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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Accused Oil-for-Food Profiteer Attacks; Mount St. Helens Survivor Tells His Story; Severe Food Allergies Potentially Deadly; Gang Leaders Order Murders from Prison

Aired May 17, 2005 - 19:00   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.


ANDERSON COOPER, HOST "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Lou, thanks very much.
Good evening, everyone. Fireworks on Capitol Hill -- did the U.S. senators see what was coming? 360 starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): Sparks fly on Capitol Hill as a British official fights charges he profited from Saddam Hussein.

GEORGE GALLOWAY, BRITISH PARLIAMENT MEMBER: I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one, and neither has anybody on my behalf.

COOPER: Tonight, Senator Carl Levin on today's testimony and the latest twist in the Oil-for-Food scandal.

Medicare says it will pay for Viagra, but is sex for seniors really a medical necessity? Tonight, why the federal government wants to spend your money on erectile dysfunction drugs, but won't pay for other medicines.

They call him the Piano Man -- found alone, mute and disoriented, the only clue to his identity, his remarkable piano playing. Who is this mysterious musician? How can authorities unlock the key to his identity?

The cops said he murdered his mother. They even got him to confess. But this teen was innocent. Tonight, how a young man's life was turned upside down for a crime he didn't commit.

And what happens when a cop is over-powered by a crazed suspect? Tonight, the latest in self-defense and security technology that could help save lives in the line of duty.

ANNOUNCER: Live, from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is a two-hour special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Hey, good evening. Thanks for joining us for this two- hour edition.

There was a remarkable exchange on Capitol Hill today, a confrontation between a British member of parliament and U.S. senators. Now, the subject was the U.N. Oil-for-Food program which was supposedly -- it was supposed to allow Saddam Hussein to sell Iraqi oil only for humanitarian necessities. Now, we know it was not only mismanaged on the U.N. side, but corrupted on the Iraqi side. We're talking about kickbacks and payoffs and all manner of illegal dealings.

Now, the British official George Galloway -- that's him -- appeared today voluntarily to answer charges that he profited from the illegalities. If anyone expected him to sound defensive, forget about it. He not only attacked the evidence against him, he verbally attacked some senators and the U.S. justification for the Iraq war. More on just who he is in a moment. But first, here is CNN's Richard Roth with today's scorching Capitol Hill Q&A.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. NORM COLEMAN, (R) MINNESOTA: You swear the testimony you're about to give before this subcommittee is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

GALLOWAY: I do.

ROTH (voice-over): Taking the oath was about the only thing British Parliament Minister George Galloway accepted from the Senate committee investigating Oil-for-Food corruption. The fiery Galloway was accused by the committee last week of being rewarded by Saddam Hussein with the rights to 20 million barrels of oil for opposing economic sanctions. The committee chairman, Senator Norm Coleman, reminded him.

COLEMAN: Senior Iraqi officials have confirmed that you in fact received oil allocations and that the documents that identify you as an allocation recipient are valid.

ROTH: Right from the start, Galloway went on the attack.

GALLOWAY: Senator, I am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader, and neither has anyone on my behalf. I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one, and neither has anybody on my behalf.

Now, I know that standards have slipped over the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer, you're remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice.

ROTH: Usually, witnesses before congressional committees show deference -- not the anti-war activist who vowed to appear with both barrels blazing.

GALLOWAY: Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong, and 100,000 people have paid with their lives -- 1,600 of them American soldiers, sent to their deaths on a pack of lies.

ROTH: Committee investigators said a former senior aid to Saddam Hussein, now in custody, reiterated his claim only yesterday that Galloway got oil. Galloway responded, "the committee report is riddled with errors."

GALLOWAY: As a matter of fact, I've met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is, Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps, the better to target those guns. I met him to try and bring about an end to sanctions, suffering, and war.

ROTH: The bipartisan committee report said Galloway funneled oil allocations through two companies and a charity named after a 4-year- old girl suffering from leukemia.

GALLOWAY: What counts is not the names on the paper. What counts is where's the money, Senator? Who paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars of money? The answer to that is nobody. And if you had anybody who ever paid me a penny, you would have produced them here today.

ROTH: The U.S. and U.K. lawmakers were separated by more than an ocean at this hearing. The Minnesota senator asked Galloway if he knew whether a close friend who ran one of the companies under scrutiny and gave Galloway's foundation $600,000 was part of Oil-for- Food illegalities.

GALLOWAY: I was aware he was doing extensive business with Iraq. I did not know the details of it. It was not my business.

COLEMAN: So, this is somebody who is the chairman of your committee, that you know well and you're not able to say that he was...

GALLOWAY: Well, there's a lot of contributors I've just been checking to your...

COLEMAN: There's not many at that level, Mr. Galloway.

GALLOWAY: Oh, no, let me assure you there are. I've checked your Web site. There are lots of contributors to your political campaign funds. I don't suppose you ask any of them how they made the money they give you.

ROTH: Later, Senator Coleman said it wasn't a wrestling match, but important to get on the record.

COLEMAN: And, I think that Mr. Galloway's credibility is certainly very, very suspect, and if in fact he lied to this committee, then there will have to be consequences to that.

ROTH (on camera): Galloway praised Kofi Annan and U.N. efforts to stop the war in Iraq. He can heap scorn on this Senate panel, but a United Nations-approved investigation into Oil-for-Food and connections between Saddam Hussein and businesses and politicians is anticipated this summer. Galloway says he has nothing to fear.

Richard Roth, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: It's a confusing story. Tonight we're covering all of the angles on it. In a moment, we're going to hear from one of the senators who sparred with Galloway today. But first, who is this guy Galloway? For that we turn to CNN INTERNATIONAL's, Becky Anderson, and "The World in 360."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Becky, George Galloway was expelled from the Labor Party. How popular is he in England?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He is very well-known. You either like him or you loathe him but you definitely know about him. He's always been a thorn in the side of the establishment. He marched alongside Jerry Adams, for example, in Ireland. Now, campaigning against British policy doesn't endear you to the management of the party as it were, nor did his seeming praise of Saddam Hussein in that famous shot of him on TV, shaking hands with the Iraqi leader in 1994. As you rightly said, he was booted out of the Labor Party two years ago because of his outspoken comments on the Iraq war.

But, in one of those truly memorable moments in political history, the man is back, winning back one of the safest Labor seats in London in the recent election. His anti-war party has caused respect and ironically, his Palestinian wife recently left him, saying he certainly didn't give her much respect. This is a man who glories in his ability to rub people up the wrong way. People definitely know about him. Not a lot of people necessarily like him, but the Brits definitely know about him. Anderson?

COOPER: Well, then, I guess they're pretty used to his behavior and outspokenness. How is this story playing among the British public?

ANDERSON: Yes, it's interesting because those who support him and agree with him are saying bravo, Mr. Galloway, respect. Some people are saying, a great guy and the pride of British politics. Those comments on British Web sites. Another one -- a man said, he's a man of integrity and bottle. I read that on one of the Web sites (INAUDIBLE).

But, the truth, I think, of the matter is the British public has heard this all before. They see it on the floor of the House of Commons week-in and week-out from the likes of George Galloway. He's of course back as a result of his election victory this time.

COOPER: You described him as a man of bottle. What does that mean?

ANDERSON: What it means is, he's basically got the guts to go out and say what he thinks. He has always had an agenda, as I suggest. He always been a thorn in the side of the establishment, and a lot of people do agree with him. I mean, he did win. He overturned a huge Labor majority in Bethnal Green in London. He believes in what he says. He is standing on an anti-war ticket. And what people say is, he has the bottle effectively. He's got the guts to stand up and actually stand up for people that he believes in, and policy and agenda that he believes is right.

COOPER: This is good. We speak the same language yet some of these words I don't understand, so -- bottle. Bottle is guts. I like that. Thanks very much. Becky Anderson, good to talk to you.

ANDERSON: All right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, one of the senators in the midst of the confrontation with Galloway was Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan. I spoke to him just a bit earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Senator Levin, do you think Galloway personally profited from Saddam Hussein?

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: I think his political organization clearly profited from those oil sales which violated the U.N. program.

COOPER: He said, if you had anybody who paid me a penny, you would have produced them here today. What evidence do you have that his political organization profited?

LEVIN: Well, I think he acknowledged that his political organization got significant contributions from his Jordanian partner and agent, a man named Zureikat. Zureikat is the one who actually got the allocations in the name of Galloway. On behalf of Galloway, Zureikat made a lot of money off those oil allocations, but paid kickbacks to Saddam Hussein. Those kickbacks clearly violated U.N. Oil-for-Food program, and some of that money, quite clearly, is the money that went into the Galloway political organization. And I don't think he denies that.

So the real question for me is whether or not he's troubled at all that that kind of corrupt money ended up at his political organization. If he found out that that money came as a result of kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, would he be troubled by it? He refused to answer that question. That to me is the most troubling question.

COOPER: Yeah, and you know -- and you went back and forth trying to get him to answer that question skillfully, I might add. And he just flat out would not answer it. Who do you call next? I mean, what is the next step in trying to figure out the unraveling of this oil-for-food scandal?

LEVIN: OK, now the scandal here that we're talking about today is not a U.N. scandal. This was an attack on a U.N. program that Galloway was part of that, that Zureikat was part of. They wanted to end that U.N. program any way they could. So this was an attack on the U.N. that was aided and abetted by a number of people, we believe, including Zureikat, who received these kind of allocations as well. The next step here is to look at what is the U.S. failure in terms of enforcing that U.N. program.

COOPER: I want to play just a brief soundbite of something Galloway said to one of our correspondents, Richard Roth, a little bit earlier today. Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE GALLOWAY, BRITISH PARLIAMENT MEMBER: I came not as the accused but as the accuser, so I don't suppose I did much beyond embarrassing the Senator Coleman with the absurd thinness of what he had to put on the table. But I hope that I reached a broader public with my broader case against the war, against the sanctions, and against the mother of all smoke screens, which is what this Senate Committee on Investigations is engaged in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Did you actually learn anything from Galloway today that you didn't know before, or that surprised you?

LEVIN: Not really, because the case against Galloway is the -- basically the case against him for his political organization receiving significant contributions from that Jordanian, who obtained a lot of money as a result of those oil allocations. And that money was corrupt money because of the kickbacks to Saddam. That's what the documents basically show. I don't think we learned anything new today that I could determine.

COOPER: Senator Carl Levin, it's been a long day. We appreciate you joining us. Thanks very much.

LEVIN: Good being with you.

COOPER: Well, next on this special edition of 360, hero or terrorist? He's a former CIA operative accused of blowing up a plane. He's been detained here in the U.S. But will we hand him over to Cuba? We're covering all the angles.

Also tonight -- should your taxpayer dollars pay for seniors to get Viagra? One congressman is on a crusade to stop it. We're going to talk with him ahead.

