviously closed. The other 28, although 22 of those 28 were presumed to be cleared by police agencies by the conviction of...

HEMMER: All right. Let me try and cut through this a little bit then. What do you think is the motivation for the chief, then?

DROLET: Well, the chief has always been of the opinion that we had the wrong man. It's as simple as that. You know, he voiced this years ago. He and Sidney Dorsey, who is the sheriff in DeKalb County, who had worked on some of the cases, you know, both of them, they've been on competing programs, "Nightline" and so forth, and this kind of thing for years that "We don't think he's guilty," and that "Somebody else may have done it."

So, you know, this is really nothing new. And now Chief Graham is chief of the police department, and he's opening four of the city's cases.

HEMMER: OK. I understand your position on that point.

Try and clear up this other point about science today. We are 25 years down the line. With all the DNA evidence out there now and available to scientists, to investigators, could that change possibly the outcome in 1982 with all this technology that's now available in a case like this?

DROLET: I don't believe so. For example, DNA, this is not a DNA case. It wasn't a blood case.

There was some minor -- there were some blood stains that simply corroborated the blood type of two victims who were peripheral to the case. So this isn't really a DNA case. And, in fact, DNA testing's been available under -- under our state law here. Mr. Williams could ask for it at any time.

HEMMER: What would you say to those who say -- we had his attorney on earlier today out in Los Angeles, Wayne Williams' attorney. He says it was junk science used in the early 1980s and there were thousands of fibers that were simply discounted.

How would you react to that claim?

DROLET: Well, it's not junk fiber -- I mean, junk science. We had experts, we had the best experts in the world.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police testified, one of the experts from the FBI's crime laboratory in Washington, as well as our best expert here in Georgia. And all of them testified that it was virtually impossible that the fibers found in this case could have come from any other place except the environment of Wayne Williams.

So it's hardly junk science. That science is really basically the same now as it was 25 years ago. There haven't been that many changes in that. We had evidence from microspectrophotometers and things like this, all kinds of rather elaborate scientific testing equipment that was used in that trial by these various experts.

HEMMER: Thank you for your time. We'll leave it there. Joseph Drolet. We'll watch for the news out of DeKalb County in Georgia. Thank you, sir.

DROLET: You're welcome.

HEMMER: Here's Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Let's get right to the forecast now. Chad Myers has got a day off. But Rob Marciano is at the CNN Center. He's watching the latest forecast.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: In a moment here, a problem that affects as many as 15 million women, midlife crisis. How can they cope? Some advice coming up in a moment on that.

O'BRIEN: Also, one state tackles sky-high hospital costs and saves uninsured patients a bundle. We'll explain how that happened just ahead.

HEMMER: Also, the most dangerous two miles in America. Twelve million Americans at risk of a potentially lethal terror attack. Why is it then so loosely guarded? We'll get to it after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Despite the jokes, there is nothing funny about somebody who is entering a midlife crisis. The gut-wrenching changes that many women go through is the cover of this week's "TIME" magazine, where our next guest is featured.

She's "Wall Street Journal" columnist Sue Shellenbarger, and she's the author of a new book which is called "The Breaking Point."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: You have a wildly popular column that I follow and I love. And I was surprised to read that you really got the genesis for this book because of your own midlife crisis.

What did that feel like? What was it?

SUE SHELLENBARGER, AUTHOR, "THE BREAKING POINT": It began with a feeling of emotional deadness and almost meaninglessness. I had had a rich life, balancing work and family for many years, helping...

O'BRIEN: A great job.

SHELLENBARGER: And a great job, enjoyed it very much. But the meaning, I was looking for new meaning.

I was looking to stretch myself, find new experiences. I had a feeling of emotional deadness, a feeling my old values didn't matter as much anymore. I was really eager to try new things. And...

O'BRIEN: I thought only men had midlife crises.

SHELLENBARGER: That's a popular stereotype. And I think in the past it was more true.

Today's women have more experiences that tend to bring on midlife crises. They have career stress, they have higher income than at any time in history. Women are better educated, they have more high- pressure jobs, more professional managerial jobs.

O'BRIEN: So you follow the stories, really the -- the whole life stories of 50 women that you picked through in the book. Did you get their stories from these e-mails from readers that followed your original column?

SHELLENBARGER: That was the starting point. I got many stories in the e-mails. I advertised in newspapers. I networked.