And a little bit later, a murder mystery. A teen falsely confessed to his mother's murder. He now looks for her real killer, after spending years behind bars. All that ahead in this special two- hour edition. First, your most popular stories on cnn.com right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: There he is, standing out in a sea of red. Fidel Castro today leading hundreds of thousands of Cubans past the American mission in Havana, calling for the arrest of one of his greatest foes, Luis Posada Carriles. Tonight, Posada is in U.S. custody in Miami. That's him being led away. He was seeking political asylum. But now there are reports he may abandon that bid.

This has been one of the most popular stories all day on cnn.com. Rudi Bakhtiar is here with an up-close look at who this guy really is -- Rudi.

RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a man, Anderson, who for half a century now has tried to take out Castro in a violent battle that has him both loved and hated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, POSADA SUPPORTER: Posada Carriles is not a terrorist. Posada Carriles is a freedom fighter, and he's being singled out by Castro's regime.

JIM DEFEDE, MIAMI HERALD COLUMNIST: If Posada were to be granted asylum, it would be -- it would betray a double standard, that the United States would be ridiculed for around the world.

BAKHTIAR (voice-over): Two pictures of one man. This man, Luis Posada Carriles. To many Cuban exiles, he's a hero, a warrior devoting his entire life to toppling Castro and communism in Latin America.

To others, he's a monster, a ruthless and cunning cold-blooded killer.

According to declassified U.S. documents, Posada was employed by the CIA from 1961 to 1967, and participated in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. In 1976, Venezuela accused Posada of the bombing of a Cuban airliner. The attack killed 73 people. "The New York Times" says Posada denied any involvement. And although he was never convicted of the bombing, Posada spent nine years in a Venezuelan prison before escaping in 1985.

Twelve years later, in 1997, Fidel Castro blamed him for a series of hotel bombings in Havana that claimed the life of an Italian tourist. According to "The New York Times," Posada boasted of the crime, but later denied involvement.

Then in 2000, Castro claimed that Posada plotted to assassinate him during a trip to Panama. A Panamanian court convicted Posada of the plot and sentenced him last year to eight years in prison.

Eight months ago, he was pardoned by the president of Panama.

One man, so many questions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: And as Anderson mentioned earlier, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took Posada into custody earlier today. And by law, the Department of Homeland Security has 48 hours to make an official determination of his immigration status. So, will Posada be sent back to Cuba? Probably not. In a statement, U.S. authorities made it clear that it generally does not remove people back to Cuba -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Rudi Bakhtiar, thanks very much.

There's a lot of other news tonight. Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS joins us with the latest at about 19 past the hour. Hey, Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Hey, Anderson.

We start off with First Lady Laura Bush. She is heading to the Middle East later this week. Her goals: To promote women's rights and spread a positive message about the United States. The latter after "Newsweek" magazine retracted a report that the Koran was desecrated by U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. On Saturday, Mrs. Bush will speak at the World Economic Forum in Jordan, and she will then visit Israel and Japan.

On now to Bangor, Maine. For the second time this week, a diverted flight has landed at the city's airport because a passenger's name was on the no-fly list. And once again, the FBI says the person in question is not a suspected terrorist. Since last year, at least 17 U.S. passenger flights have been diverted, six of those to Bangor. And at least five incidents involved a passenger on no-fly lists.

Melbourne, Australia -- pop star Kylie Minogue revealed she has breast cancer. The Grammy winner who will turn 37 later this month has now postponed her upcoming Australian tour so she can begin treatment immediately.

In Georgetown, Kentucky, a greener Toyota plant: The car-maker plans to build a gasoline/electric hybrid of its popular Camry model starting late next year. Toyota already makes three hybrid vehicles: the Prius and 2006 versions of its Highlander SUV as well as a luxury Lexus SUV. More and more choices for you to be green on the roads, Anderson.

COOPER: A lot of those cars are had to come by. There's a lot of waiting lists for those cars.

HILL: They are. People pay extra actually over sticker price for used ones sometimes.

COOPER: It's tough to get them. There will be more of them now.

Thanks very much, Erica. We'll see you again in about 30 minutes.

Coming up next on this special two-hour edition of "360," killer allergies. We're talking about peanuts tonight. They are as American as peanuts, I guess, but can be deadly for some. Our "360" M.D. Sanjay Gupta explains the hidden danger in your food.

Also tonight: Should the government spend billions of dollars to boost the sex lives of seniors? Meet one congressman who says, absolutely not. He's on a crusade to stop Medicare from paying for Viagra and, well, a bunch of those other drugs. A little bit later -- swept away in a river of mud and ash, a man who fought the fury of Mount St. Helen and survived. It's the anniversary this week. We're covering all the angles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well as the summer nears and the days grow longer and warmer, a lot of us are heading out and getting attacked by allergies to pollen and ragweed.

For a lot of Americans, there are a lot of other allergies that are much more dangerous: food allergies, we're talking about. Many of us don't even realize we have them until it's too late.

360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta looks tonight at the complicated battle against one form of food allergies, against peanut allergies.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Peanuts, as American as baseball. We ate nearly 1.7 billion pounds of them last year. But for those who are allergic to peanuts, even 1/1000th of a peanut can mean big trouble.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had all the hives over my back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I couldn't breathe and then I started wheezing. Within 20 minutes I was completely unconscious on the front porch when the ambulance was pulling up.

GUPTA: All these reactions from peanuts and nuts, trace amounts they didn't realize were in the foods they were eating.

ROBERT WOOD, M.D., JHU CHILDREN'S CENTER: Before the bad symptoms start, patients tend to have this thing we call a sense of impending doom. There's this really intense look of anxiety.

GUPTA: Dr. Robert Wood is an expert on peanut allergies and has had a lifelong allergy to peanuts himself.

WOOD: I have certain rules I abide by. One of those rules is, I don't eat any baked goods.

GUPTA: The one exception he thought he could safely make: accepting a home made gift from a colleague, an expert on food allergies like himself who assured him it was safe.

WOOD: You get an immediate sensation in your mouth that you have been exposed to something. And it turned out that they had made peanut butter Christmas cookies and non-peanut-butter Christmas cookies and they had used the same spatula, maybe the same cookie sheet without cleaning it in between.

That amount of contamination just from a spatula when it comes to peanut allergy is enough to cause severe reactions.

GUPTA: What Dr. Wood found himself in the middle of was a massive allergic reaction called anaphylaxis, caused by peanuts and many other foods. It can include symptoms like hives, swelling, difficulty breathing. It took five shots of epinephrine to stop Wood's reaction.

That's why those with serious food allergies need to carry epi- pens, adrenaline in a tube. Without it, these reactions can lead to a sudden drop in blood pressure or worse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOOD: I have lost three patients due to anaphylaxis.

GUPTA: What happened?

WOOD: They were all teenagers. One was a baked good. One was Chinese food. One was a candy. None of them had the epinephrine available.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: All these foods had peanuts or peanut oil hidden inside. These reactions aren't as rare as you might think. Eleven millions Americans have food allergies, accounting for tens of thousands of emergency room visits and 150 to 250 deaths a year.

Perhaps the most startling trend, according to Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York -- the number of American children allergic to peanuts doubled in five years.

ANNE MUNOZ-FURLONG, FOOD ALLERGY & ANAPHYLAXIS NETWORK: They seem to be the leading cause of severe or fatal allergic reactions. We don't know what it is about the peanut versus milk or soy or some of the other allergens that makes them so potent.

WOOD: If people are cracking open peanuts, especially in a confined space like a waiting area of a restaurant, you could have a very severe reaction if there's enough airborne peanut there.

GUPTA: Which is why five airlines have decided to stop serving peanuts. Jacqui Corba had her first reaction on an airplane even though she wasn't eating peanuts herself.

JACQUI CORBA, FOOD ALLERGY SUFFER: I found out I think when I was two years old. I was actually on an airplane flight with my mom. She ate peanuts and gave me a kiss on my face. I blew up like all over.

GUPTA: Whenever she flies an airline like Jet Blue, which does serve peanuts, she asks that they make an announcement on her behalf.

She also had a full-blown reaction at school after a classmate opened a bag of peanuts near her. Now many schools reserve separate tables where no peanut butter is allowed.

With no cure, the only prescription is strict avoidance, which is not easy. Some candies kids love warn they may contain traces of peanut, which means for this teenager... UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Candies may contain peanuts.

GUPTA: ... reading comprehension takes on a whole new meaning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You never know where peanuts may show up in anything you eat or touch.

GUPTA: Or any one you touch. Michelle Risinger has been severely allergic to peanuts and all nuts for as long as she can remember. She and a boyfriend found out about the severity of her allergy the hard way.

MICHELLE RISINGER, FOOD ALLERGY SUFFERER: He started kissing me and my lips started tingling. Immediately I was like, "We have to stop. I need to go take Benadryl."

GUPTA: To avoid what could be the kiss of death, Michelle gives all of her dates a choice: It's either peanuts and nuts or her.

GUPTA (on camera): The medical community still cannot fully explain why we have such a tremendous rise in allergies, Anderson.

Interestingly, developing countries have almost no allergies. The theory is this: The more time actually spent fighting germs, the less time you develop allergies.

Another theory, Anderson, is that we're just exposing children more and more to peanuts at a younger and younger age.

It's unclear for now, but certainly there is a rise there.

COOPER: I can't believe that someone sitting on a plane, just because someone sitting nearby them opens it; that's just incredible.

I had no idea. And I didn't realize that's why they don't serve peanuts on a lot of planes now.

GUPTA: Exactly.

COOPER: I understand you have had an anaphylactic reaction. What was the reaction to?

GUPTA: Mine was actually to mangoes. It was sort of interesting. I developed an anaphylactic reaction, first some itchiness in the palms, then I had some difficulty breathing myself. I ended up having to go to the hospital.

But what was sort of interesting was that it was probably modulated or sort of caused by exercise in addition to consuming large amounts of fruit. And that can happen as well. People who have never had an anaphylactic reaction after a significant bout of exercise can eat a food that was otherwise OK for them and develop a reaction to that. So that was interesting in my case.

COOPER: Scary stuff. All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much. GUPTA: Thank you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Medicare says it will pay for Viagra, but is sex for seniors really a medical necessity? Tonight, why the federal government wants to spend your money on erectile dysfunction drugs, but won't pay for other medicines.

They call him the Piano Man. Found alone, mute and disoriented. The only clue to his identity, his remarkable piano playing. Who is this mysterious musician? And how can authorities unlock the key to his identity?

Cops said he murdered his mother. They even got him to confess. But this teen was innocent. Tonight, how a young man's life was turned upside down for a crime he didn't commit.

This two-hour special edition of 360 continues in a moment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Soon, some elderly and disabled people will be able to rekindle the passion with the help of your tax dollars. Starting in January, Medicare is going to cover prescriptions of Viagra and other impotence drugs. Now, it's going to cost the government about $2 billion over the next decade, they say, and that's out of about $750 billion that is going to be spent on all Medicare prescriptions.

Still, some lawmakers think the government should not even spend a dollar on impotence drugs. Earlier, I spoke with one of them, Representative Steve King of Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Congressman King, why shouldn't Medicare pay for impotence drugs?

REP. STEVE KING (R), IOWA: Well, Medicare prescription drugs are designed to pay for prescription drugs for people to improve their health, maintain their health, and provide life-saving medication. This is not life-saving medication. There are only two reasons for sex, and one is procreation; the other is recreation. And in either case, it's not the taxpayers' responsibility to subsidize it.

COOPER: You said that one of the things Medicare does is give drugs to improve health. You're saying these are sex drugs. They're certainly abused, but plenty of people take them for legitimate medical reasons -- erectile dysfunction. I mean, isn't quality of life just as important for seniors and disabled as it is for the rest of us?

KING: I think life is more important to seniors and more important to the taxpayers. We've been making the argument to young people, remain abstinent until married, be responsible. They have raging hormones. And now we're saying to them, work a few extra overtime hours and we'll tax you on that, and we'll send that money off so we can pay for grandpa's recreational Viagra drugs. It's just wrong, Anderson.

COOPER: So if seniors were capable of having babies, would it be OK?

KING: No, it wouldn't be OK in that case either. We don't subsidize -- we don't subsidize reproductive activities at the younger level either. This is something that's not life-saving. It's not medically necessary. And there are some rare exceptions. And those exceptions might cost that patient $140 to $140 for the full prescription of treatments. So to open that door for that $140 exception would open the door for as many as $1.93 billion worth of Viagra, Cialis and Levitra drugs. And that's far too much money, and it blows our budget. And it takes the money away from life-saving drugs.

COOPER: But your opponents, though, say, look, it's $2 billion in a budget of $750 billion over the course of 10 years. You know, compared to 750 billion, 2 billion doesn't seem like that much.

KING: We can make that excuse for almost anything we spend money on, no matter how ridiculous it might be. But there wasn't anybody involved in the prescription drug bill that we passed a couple of years ago that had the idea that this would be paying for sexual enhancement drugs. And so to argue that it's an entitlement now, I think we need to stop it before it becomes an entitlement.

COOPER: We don't take sides on the program. We try to look at all the angles. Your opponents say, look, this is a real problem -- PhRMA, which represents the pharmaceutical industry, sent us this statement. I just want to read you part of it. They say: "Erectile dysfunction is quite often the result of debilitating conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and depression. ED, in fact, can be an early sign of these diseases. Products that treat erectile dysfunction are part of the overall treatment of patients."

So I guess I put it to you again, why deny patients with these illnesses access to drugs that may improve their lives or save their lives in some cases?

KING: Well, if I were a pharmaceutical company or a doctor prescribing these drugs and I had a financial vested interest in that, I could have written that paper just as well. I think that the paper that they have written and the position that they have taken certainly protects their financial interests. But it doesn't provide justice here for the taxpayers, and I would ask the taxpayers what they think. And I'm convinced that they are with me on this issue.

COOPER: Representative Steve King, good to talk to you. Thanks very much for being on the program.

KING: Thank you, Anderson. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Next on this two-hour edition of 360, a close call with death. A survivor from the Mount St. Helens eruption that happened 25 years ago this week. Hear how he escaped the deadly lava. It's an amazing story.

Also ahead tonight, identity unknown, the mystery of the Piano Man. That's what they're calling this guy. His only language, music. The question is, who is he and why won't he talk?

Also a little later tonight, "Justice Under Fire"." A man wrongly convicted of killing his own mother three decades ago. See how the accused has now become the investigator trying to find the real killer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Hard to believe, you are looking at the massive mud slide triggered from the most destructive volcano eruption in U.S. history. We're talking, of course, about Mt. St. Helens. Twenty-five years ago tomorrow -- that's when it happened -- May 18th, 1980, the mountain awoke with a force equal to 27,000 atomic bombs. Hard to believe. In just seconds, 230 square miles of forest land was reduced to ash. In all 57 people would die. Now, you're about to meet one man, however, who escaped death that day. It's a survival story like no other.

CNN's Peter Viles brings it to you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the spot where Roald Reitan was sure he would die 25 years ago. In fact, he asked for death.

ROALD REITAN, SURVIVED ST. HELENS ERUPTION: If it is going to kill me, I'm saying, just do it. Get it over with.

VILES: It started as a romantic camping trip -- 19-year-old Roald, his girlfriend Venus Dergan. It's true, Mount St. Helens was acting up, but nobody thought this area was at risk.

How far are we right now from the mountain itself?

REITAN: About 46 miles as you go on the highway.

VILES: Forty-six miles?

REITAN: Right.

VILES: So, you're way in the safe area.

REITAN: Oh, yes. I mean I figured...

VILES: At least you thought you were. REITAN: Yes. I mean, so did the scientists and everybody else.

VILES: But on Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, a peaceful river turned violent.

REITAN: When it was rumbling around the corner, it sounded like a monster coming through the forest.

VILES: The monster was a river made of mud, ash, and trees, and suddenly, two scared teenagers.

REITAN: I told Venus to jump. I said, jump, you know, and then we jumped, and I landed on a big log, like you ride a horse, just -- and she went just right in between two of them. And she was gone.

VILES: She went under.

REITAN: Yes. Like, I mean, gone. She was next to me one second when we jumped, and when I hit a log, you know, I looked at her, and I saw her head go right in between two of them. I thought she was dead for sure, and you know, I thought I was going to be dead too.

VILES: Somehow Roald steadied himself. Twice he grabbed his girlfriend, but twice the river took her back.

REITAN: Fear is ebbing from me and now I'm getting mad. I mean, I'm really getting mad because, it's like, you know, I've found her twice. It's like -- and it's taken her away from me. It's like, no way.

VILES: The third time he held on.

REITAN: She was freezing and I grabbed her by her shoulders and hair and I pulled her out if it, all the way out. You know, and I was telling myself, there's no way I'm going to let her go.

VILES: He held on for half an hour, fighting his way out of the torrent of mud.

REITAN: When we got out of it, the ordeal wasn't over. You know, I mean, basically, the worst part of it was when we got out, because we had to walk all the way back.

VILES: They stumbled in the woods for hours, rescued at last by helicopter, the pilot revealing to Roald what had happened that morning at Mount St. Helens.

REITAN: He looked right over me, you know, cause the other fellow's in between us, and he looked at me and he goes, you want to see what almost killed you? And I said, what? And, as he was like feeling the G-forces of the thing going up, he spun it right around and that's when I saw it.

VILES: Saw the mountain.

REITAN: Oh, yes, and it was like a surreal steam engine. Just the smoke going straight up.

VILES: In an instant Mount St. Helens had blown apart, killing 57 people, leveling hundreds of square miles of forest, scarring the landscape and those who survived.

REITAN: Just like it was yesterday. I can close my eyes and relive it, every second of what happened.

VILES: Peter Viles for CNN, Toutle, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS joins us with the latest at about a quarter to the hour. Hey, Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: Hey, Anderson.

Heading off to Los Angeles, now, first of all, where it is deja vu as vallots -- vallots? Voters, that is, cast their ballots for mayor. I'll get this one day. The election is a rematch of the race four years ago in which Antonio Villaraigosa lost to James Hahn by a seven point margin. Recent polls indicate Mayor Hahn may actually be the underdog in his bid for re-election. Voter turn-out, though, is expected to be pretty low and that makes the outcome of the election pretty much anybody's guess.

In Washington, the FCC is planning to require 911 service on Internet phone lines. 911 calls made over an Internet connection don't always provide response centers with the caller's address and they're often routed to administrative lines. On Thursday the FCC will likely give Internet phone companies 120 days to provide full 911 services to their customers.

Texas City, Texas, employees are deemed responsible for a deadly blast at a BP oil refinery. Today, the company released its interim report which says the March 23rd explosion was caused by mistakes made during the unit startup. Fifteen people were killed. The plant operators say some employees could be dismissed as a result.

And researchers in Boston say pills made from kudzu vines, apparently, cut down the urge to binge drink. The researchers aren't exactly sure why this happens, but they speculate kudzu speeds up the effects of alcohol, meaning drinkers need fewer beers to feel drunk. And I know plenty of people in Georgia that would be willing to give up their kudzu vines, Anderson.

COOPER: Yeah, Mississippi as well. I got a lot of relatives down there, and it's just -- kudzu's everywhere.

HILL: It is!

COOPER: It's an amazing, amazing vine. Moves so quickly. Ah, Erica Hill, thanks very much.

HILL: You're welcome.

COOPER: See you in again about 30 minutes.

Coming up next on this two-hour edition of 360, a mysterious patient -- this is a fascinating story -- he's known only as the Piano Man. Now, he was found wandering on a British beach. He won't talk but he plays the piano amazingly well. Maybe someone out there will figure out who his real identity is.

Also tonight, "Justice Under Fire"," a mother murdered and her son wrongly convicted of the crime. Why did it happen and will the real killer ever be found? Take a close look at that case tonight.

Plus, how to handle a prisoner: an inside look at the special training cops and jail guards get that could save their lives and even yours if a prisoner tries to escape.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: This next story sounds like something you'd see in a movie. A tall young man was found wandering alone on a beach. He was dressed in a black suit and tie. He was drenched, disoriented and mute. Now, that was five weeks ago, and still nobody knows who this guy is or where he came from. The one clue to his identity: He can play the piano extraordinarily well. CNN's Paula Hancocks has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It was here, on the seafront of this small island just off the east coast of Britain that police found the man they now call the Piano Man. He was wandering aimlessly along this road, dressed in a tuxedo, a white shirt and tie, drenched to the skin.

He hasn't uttered a word, not even to give his name. The labels were cut out of his clothing, and any identifying marks on his shoes had been erased.

That was five weeks ago. And authorities are still no closer to finding out who the Piano Man is.

(voice-over): All they know is when they gave him a pencil and paper, he drew a picture of a grand piano. When they took him to the chapel in the local hospital, he walked straight to the piano and began to play, beautifully. The man with no voice communicated through the language of music.

MICHAEL CAMP, SOCIAL WORKER: He's lost in his music, really. I mean, he -- when he's not on the piano, he's out of contact. He's solid. He wouldn't allow you within probably two or three yards of him. When he's on the piano, you can stand as close as you like. You can -- you know, you can touch him. You can -- and he's extremely relaxed.

HANCOCKS: The plight of the Piano Man draws parallels with David Helfgott, the pianist whose breakdown was documented in the 1996 film, "Shine." The nameless man seems to find comfort only in his music. DR. ANDREW MCCULLOUGH, THE MENTAL HEALTH FOUNDATION: It's the mind perhaps responding to a trauma by blotting out the events that have happened and the history that goes with it. But the normal functions of day-to-day living, like eating, sleeping and so on are not blotted out. And clearly in the case of this man, piano playing for him is like something basic.

HANCOCKS: Initial theories -- he'd been attending a funeral or a concert -- have been dismissed. So for now, the six-foot pianist with deep brown eyes will remain simply the Piano Man.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, on the Isle of Sheppey, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, it's inevitable somebody knows who this guy is. We'll keep you updated when we find out.

Coming up, a special edition of 360: "Justice Under Fire"." A man wrongly convicted of beating and stabbing his own mother to death. Now, it took decades to clear his name. And he's now searching for the real killer. We'll bring you his story ahead.