I did usual reporting techniques to find women who had experienced midlife turbulence. And those were the women I signed on for -- to tell me their stories for the book.

O'BRIEN: What were the common themes that you discovered?

SHELLENBARGER: There were -- there were always -- there was always one central desire that was resurfacing for women at midlife. This is about integrating your personality and being all that you can be. And each and every woman had some resurgent desire or need or wish that she wanted to fulfill basically before she died.

And in order to accomplish that, old values fell away. These women found themselves tackling old fears.

The adventurer came out in many of them. They'd take up bungee jumping, new sports, testing themselves, marathon running.

Others wanted to become leaders for the first time in their lives. They wanted to make a mark on the world.

O'BRIEN: You're sort of talking about two of the categories, adventurer, leader, that you break down in the book. What are the other categories?

SHELLENBARGER: Right. The leader often founded new companies. The artist was a woman who sought self-expression.

There was one bed and breakfast owner who changed careers. She said, "I don't want to live out my life in any other way but to be an artist."

The lover is the one we're most familiar with. With a midlife crisis, many people think that means having an affair. It means much more than that.

These women were looking for deeper relationships, for intimacy, for a soul-mate. One woman at age 50 tackled her inner demons, found, met and married the love of her life for the first time at age 50. There were women I categorized as gardeners. These women looked to deepen the lives they already had.

O'BRIEN: It's a really great book. It's called "The Breaking Point" by Sue Shellenbarger.

Thanks for coming in to talk to us about it. Your column, of course, is also just fabulous. And I love it.

SHELLENBARGER: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: About 20 minutes past the hour now. Get a break here.

Star witnesses like Debbie Rowe backfired on prosecutors in Michael Jackson's trial. Is the same thing happening now to the defense? Good question. We'll get to it after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Welcome back, everyone. Here is Jack and the "Question of the Day."

CAFFERTY: Thank you, Bill.

A majority of our high school students spend less than three hours a week doing homework, and they still get good grades. According to a study out today by Indiana University, 55 percent of students devote no more than three hours a week to class preparation, but 65 percent of these kids are all getting A's or B's. And while 80 percent of the students say they plan to attend college, research shows that many of these children are unprepared for college level work.

So the question this morning is this: should high school students be made to work harder?

Jim in Massachusetts, "While colleges complain about the abilities of incoming freshmen, they still accept them. If colleges tightened their standards and enforced the ones most likely already in place, high schools and their pupils would have to improve their work habits either at school or at McDonald's."

Des in Aiken, South Carolina, "What we should be doing is offering a four-year apprenticeships program in building trades and culinary schools during high school. First, it would curtail the need for illegal immigrants. And second, it would offer students not inclined toward college an opportunity to enter the workforce with a skill set."

D.K., a retired public school teacher in Michigan, writes, "High school students do very little to get a high school diploma. Parents in many cases protest the amount of homework assigned, saying that their kid has other classes, a job, and it's boring."

Forest in Washington writes this: "Jack, you're a fat head. I'm a high school student and I've been up literally all night finishing my scant amounts of homework, and don't very much appreciate you, a man of 100 and something, complaining that I don't have enough. Please take your asinine opinion and go shove it."

HEMMER: Yeah!

O'BRIEN: I'm impressed that Forest is watching morning news.

HEMMER: Yes.

CAFFERTY: You need to get some sleep, Forest. You won't be -- you won't be quite so cranky.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: Wow! You know, Forest is grow into you when he goes... HEMMER: He's a smart head.

O'BRIEN: What?

CAFFERTY: You know...

O'BRIEN: I'm sorry.

CAFFERTY: ... is Diane Sawyer that nasty to the people she works with over there on "Good Morning America?"

O'BRIEN: I'm not being nasty. I'm not being nasty.

CAFFERTY: She's not, is she?

O'BRIEN: Oh, here. I'm sending you lots of love.

CAFFERTY: Maybe I'll a call sometime to see if she has -- see if she has...

O'BRIEN: But I won't touch you because I'm still sick. Thanks, Jack.

Still head this morning, a stay in the hospital can break the bank for the uninsured. But one state is managing to cut those high costs in half. A closer look at the solution is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: It is almost 9:30 here in New York. Want to get you down to Wall Street right now as they kick things off on the stock march today.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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