Also ahead tonight, a lawyer caught in the crosshairs, targeted by a gunman outside a courthouse. We'll tell you what happened to this man.

Plus, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm about to receive 50,000 volts of electricity. Do it.

(SCREAMING)

SANCHEZ: It hurts. It's painful. But no one's dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: No one's dead indeed. Rick Sanchez gets a jolting look at how courthouse deputies can try to stop a runaway prisoner. All that and more on a 360 special report, ""Justice Under Fire"."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, all this week CNN is focusing on crime in America. Tonight, in the next hour we're going to be looking at "Justice Under Fire" -- the many ways our justice system is being put to the test. And though crime is down around the country, the system itself is burdened like never before. Justice truly is under fire.

Tonight, we begin with a story of one young man. A story about how easily justice can be denied and how it can be found again. You're about to meet a man named Peter Reilly. And when he was just a teenager, Peter's mother was murdered, and he was the prime suspect. He confessed to the killing, even though he did not do it.

Now, I've heard these stories before, and every time I find it hard to understand why would anyone confess to something they didn't do, especially something like killing a parent.

You are about to see how it can happen. The answer lies in the interrogation itself and the ways that police can work on a vulnerable suspect and get him to simply make things up.

Tonight, in recordings never before played on a network newscast, you're going to hear the confession that led to this man's conviction. That's only the beginning of a story you will see only on CNN. Heidi Collins joins me now with more -- Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And Anderson, in those recordings, you will hear how police led a sleepless and isolated Peter Reilly to make a false confession. Reilly is now 50 and rarely does TV interviews, but he sat down with us to explain how one tragic night nearly ruined his life, not to mention the terrible pains he feels having lost his mother in a most violent way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): Peter Reilly thinks about his mother's murder every day.

PETER REILLY, WRONGLY CONVICTED OF MOTHER'S MURDER: My focus is to solve the crime. That's exactly what my focus is.

COLLINS: His mother, Barbara Gibbons, viciously beaten and stabbed almost 32 years ago. Her throat slit, her legs broken. Peter Reilly found her in a pool of blood inside their modest four-room home in western Connecticut. He was 18.

REILLY: Because this was all one property, and we rented the cottage from the property owner.

COLLINS: It was a moment that changed his life, and a murder he would be blamed for. It would become a decades-long fight to clear his name and find the real killers.

REILLY: This was home. And unfortunately, this is also where some people killed my mother.

COLLINS: Barbara Gibbons had raised her son alone, a single parent, taking him to Little League games and teaching him how to fish and hunt.

She loved to read, and pushed Peter to do the same.

REILLY: She would always put me before her. If there were needs in the house, my needs always came first. And she would sacrifice to make sure that I had good clothing, or you know, the things I needed for school.

COLLINS: Barbara Gibbons had worked for an insurance company and for a time, managed the gas station across the street. Then, she went on welfare, and people who knew her say she drank too much. Peter Reilly was more interested in guitars and cars than in school. But he wasn't one to stir up trouble. He drove a used Corvette but never got a speeding ticket.

REILLY: I guess, you know, I was 14, 15, 16 years old, somewhere in there. We had a sit-down, and one of her things that she taught me she said is you have to remember you always have to take care of number one. Nobody's going to do it for you.

COLLINS: It was advice he wishes he had followed that fateful Friday night, in September, 1973. He'd spent the evening after school in a teen center at a local church. After dropping off a friend and driving himself home, he found his mother. She was on the floor, bleeding, and barely breathing.

(on camera): Were you scared? Were you sad?

REILLY: I was terrified, but I didn't have time to be sad. What I had time to do was do something. I had to get help right away.

COLLINS (voice-over): Reilly called for an ambulance. Soon, police were on the scene and Reilly was a suspect. Strip searched, place in a police car and kept from friends and neighbors.

REILLY: I didn't know this was a murder. I didn't understand. I thought it was possible that my mother had been suicidal and had done this to herself. I didn't know and I didn't know that she was dead.

COLLINS: State police took Reilly to their barracks and kept him up all night, questioning him alone.

REILLY: They just plain exhausted me to the point of, I was just absolutely lost and terrified, and didn't know which way to turn.

COLLINS (on camera): Is there anything that you would have done differently?

REILLY: Yeah, I should have asked for a lawyer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have a right to remain silent. If you talk to the police anything you say can and will be used against you.

COLLINS: Peter Reilly cooperated, agreeing to answer all the police questions. In Canaan the questions went on all night, then transferred the next day to the state police headquarters in Hartford, with only a couple of hours of sleep in jail the questions continued.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we have a little problem here, Pete.

REILLY: What do you mean?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About hurting your mother last night.

REILLY: I didn't do it.

COLLINS: Reilly voluntarily took a lie detector test measuring changes in his heartbeat and breathing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These charts say you hurt your mother last night.

REILLY: But the thing is -- I don't remember it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These charts don't say that, Pete.

COLLINS: Police wouldn't give up, telling him their high-tech equipment read his denials as lies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said a moment ago that you had doubt in your mind if you flew off the handle last night, and you don't recollect.

REILLY: It doesn't seem like me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No?

REILLY: Cause I'd never flown off the handle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, there's always the first time.

COLLINS: There were eight more hours of interrogation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't know for sure if did you this thing, do you?

REILLY: No, I don't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So let's go over this thing again. Maybe we can bring it out of your subconscious. As long as you don't get it straightened out in your mind, you'll never have a day of peace.

REILLY: I've got to get it straightened out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

COLLINES: After dozens of leading questions, Reilly eventually conceded he had snapped. But Reilly told lead investigator James Shea that his memory was still foggy.

JAMES SHEA, CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE: You recall cutting her throat with a straight razor?

REILLY: Um, it's hard to say.

SHEA: Well...

REILLY: I think I recall doing it. I mean, I imagine myself doing it. It's coming out of the back of my head, but I'm not absolutely positive of anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said to us repeatedly that you were responsible for your mother's death. You told us a half a dozen times that you cut your mother with a straight razor. REILLY: I said I thought that I did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, you said you did. You didn't say you thought you did. You said you did.

COLLINS: Shea told Reilly police had evidence to prove he did it.

SHEA: So if she died when you were in the house, and there were only the two of you there, somebody is responsible for the other's death. That other is you, Pete.

COLLINS: Reilly told another officer he wasn't sure about that.

REILLY: It seems like I'm being pushed into saying things. He won't allow me to say what I think I did.

COLLINS: Shea wanted a confession in writing, and got angry when Reilly refused.

DONALD CONNERY, AUTHOR, "GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN": I want I don't want to you play any more head games with us. And if you want to play this way we'll take you, lock you up and beat you like an animal.

COLLINS: Finally without a lawyer present, Reilly signed a confession with no doubts.

CONNERY: It just seemed to me it was a classic exercise of brain-washing.

COLLINS: Journalist Donald Connery has studied and written about the Reilly case from the beginning. His daughters were in school with Reilly. Connery, and experts we talked to say during a long, aggressive interrogation, false confessions can happen. And a suspect can be persuaded of his own guilt, even fabricate details to back up the accusations, especially when the suspect's confidence in his memory is attacked and police confront him with false incriminating evidence over and over again.

CONNERY: I was astonished at the power of the police in the confinement of an interrogation room to use psychological ploys and pressures to get a totally innocent person to believe himself to be guilty, and to start to speculate, as Peter did about how he could have committed the crime he didn't commit.

And those speculations ended up in a one-page confession that he signed in his exhaustion.

COLLINS: That confession would cost Pete Reilly his freedom.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: When we come back, the verdict that wasn't the end of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REILLY: At first I was kind of knocked down, and then again that, overwhelming feeling of, we have to fight on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Peter Reilly's fight for freedom continues in his quest to find a killer.

Later, in this special report, ""Justice Under Fire"" when courthouses turn into shooting ranges and what court officers can do to stop a crazed convict.

Rick Sanchez shows us how courthouse deputies learn to handle the toughest criminals or toughest reporters.

When we return, Peter Reilly's search for justice. He was wrongly accused. But here's a justice quiz, going to the break: When was America's first documented wrongful conviction murder case? Was it in 1812, 1845 or 1862?

The answer when our 360 special report, ""Justice Under Fire"" continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Before the break we asked you: When was America's first documented case of a wrongful murder conviction? The answer, 1812.

Russell Colvin disappeared in Vermont. His two brother-in-laws were convicted. Fortunately for them, Russell turned up in New Jersey alive and exonerated both of them.

Welcome back to this special edition of 360: ""Justice Under Fire"." I'm Anderson Cooper.

Tonight we're looking at the many ways our criminal justice system is being strained. Before the break we introduced you to a man named Peter Reilly. He was wrongly accused of murder. He was just a teenager when he became a suspect in the killing of his mother.

Now police kept questioning him all night long, questioning him without a lawyer present. He knew he was innocent. Nevertheless after hours of interrogation he signed a written confession. Next, there was a trial, and a fight to be exonerated.

Now a man once convicted of murder searches to find the truth, searches for justice for his mother. Heidi Collins picks up the story you'll see only on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: One month after confessing on tape to his mother's 1973 murder.

REILLY: It's the straight razor that I used, that I slashed my mother's throat with, and I remember, I think, jumping up and down. COLLINS: Eighteen-year-old Peter Reilly was allowed to go to his mother's funeral, but he went in handcuffs concealed by a jail guard's coat.

REILLY: One-hundred and forty-three days here, that I'm never getting back.

COLLINS: Reilly spent five months in jail, released on bail raised by friends and neighbors, just as his trial began in the spring of 1974. By then Reilly had recanted his confession.

Still, the confession became the prosecutor's main exhibit in the six-week trial at the Litchfield County courthouse, but there were no eyewitnesses and little physical evidence. No bloody clothes belonging to Reilly, no definitive murder weapon. The government's forensic experts said a kitchen knife with blood residue might have been used. He never identified whose blood was on the knife. A jury deliberated just two days before finding Reilly guilty of first degree manslaughter.

REILLY: It was amazing they could convict me, standing there knowing full well I'd never done anything wrong. At first I was kind of knocked down and then again that, overwhelming feeling of, we have to fight on.

COLLINS: Reilly was facing 6 to 16 years in prison. Families in the community, again, bailed him out, while he appealed his case. He was allowed to finish high school. And supporters began a drive for a new trial. Connecticut celebrities, led by playwright Arthur Miller, chipped in with much-needed cash. Neighbors like journalist Donald Connery, believed in Reilly's innocence.

CONNERY: It was hard for anyone to understand that this particular person, who had no reputation for wrongdoing or violence or anything, would have done this. I was appalled at the prospect that the authorities had seemingly ignored evidence of innocence and evidence of others who were probably guilty.

COLLINS (on camera): Why would they do that?

CONNERY: There is the belief that, even among police, to this day -- and prosecutors -- most of them, that no one will confess to a crime he didn't commit, and once they have a confession, it's like then they get lazy.

COLLINS: Connecticut state police refused requests by CNN to be interviewed on camera about their investigation. So did now-retired lead investigator James Shea. A private investigator hired by Reilly's new defense team dug up fresh evidence for the appeal: a newly identified fingerprint on the back door of his mother's house. It belonged to a local teenager who stole Reilly's mother's wallet one week before her murder. And a statement by an off-duty cop who saw Reilly driving his Corvette five miles from the house at the time prosecutors contended Reilly was committing the murder.

And on appeal, testimony from a defense psychiatrist who told the court Reilly's confession was coerced. In 1976, two years after his conviction, a Connecticut judge tossed it out. He granted Reilly a new trial saying, "A grave injustice has been done."

The next year, the state dropped all charges, and a judge ruled Reilly could never be prosecuted again for his mother's murder.

REILLY: It was a great injustice. My mind was full of youthful ideals where things don't go wrong in the United States, and they had at that point.

COLLINS: Peter Reilly went on with his life, working as an emergency medical technician and as a salesman. He was married for a few years in California, but now lives back in Connecticut with the family that took him in during his darkest days.

(on camera): When you meet new friends, does it come up?

REILLY: It can be a little rough in the dating department, when you're trying to explain to someone who you are and the things you've done in your life. And it's not everybody's got a murder conviction that's been overturned.

COLLINS: What's the reaction?

REILLY: One hell of an ice breaker. I have nothing to hide. I'm not ashamed of who I am. If anybody should be ashamed, it should be the activities of the police, the way they handled me back then.

COLLINS: Reilly and Don Connery petitioned the state to obtain access to all the police files from the case. They finally won access this month. CNN was there when they went to police headquarters for the first time to inspect two filing cabinets full of documents, documents that may hold clues to finally crack the case.

REILLY: This is the day we've been waiting for quite some time.

CONNERY: Well, 32 years.

COLLINS: Reilly and Connery contend the police never stopped believing in Reilly's guilt, and never investigated leads that pointed to anyone else. Even though a grand jury report filed after Reilly was cleared named five suspects worthy of investigation, including the neighbor we told you about, who stole Reilly's mother's wallet, but he's always denied committing the murder.

REILLY: The state knows who we think did it. They're going to spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulder because I'm not going away.

CONNERY: We're in a position of being able, at this point, with the new files to look at everything, all the testimony, independent information, police information, and try to see if it will hold up. It's like at long last we're putting the puzzle together.

COLLINS: A state police spokesman tells CNN the case is an open investigation, and "We never name suspects in any investigation at all for fear of compromising the progress of it."

But he added, "If anyone came up with any lead whatsoever, it would be pursued."

(on camera): Some people would say, you know what? Ultimately, the justice system did work here, Peter Reilly is not in prison. Peter Reilly was exonerated.

CONNERY: But some people would say that the system didn't work in this case, and it still isn't working. So long as the crime is unsolved, and the killers are out there and free and never convicted, justice has not been done in this case, but maybe it will be.

REILLY: It's all about my mother, and it's all about bringing to justice the individuals who committed this crime. And beyond that, how it affects me really doesn't matter anymore.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: You can say the once-accused has now become a detective in the case. As for the police closing their eyes to any other possible suspects, we talked to James Shea, the lead investigator on the case and now retired. He told us on the phone that's not true. And said "We went where the evidence took us."

Meanwhile, Peter Reilly gave Don Connery power of attorney to read all of the case files. And I just got off the phone with him before the show, he tells me, with the information he already found in these documents he thinks he'll be successful in explaining why the police got it so wrong in the first place, and that other suspects were always known about but never pursued, Anderson.

COOPER: It's amazing when you hear the interrogation tapes how easily someone can be convinced to confess to a crime that they didn't commit. In this case a young man confessing to his own mother's murder.

Is this still an open case?

COLLINS: Well, we're determining it as an open case, but it's known as a cold case at the same time. In fact, Reilly and Connery are going to have to present strong evidence to the police commissioner and the chief state's attorney in order for them to go ahead and pursue it. But Don Connery said he's already spoken within both of those men and is confident they will do the right thing and go after Barbara Gibbons killer.

COOPER: All right. Great story, Heidi Collins thanks very much. Erica Hill from "Headline News" joins us with the latest about 18 past the hour.

Hey, Erica.

HILL: Hey, Anderson.

The Department of Homeland Security, we're learning, has 48 hours to decide the fate of Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, the former CIA operative who has made a career out of trying to kill Fidel Castro, was detained in Miami after a failed bid for asylum. He's on the run from charges he blew up a Cuban airliner in the '70s, killing 73 people. He denies it.

On to the segment "Security Watch": A loophole in security. Unscreened cargo is still being loaded onto passenger planes. Today some members of Congress called for new rules to inspect all cargo on commercial flights.

The housing market, by the way, still bubblelicious, you might say. Translate that as no signs of a slowdown as the number of new homes being built surged by 11 percent in April.

An insurance giant is dealing with a little damage control. Here's Valerie Morris with a "Market Movers" report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALERIE MORRIS, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): American International Group has weathered hurricanes, earthquakes and terrorist attacks but a government investigation into its books is a different issue all together.

AIG, the giant insurer, and Dow component, has uncovered nearly $3 billion in improper accounting. Its shares have plunged 30 percent since February, when federal and state regulators launched separate investigations into some questionable accounting practices.

The controversy forced Wall Street legend Maurice Hank Greenburg to resign from the company he founded 40 years ago. Still, AIG continues to post solid results, reporting a 19 percent increase in profit in 2004 to $11 billion.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: The latest from HEADLINE NEWS at this hour. Now back over to you.

COOPER: Erica, thanks very much. See you again in about 30 minutes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER (voice over): Caught on tape, a man shot five times at point blank range. Tonight, whatever happened to the man who dodged bullets behind a tree?

And what happens when a cop is overpowered by a crazed suspect? Tonight, the latest in self-defense and security technology that could help save lives in the line of duty. This special edition of 360: ""Justice Under Fire"" continues in a moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: ""Justice Under Fire"" in America. We're looking at all the ways our system of justice is being attacked, literally in some cases. The recent killing of two family members of a Chicago federal judge and the Atlanta courthouse shootings drives home that point. According to the U.S. Marshall Service, which is charged with protecting judges an estimated 700 threats are made against judicial officials each year.

Of these, about 20 are serious enough to require police protection; 12 others triggered round-the-clock protection. One California lawyer had no protection at all when a disgruntled client made him the target of a shooting rampage. That client is still behind bars awaiting a competency hearing this week in a Los Angeles Superior Court.

CNN's Miguel Marquez has more on the brazen attack that happened in front of TV cameras.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(GUNFIRE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It was Halloween, October 31, 2003. Gerry Curry, a lawyer, walked out of a southern California courtroom and into a horror story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we have a first aid kit over here ASAP?

MARQUEZ: The man with the gun is William Strier. He was angry at Curry; angry about legal work Curry had done for him, angry enough to kill, or at least try to.

DANIEL DIAZ, SHOOTING WITNESS: He was angry. He was very focused, yes. He just kept saying, "That's what he gets for taking my money."

MARQUEZ: After emptying his revolver, Strier strolled off as if nothing happened. Daniel Diaz, a local LA journalist followed alongside Strier. He shot video with one hand and pointed Strier out with another until he was finally tackled and then swarmed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's the gun?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His right pocket.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His right pocket of his jacket.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right pocket jacket.

(CROSS TALK)

GERRY CURRY, SHOOTING VICTIM: I remember this really loud pop, because I remember my ears ringing.

MARQUEZ: Curry, a probate and estate planning lawyer was shot five times. CURRY: Hit me three times here, these bullets went in and out. And he also hit me in the right forearm. This bullet went in the forearm and ended up in the top of my arm here. And the first shot, when he shot me when I came out of the courthouse, he shot me in the neck right here.

MARQUEZ: After the first bullet went in the neck and lodged near his spine, Curry had seconds to decide, run away or run for cover.

CURRY: I was worried if I ran away he could shoot me in the back and just kill me.

MARQUEZ: Curry ran for the nearest tree. At only about two-feet around, it was wide enough to protect him from a fatal shot.

(GUNFIRE)

CURRY: I was trying to keep the tree between the gun and my head, trying to protect my head and torso. And so he went right, I went the other way.

MARQUEZ: Media was everywhere that day. The courthouse in Van Nuys is the same place where Robert Blake was defending himself on a murder charge.

On a normal day the focus was on the famous defendant. In an instant it was on William Strier. Jerry Curry still practices law. He often walks by the tree and believes it was his lawyerly fast thinking that saved his life.

CURRY: Trial lawyers have to think quickly on their feet. I think maybe my training as a lawyer helped me out, because you have to think very quickly.

(GUNFIRE)

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Bizarre.

Next, what can court deputies do to subdue an out-of-control prisoner? Rick Sanchez is about to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: I'm about to receive 50,000 volts of electricity.

Do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: What happens when 50,000 volts meets Rick Sanchez? You'll see in just a moment.

Also coming up, a time when bullets were the only option and a man from Texas put his life on the line.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, Brian Nichols today pleaded not guilty to all charges in the March Atlanta courthouse shooting spree. Nichols is accused of killing a judge and court reporter in the courtroom, killing a sheriff's deputy outside the courthouse, and killing a federal agent while escaping. Investigators say Nichols began his rampage after breaking loose from a female guard who was taking him to a court appearance. Now, that prompted talk about whether a female guard should have been handling a male prisoner by herself and what all guards can do to be better prepared for such situations. Rick Sanchez decided to look into both those subjects.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The live lines are always open and toll-free throughout south Florida.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's the talk on the radio.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want it. It should not be a female job. Shouldn't.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It makes no sense, what you're saying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, makes perfect sense.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It does not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it does.

SANCHEZ: And on the streets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She shouldn't have been trying to guard the guy she was guarding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And move.

SANCHEZ: Here, though, at one of the nation's largest training facilities for police and jail guards, it's more than talk. In this building, it's a question of life or death.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand up straight. I need you to walk this way, sir.

SANCHEZ: These recruits, just two weeks from graduation, are being trained and retrained on how to handle a prisoner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we're going into handcuffing. Remember we need to give clear commands to the subject at all times.

SANCHEZ: How to handcuff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, sir.

SANCHEZ: How to disarm a suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, why you going to do this, sir? Get back, sir. Get your hands up. Get your hands up.

SANCHEZ: And perhaps most importantly, what to do if that suspect turns on you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your hands behind your back.

ED DEL TORO, INSTRUCTOR: What we do, mostly to mitigate the circumstance in which only the largest officer would win, we teach them to work with technique as opposed to working with strength.

SANCHEZ: Every correctional officer, you believe needs to know this technique.

DEL TORO: Oh, absolutely.

SANCHEZ: In this class, recruits are taught to overcome what some might see as odds, including size, and yes, gender.

For those who say, you're a woman. You're not capable of doing this, you say what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Meet me on the mat.

SANCHEZ: OK, so we did.

DEL TORO: OK, you're going to come up behind her, wrap your arm around her throat, as if, though you intended to pull her off balance and attack her.

SANCHEZ: So, I'm going to come behind her and put her in a chokehold.

DEL TORO: Right.

SANCHEZ: Oh!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Put your hands behind your back.

SANCHEZ: Notice the control she's maintaining over here.

OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all right?

SANCHEZ: Yes. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

There's something that's also getting applause from law enforcement officials these days. All over the country, courthouses are experimenting and wrestling with new technology, like the shock belt.

DEL TORO: They're growing in popularity and they've worked out very well for us.

SANCHEZ: Let me tell you what judges tell me when I bring this subject up. They say, I don't want a guy wearing a shock belt in my courtroom because the jury's going to see it and it's going to prejudice the jury and they're going to be more apt to find him guilty and then they're going to come back on appeal and say, you know what, we got to have this trial all over again.

DEL TORO: Rick, that's not it.

SANCHEZ: That's what they're saying.

DEL TORO: You know what, Rick? That's not a valid argument anymore because technology has made these devices small enough that we can conceal them under your clothing.

SANCHEZ: Holsters with double or triple latches are also a hot item with police and guards. The idea is to make it more difficult to grab the officer's gun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he doesn't understand the mechanism to take the gun out.

SANCHEZ: Now, when it comes to technology, many in law enforcement recommend stun guns over real weapons. To show you how it works, I'm go about to receive 50,000 volts of electricity. Do it.

Oh! It hurts. It's painful. But no one's dead, and that is how law enforcement would like these scenarios to end up. In fact, they call it the wave of the future, a future that didn't arrive soon enough for countless officers, including the four who lost their lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): Hurts to watch it. Here's what I tried to do in that piece. I wanted to find out what kind of technology, what kind of methods are out there police could use to save lives. I called an awful lot of police departments and courthouses and I found out, for the most part, surprisingly, a lot of them aren't employing some of these new methods.

I'm Rick Sanchez. Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: Ah, Rick, I mean, you know, I can't -- I've seen that a million times and I really never get tired of seeing it. What did it actually feel like, I mean, to have 50,000 volts going through you and what are you saying when that's happening?

SANCHEZ: It's like being shocked, but you can't imagine how 50,000 volts feels. It only lasted two, and like a quarter of a second, so it wasn't an awful lot of time. If it were to be a lot longer it certainly would've done a lot of damage. What I was saying was -- English is my second language and for some reason, when I was in all that pain and I guess I felt somewhat desperate, I wanted them to stop, I started saying ya, ya, ya, ya. In Spanish, that translates to stop, stop, stop, stop.

COOPER: Fascinating. All right, Rick Sanchez, thanks very much.

SANCHEZ: All right.

COOPER: Let's see it one more time.

SANCHEZ: What the heck.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: ...the electricity. Do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Did you get it, the ya, ya, ya? I'm glad I finally got to clear that up.

COOPER: Man, you're a braver man than I am. Rich Sanchez...

SANCHEZ: Well, it told the story.

COOPER: Thanks very much. Appreciate it.

Next in our special hour, a Texan who saw "Justice Under Fire" and fought back.

And later a case where police put the right guy in prison, but not even that stopped him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back to this special edition of 360: ""Justice Under Fire"." We're looking at the many ways that our system of justice is under pressure, even under attack.

On February 24th, a gunman with an assault rifle opened fire outside the Tyler Texas courthouse. Police say the pain and suffering he inflicted would have been much worse if not for the brave efforts of one man, Mark Wilson. They say he's a hero who deserves to be remembered.

Sean Callebs has his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

911 OPERATOR: (INAUDIBLE) County 911.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fired shots at the courthouse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's about to shoot somebody.

911 OPERATOR: He's shooting at the courthouse? OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) courthouse, yes.

911 OPERATOR: OK.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Shots fired outside the Tyler, Texas, courthouse.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's shooting with a machine gun.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're still shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get away from the window!

CALLEBS: Sheriff's deputies scrambled to respond.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's policemen coming out the back door.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think one might've been hit. He's on the ground.

CALLEBS: Police say it's the work of an enraged David Arroyo, who was battling his ex-wife over child custody issues.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Automatic weapon. He is at the back door shooting at these people.

CALLEBS: Arroyo, strapped with body armor and brandishing an assault rifle, kills his former wife, shoots his son, and critically wounds a deputy. By all accounts, the death toll would be greater but one man, without a badge, grabbed a gun and ran into the crossfire.

His name, Mark Wilson.

Scott Lieberman now owns an indoor shooting range Mark started, and is one of many praising his bravery.

DR. SCOTT LIEBERMAN, LOCK & LOAD SHOOTING RANGE: People always talk about the fact that there is, you know, this -- the Texas myth, you know, there are Texas legends. I think in Mark Wilson's final act, we saw, you know, the birth of yet another Texas legend.

CALLEBS (on camera): For nearly nine years, this was Mark Wilson's home. Friends said he liked to think of the town square down there as his front yard.

On February 24th, he had just finished lunch when he popped back into his apartment for a quick moment when the shooting started. He ran into the bedroom, grabbed his .45, left the gun case on the nightstand, and ran downstairs so quickly he left the front door open.

(voice-over): Witnesses say Wilson, who was licensed to carry a gun, sprinted down the street. He was able to shoot the gunman several times, but David Arroyo, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was unfazed. Arroyo turned, killed Wilson, then sped away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God! The other is running away. He killed him.

CALLEBS: A short time later, Arroyo died in a shootout with authorities. Police say Mark Wilson's bravery saved lives.

ROBERT LLOYD, WILSON'S FRIEND: It doesn't surprise me that he would do this. He would never even think about it. It was automatic. I think Mark had probably played this scenario out in his mind many times. He knew if he was ever confronted with this, he would handle it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... laid down his life for his friends.

CALLEBS: At a memorial for Mark Wilson, it was clear, if stature is gauged by the number of friends, he stood tall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mark was never defining himself as a hero.

CALLEBS: I sat down with five of Mark's closest friends at their favorite watering hole.

JIM CARTER, WILSON'S FRIEND: I know it's happened, but I've come to terms with it. But it's just impossible, absolutely impossible to believe.

JODY HARGIS, WILSON'S FRIEND: He went out there and did what he did, because Mark Wilson, because Mark Wilson, he's a hero. That's how he was built.

CALLEBS: These are buddies who went around the country, racing cars, and frequently went to sunny beaches of Costa Rica, where his friends say Mark's parents would like his cremated ashes scattered.

HARGIS: So we're going to take that urn, put a pair of flip- flops on it, a pair of sunglasses, and we're going to have a party.

CALLEBS: Between the laughter and tears, Mark's closest friends want it known he wasn't a gun-toting Texas cowboy with a death wish.

Friends who spent so much time here now quietly remove Mark's belongings. For someone who meant so much to so many, they say two simple words just aren't enough.

Sean Callebs, CNN, Tyler, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And we remember him tonight.

Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS joins us with the latest at about a quarter to the hour -- Erica. HILL: Hi, Anderson. Verbal fireworks on Capitol Hill in the investigation of the U.N. oil-for-food program. British lawmaker George Galloway defiantly rebuffed allegations that he helped Saddam Hussein violate the oil sales embargo. In a sharp exchange with Senator Norm Coleman, Galloway accused Congress of a smokescreen for American companies that did business with Saddam.

Continued terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia have caused the U.S. State Department to renew a travel warning for Americans there.

And Anderson, a story that you covered last night on 360, the government now expected to require companies that sell unlimited Internet phone service to also have full 911 emergency service. The FCC vote on that could come as soon as Thursday. Some subscribers have learned the hard way some Internet phones don't always automatically give police and other emergency workers the location of the call, or even connect with 911 centers.

And that's the latest from HEADLINE NEWS at this hour. Anderson, back over to you.

COOPER: Erica, thanks very much.

You know, if you think sending criminals to prison puts them out of business, you're going to be shocked at what you're about to hear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON ANGELONE, CORRECTIONS CONSULTANT: If they're serious about it, and they're angry enough and they're quiet about it, they can accomplish a lot from inside a prison cell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Committing crimes from inside the prison cells. See how much some bad guys got away with, and how they were finally stopped.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, today federal prosecutors did not get everything they wanted in a gang murder trial in Virginia. Brenda Paz was a gang member, federal informant, and four months pregnant when she was stabbed 16 times nearly two years ago. She'd left the Federal Witness Protection Program just three weeks before she was murdered.

Now, a federal judge today -- or federal jury I should say -- convicted two gang members in her killing, but the jury also acquitted two other gang members. One of them was the reputed mastermind, who reportedly gave the order to kill in a message sent from his jail cell.

Despite the outcome of that case, inmates do manage to communicate from prison. Happens all the time. And as Tom Foreman explains in our continuing look at ""Justice Under Fire"," prison guards are at times powerless to stop them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is a cold night in Washington, D.C. Police and the FBI are in the midst of a 10-year investigation into the K Street Crew, a gang that's suspected in more than a dozen murders while dealing drugs near the Capitol, when authorities catch a break -- gang leader Jerome Martin is picked up on a murder charge, and there is a witness, 19-year-old Chrissy Gladden. Quickly, she is put into hiding. After all, prosecutors Ken Wainstein and Jim Dinan know what the K Street Crew can do.

KEN WAINSTEIN, PROSECUTOR: The key to her survival was that they had a penchant for intimidating or killing witnesses.

JIM DINAN, PROSECUTOR: This group was dogged and tenacious in going anywhere they could to try and find these witnesses.

FOREMAN: True to form, authorities say Martin calls a fellow gang member, Sam Carson (ph), to visit him in jail, where unheard by any of his jailers, Martin orders Carson to kill Chrissy Gladden.

Prosecutors have her well hidden, but only days before the trial, she slips back into her old neighborhood for a party.

WAINSTEIN: She was walking out of this party. Sam Carson jumped out of an abandoned house, shot her once in the chest. She fell to the ground. He then stood over her and shot her two or three more times right in the head and killed her.

FOREMAN (on camera): And this was orchestrated from jail?

WAINSTEIN: This was orchestrated, commanded or requested by Jerome Martin, who was in jail at the time.

FOREMAN (voice-over): A scathing report on the federal prison system six years ago found criminals behind bars routinely dealing in murder, drug trafficking, and fraud on the outside.

ANGELONE: Nothing has changed.

FOREMAN: And Ron Angelone, one of the nation's most experienced corrections experts, insists the problem is growing with inmates at every level of the prison system.

ANGELONE: If they're serious about it, and they're angry enough and they're quiet about it, they can accomplish a lot from inside a prison cell.

FOREMAN: But how does it happen? I called a bank robber to find out.

JOE LOYA, CONVICTED BANK ROBBER: Hey, you, what's up?

FOREMAN: Joe Loya was one the terror of Southern California, knocking off more than 30 banks and eventually serving seven years hard time, events chronicled in his book, "The Man Who Outgrew his Prison Cell." He says countless messages -- what inmates call kites -- are passed to the outside.

LOYA: You can communicate by phone. You can communicate by visits. You can communicate by letters. Only in rare instances are people cut off from having communication with the outside world.

FOREMAN: This message in microwriting, for example, was taken from a California inmate. The thousands of words crammed onto this paper relate to the criminal dealings of a major Latino gang.

Corrections officers in Texas discovered an entire dictionary of code words inmates use on the phone to keep guards from spying.

Loya says coded messages can be shockingly simple, and effective.

LOYA: You know, I sent out a birthday card to so-and-so, and you know, I, you know, it was for her 25th birthday and the 25th stands for $250 that you just sent to somebody so that you could buy a gram of heroin.

FOREMAN: And of course, the river of inmates coming in and out of the system every day provides a ready avenue for passing notes. Simply put...

LOYA: It's impossible to stop illegal communication with the inside world and the outside world.

FOREMAN: Deadly dealings from behind bars used to be primarily associated with major organized crime families.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you live by the gun and by the knife, then you die by the gun and by the knife.

FOREMAN: But now, prison experts say dozens of gangs keep regular and easy contacts with their convicted members.

ANGELONE: We know that when they go to prison, they're looking at how they can strike out to those that sent them to prison.

FOREMAN (on camera): Why can't prison professionals protect us more, though?

ANGELONE: It's very simple. We don't have the tools to do that.

FOREMAN: Prisons have tried to develop the tools. In many places computers now record and monitor all phone calls, listening for key words that might signal trouble. But the Bureau of Prisons study found less than 4 percent of inmate calls are monitored by correctional officers.

(voice-over): The courts have reaffirmed inmates' rights to make phone calls, write letters and talk to visitors with little or no interference. So law enforcement officers often focus on criminals outside who might help them.

Remember Jerome Martin and his K Street Crew? He escaped one murder charge by reaching out from jail and ordering the killing of the witness, Chrissy Gladden, but his plan backfired. Authorities added her death to a huge list of charges against the K Street Crew, and two dozen members or associates of the gang, including Martin, were convicted. The worst locked up for good. For killing Chrissy Gladden and eight others, Sam Carson is in Leavenworth.

WAINSTEIN: They ended up all getting locked up and sent away for life without parole. That message that got out there on the street -- and it got out there -- tells other crews, other criminals or criminal -- wannabe criminals, that you're going to pay a price if you hurt our witnesses.

FOREMAN: Still, if the nation's more than 2 million prisoners each talk on the phone for just five minutes a day, that's more than 19 years of continuous talk every day, too much for anyone to monitor.

Bottom line, if an inmate wants to get word to the outside, for good or bad, he probably will.

ANGELONE: No matter what you do to put up roadblocks, someone who has 24 hours a day to think about it is going to find...

FOREMAN (on camera): Going to find a way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Just one of the many ways justice is under fire.

Coming up next, we can't help but noticing all of a sudden there are 360 degrees of just about everything.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight, taking flattery to "The Nth Degree." You know the expression, right, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? Well, if that's so, then the compliments have been coming our way hot and heavy recently. And we thought we really ought to say thanks. To Microsoft, for instance, which is calling its new whiz-bang video game thingy the X-Box 360. Great name there, Mr. Gates. Very all- encompassing, panoramic, sweeping, we might say, or so we've always thought. And thanks as well to Colgate Palmolive, which is calling its wizard new toothbrush the Colgate 360. By the way, in case you're wondering, AC 360 also leaves your whole mouth clean, although we have to admit that in the tongue-scraper on the back department, there 360 has RS Beat.

And then a tip of the hat as well to ESPN, which has just tried out a feature called ESPN 360. This is, the network says, an always- on application that provides sports content directly to your computer. Yeah, well, AC 360 could be an always-on application too if we weren't human and needed a break every once in a while.

As for the Perry Ellis fragrance called 360, at 36 bucks for just under two ounces for the eau de toilette, we feel we offer a much better value.

And then we also thank that TV series called "NASCAR Drivers: 360.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is "360," the wildest party people are in the building right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Fantastically popular "Dance 360," which describes itself as TV's hip-hop party where the deejay drops it and the dancers bust it, shake it and move to the grooves. As if we weren't doing that first.

And a beta program from the browser folks called the Yahoo 360, an easier way to keep connected to friends and family.

I expect that a couple of you wise apples out there are thinking that we weren't exactly the originators of the 360 idea either, 360 being the number of degrees Babylonian astronomers divided the circle into after the number of days a year they thought it took the sun to make its circuit.

Well, sure, but that wasn't in prime-time.

I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks for watching. CNN's prime-time coverage continues now with "LARRY KING LIVE."

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 17, 2005 - 19:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Lou, thanks very much.
Good evening, everyone. Fireworks on Capitol Hill -- did the U.S. senators see what was coming? 360 starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): Sparks fly on Capitol Hill as a British official fights charges he profited from Saddam Hussein.

GEORGE GALLOWAY, BRITISH PARLIAMENT MEMBER: I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one, and neither has anybody on my behalf.

COOPER: Tonight, Senator Carl Levin on today's testimony and the latest twist in the Oil-for-Food scandal.

Medicare says it will pay for Viagra, but is sex for seniors really a medical necessity? Tonight, why the federal government wants to spend your money on erectile dysfunction drugs, but won't pay for other medicines.

They call him the Piano Man -- found alone, mute and disoriented, the only clue to his identity, his remarkable piano playing. Who is this mysterious musician? How can authorities unlock the key to his identity?

The cops said he murdered his mother. They even got him to confess. But this teen was innocent. Tonight, how a young man's life was turned upside down for a crime he didn't commit.

And what happens when a cop is over-powered by a crazed suspect? Tonight, the latest in self-defense and security technology that could help save lives in the line of duty.

ANNOUNCER: Live, from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is a two-hour special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Hey, good evening. Thanks for joining us for this two- hour edition.

There was a remarkable exchange on Capitol Hill today, a confrontation between a British member of parliament and U.S. senators. Now, the subject was the U.N. Oil-for-Food program which was supposedly -- it was supposed to allow Saddam Hussein to sell Iraqi oil only for humanitarian necessities. Now, we know it was not only mismanaged on the U.N. side, but corrupted on the Iraqi side. We're talking about kickbacks and payoffs and all manner of illegal dealings.

Now, the British official George Galloway -- that's him -- appeared today voluntarily to answer charges that he profited from the illegalities. If anyone expected him to sound defensive, forget about it. He not only attacked the evidence against him, he verbally attacked some senators and the U.S. justification for the Iraq war. More on just who he is in a moment. But first, here is CNN's Richard Roth with today's scorching Capitol Hill Q&A.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. NORM COLEMAN, (R) MINNESOTA: You swear the testimony you're about to give before this subcommittee is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

GALLOWAY: I do.

ROTH (voice-over): Taking the oath was about the only thing British Parliament Minister George Galloway accepted from the Senate committee investigating Oil-for-Food corruption. The fiery Galloway was accused by the committee last week of being rewarded by Saddam Hussein with the rights to 20 million barrels of oil for opposing economic sanctions. The committee chairman, Senator Norm Coleman, reminded him.

COLEMAN: Senior Iraqi officials have confirmed that you in fact received oil allocations and that the documents that identify you as an allocation recipient are valid.

ROTH: Right from the start, Galloway went on the attack.

GALLOWAY: Senator, I am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader, and neither has anyone on my behalf. I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one, and neither has anybody on my behalf.

Now, I know that standards have slipped over the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer, you're remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice.

ROTH: Usually, witnesses before congressional committees show deference -- not the anti-war activist who vowed to appear with both barrels blazing.

GALLOWAY: Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong, and 100,000 people have paid with their lives -- 1,600 of them American soldiers, sent to their deaths on a pack of lies.

ROTH: Committee investigators said a former senior aid to Saddam Hussein, now in custody, reiterated his claim only yesterday that Galloway got oil. Galloway responded, "the committee report is riddled with errors."

GALLOWAY: As a matter of fact, I've met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is, Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps, the better to target those guns. I met him to try and bring about an end to sanctions, suffering, and war.

ROTH: The bipartisan committee report said Galloway funneled oil allocations through two companies and a charity named after a 4-year- old girl suffering from leukemia.

GALLOWAY: What counts is not the names on the paper. What counts is where's the money, Senator? Who paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars of money? The answer to that is nobody. And if you had anybody who ever paid me a penny, you would have produced them here today.

ROTH: The U.S. and U.K. lawmakers were separated by more than an ocean at this hearing. The Minnesota senator asked Galloway if he knew whether a close friend who ran one of the companies under scrutiny and gave Galloway's foundation $600,000 was part of Oil-for- Food illegalities.

GALLOWAY: I was aware he was doing extensive business with Iraq. I did not know the details of it. It was not my business.

COLEMAN: So, this is somebody who is the chairman of your committee, that you know well and you're not able to say that he was...

GALLOWAY: Well, there's a lot of contributors I've just been checking to your...

COLEMAN: There's not many at that level, Mr. Galloway.

GALLOWAY: Oh, no, let me assure you there are. I've checked your Web site. There are lots of contributors to your political campaign funds. I don't suppose you ask any of them how they made the money they give you.

ROTH: Later, Senator Coleman said it wasn't a wrestling match, but important to get on the record.

COLEMAN: And, I think that Mr. Galloway's credibility is certainly very, very suspect, and if in fact he lied to this committee, then there will have to be consequences to that.

ROTH (on camera): Galloway praised Kofi Annan and U.N. efforts to stop the war in Iraq. He can heap scorn on this Senate panel, but a United Nations-approved investigation into Oil-for-Food and connections between Saddam Hussein and businesses and politicians is anticipated this summer. Galloway says he has nothing to fear.

Richard Roth, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: It's a confusing story. Tonight we're covering all of the angles on it. In a moment, we're going to hear from one of the senators who sparred with Galloway today. But first, who is this guy Galloway? For that we turn to CNN INTERNATIONAL's, Becky Anderson, and "The World in 360."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Becky, George Galloway was expelled from the Labor Party. How popular is he in England?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He is very well-known. You either like him or you loathe him but you definitely know about him. He's always been a thorn in the side of the establishment. He marched alongside Jerry Adams, for example, in Ireland. Now, campaigning against British policy doesn't endear you to the management of the party as it were, nor did his seeming praise of Saddam Hussein in that famous shot of him on TV, shaking hands with the Iraqi leader in 1994. As you rightly said, he was booted out of the Labor Party two years ago because of his outspoken comments on the Iraq war.

But, in one of those truly memorable moments in political history, the man is back, winning back one of the safest Labor seats in London in the recent election. His anti-war party has caused respect and ironically, his Palestinian wife recently left him, saying he certainly didn't give her much respect. This is a man who glories in his ability to rub people up the wrong way. People definitely know about him. Not a lot of people necessarily like him, but the Brits definitely know about him. Anderson?

COOPER: Well, then, I guess they're pretty used to his behavior and outspokenness. How is this story playing among the British public?

ANDERSON: Yes, it's interesting because those who support him and agree with him are saying bravo, Mr. Galloway, respect. Some people are saying, a great guy and the pride of British politics. Those comments on British Web sites. Another one -- a man said, he's a man of integrity and bottle. I read that on one of the Web sites (INAUDIBLE).

But, the truth, I think, of the matter is the British public has heard this all before. They see it on the floor of the House of Commons week-in and week-out from the likes of George Galloway. He's of course back as a result of his election victory this time.

COOPER: You described him as a man of bottle. What does that mean?

ANDERSON: What it means is, he's basically got the guts to go out and say what he thinks. He has always had an agenda, as I suggest. He always been a thorn in the side of the establishment, and a lot of people do agree with him. I mean, he did win. He overturned a huge Labor majority in Bethnal Green in London. He believes in what he says. He is standing on an anti-war ticket. And what people say is, he has the bottle effectively. He's got the guts to stand up and actually stand up for people that he believes in, and policy and agenda that he believes is right.

COOPER: This is good. We speak the same language yet some of these words I don't understand, so -- bottle. Bottle is guts. I like that. Thanks very much. Becky Anderson, good to talk to you.

ANDERSON: All right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, one of the senators in the midst of the confrontation with Galloway was Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan. I spoke to him just a bit earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Senator Levin, do you think Galloway personally profited from Saddam Hussein?

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: I think his political organization clearly profited from those oil sales which violated the U.N. program.

COOPER: He said, if you had anybody who paid me a penny, you would have produced them here today. What evidence do you have that his political organization profited?

LEVIN: Well, I think he acknowledged that his political organization got significant contributions from his Jordanian partner and agent, a man named Zureikat. Zureikat is the one who actually got the allocations in the name of Galloway. On behalf of Galloway, Zureikat made a lot of money off those oil allocations, but paid kickbacks to Saddam Hussein. Those kickbacks clearly violated U.N. Oil-for-Food program, and some of that money, quite clearly, is the money that went into the Galloway political organization. And I don't think he denies that.

So the real question for me is whether or not he's troubled at all that that kind of corrupt money ended up at his political organization. If he found out that that money came as a result of kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, would he be troubled by it? He refused to answer that question. That to me is the most troubling question.

COOPER: Yeah, and you know -- and you went back and forth trying to get him to answer that question skillfully, I might add. And he just flat out would not answer it. Who do you call next? I mean, what is the next step in trying to figure out the unraveling of this oil-for-food scandal?

LEVIN: OK, now the scandal here that we're talking about today is not a U.N. scandal. This was an attack on a U.N. program that Galloway was part of that, that Zureikat was part of. They wanted to end that U.N. program any way they could. So this was an attack on the U.N. that was aided and abetted by a number of people, we believe, including Zureikat, who received these kind of allocations as well. The next step here is to look at what is the U.S. failure in terms of enforcing that U.N. program.

COOPER: I want to play just a brief soundbite of something Galloway said to one of our correspondents, Richard Roth, a little bit earlier today. Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE GALLOWAY, BRITISH PARLIAMENT MEMBER: I came not as the accused but as the accuser, so I don't suppose I did much beyond embarrassing the Senator Coleman with the absurd thinness of what he had to put on the table. But I hope that I reached a broader public with my broader case against the war, against the sanctions, and against the mother of all smoke screens, which is what this Senate Committee on Investigations is engaged in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Did you actually learn anything from Galloway today that you didn't know before, or that surprised you?

LEVIN: Not really, because the case against Galloway is the -- basically the case against him for his political organization receiving significant contributions from that Jordanian, who obtained a lot of money as a result of those oil allocations. And that money was corrupt money because of the kickbacks to Saddam. That's what the documents basically show. I don't think we learned anything new today that I could determine.

COOPER: Senator Carl Levin, it's been a long day. We appreciate you joining us. Thanks very much.

LEVIN: Good being with you.

COOPER: Well, next on this special edition of 360, hero or terrorist? He's a former CIA operative accused of blowing up a plane. He's been detained here in the U.S. But will we hand him over to Cuba? We're covering all the angles.

Also tonight -- should your taxpayer dollars pay for seniors to get Viagra? One congressman is on a crusade to stop it. We're going to talk with him ahead.

And a little bit later, a murder mystery. A teen falsely confessed to his mother's murder. He now looks for her real killer, after spending years behind bars. All that ahead in this special two- hour edition. First, your most popular stories on cnn.com right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: There he is, standing out in a sea of red. Fidel Castro today leading hundreds of thousands of Cubans past the American mission in Havana, calling for the arrest of one of his greatest foes, Luis Posada Carriles. Tonight, Posada is in U.S. custody in Miami. That's him being led away. He was seeking political asylum. But now there are reports he may abandon that bid.

This has been one of the most popular stories all day on cnn.com. Rudi Bakhtiar is here with an up-close look at who this guy really is -- Rudi.

RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a man, Anderson, who for half a century now has tried to take out Castro in a violent battle that has him both loved and hated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, POSADA SUPPORTER: Posada Carriles is not a terrorist. Posada Carriles is a freedom fighter, and he's being singled out by Castro's regime.

JIM DEFEDE, MIAMI HERALD COLUMNIST: If Posada were to be granted asylum, it would be -- it would betray a double standard, that the United States would be ridiculed for around the world.

BAKHTIAR (voice-over): Two pictures of one man. This man, Luis Posada Carriles. To many Cuban exiles, he's a hero, a warrior devoting his entire life to toppling Castro and communism in Latin America.

To others, he's a monster, a ruthless and cunning cold-blooded killer.

According to declassified U.S. documents, Posada was employed by the CIA from 1961 to 1967, and participated in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. In 1976, Venezuela accused Posada of the bombing of a Cuban airliner. The attack killed 73 people. "The New York Times" says Posada denied any involvement. And although he was never convicted of the bombing, Posada spent nine years in a Venezuelan prison before escaping in 1985.

Twelve years later, in 1997, Fidel Castro blamed him for a series of hotel bombings in Havana that claimed the life of an Italian tourist. According to "The New York Times," Posada boasted of the crime, but later denied involvement.

Then in 2000, Castro claimed that Posada plotted to assassinate him during a trip to Panama. A Panamanian court convicted Posada of the plot and sentenced him last year to eight years in prison.

Eight months ago, he was pardoned by the president of Panama.

One man, so many questions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: And as Anderson mentioned earlier, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took Posada into custody earlier today. And by law, the Department of Homeland Security has 48 hours to make an official determination of his immigration status. So, will Posada be sent back to Cuba? Probably not. In a statement, U.S. authorities made it clear that it generally does not remove people back to Cuba -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Rudi Bakhtiar, thanks very much.

There's a lot of other news tonight. Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS joins us with the latest at about 19 past the hour. Hey, Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Hey, Anderson.

We start off with First Lady Laura Bush. She is heading to the Middle East later this week. Her goals: To promote women's rights and spread a positive message about the United States. The latter after "Newsweek" magazine retracted a report that the Koran was desecrated by U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. On Saturday, Mrs. Bush will speak at the World Economic Forum in Jordan, and she will then visit Israel and Japan.

On now to Bangor, Maine. For the second time this week, a diverted flight has landed at the city's airport because a passenger's name was on the no-fly list. And once again, the FBI says the person in question is not a suspected terrorist. Since last year, at least 17 U.S. passenger flights have been diverted, six of those to Bangor. And at least five incidents involved a passenger on no-fly lists.

Melbourne, Australia -- pop star Kylie Minogue revealed she has breast cancer. The Grammy winner who will turn 37 later this month has now postponed her upcoming Australian tour so she can begin treatment immediately.

In Georgetown, Kentucky, a greener Toyota plant: The car-maker plans to build a gasoline/electric hybrid of its popular Camry model starting late next year. Toyota already makes three hybrid vehicles: the Prius and 2006 versions of its Highlander SUV as well as a luxury Lexus SUV. More and more choices for you to be green on the roads, Anderson.

COOPER: A lot of those cars are had to come by. There's a lot of waiting lists for those cars.

HILL: They are. People pay extra actually over sticker price for used ones sometimes.

COOPER: It's tough to get them. There will be more of them now.

Thanks very much, Erica. We'll see you again in about 30 minutes.

Coming up next on this special two-hour edition of "360," killer allergies. We're talking about peanuts tonight. They are as American as peanuts, I guess, but can be deadly for some. Our "360" M.D. Sanjay Gupta explains the hidden danger in your food.

Also tonight: Should the government spend billions of dollars to boost the sex lives of seniors? Meet one congressman who says, absolutely not. He's on a crusade to stop Medicare from paying for Viagra and, well, a bunch of those other drugs. A little bit later -- swept away in a river of mud and ash, a man who fought the fury of Mount St. Helen and survived. It's the anniversary this week. We're covering all the angles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well as the summer nears and the days grow longer and warmer, a lot of us are heading out and getting attacked by allergies to pollen and ragweed.

For a lot of Americans, there are a lot of other allergies that are much more dangerous: food allergies, we're talking about. Many of us don't even realize we have them until it's too late.

360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta looks tonight at the complicated battle against one form of food allergies, against peanut allergies.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Peanuts, as American as baseball. We ate nearly 1.7 billion pounds of them last year. But for those who are allergic to peanuts, even 1/1000th of a peanut can mean big trouble.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had all the hives over my back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I couldn't breathe and then I started wheezing. Within 20 minutes I was completely unconscious on the front porch when the ambulance was pulling up.

GUPTA: All these reactions from peanuts and nuts, trace amounts they didn't realize were in the foods they were eating.

ROBERT WOOD, M.D., JHU CHILDREN'S CENTER: Before the bad symptoms start, patients tend to have this thing we call a sense of impending doom. There's this really intense look of anxiety.

GUPTA: Dr. Robert Wood is an expert on peanut allergies and has had a lifelong allergy to peanuts himself.

WOOD: I have certain rules I abide by. One of those rules is, I don't eat any baked goods.

GUPTA: The one exception he thought he could safely make: accepting a home made gift from a colleague, an expert on food allergies like himself who assured him it was safe.

WOOD: You get an immediate sensation in your mouth that you have been exposed to something. And it turned out that they had made peanut butter Christmas cookies and non-peanut-butter Christmas cookies and they had used the same spatula, maybe the same cookie sheet without cleaning it in between.

That amount of contamination just from a spatula when it comes to peanut allergy is enough to cause severe reactions.

GUPTA: What Dr. Wood found himself in the middle of was a massive allergic reaction called anaphylaxis, caused by peanuts and many other foods. It can include symptoms like hives, swelling, difficulty breathing. It took five shots of epinephrine to stop Wood's reaction.

That's why those with serious food allergies need to carry epi- pens, adrenaline in a tube. Without it, these reactions can lead to a sudden drop in blood pressure or worse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOOD: I have lost three patients due to anaphylaxis.

GUPTA: What happened?

WOOD: They were all teenagers. One was a baked good. One was Chinese food. One was a candy. None of them had the epinephrine available.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: All these foods had peanuts or peanut oil hidden inside. These reactions aren't as rare as you might think. Eleven millions Americans have food allergies, accounting for tens of thousands of emergency room visits and 150 to 250 deaths a year.

Perhaps the most startling trend, according to Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York -- the number of American children allergic to peanuts doubled in five years.

ANNE MUNOZ-FURLONG, FOOD ALLERGY & ANAPHYLAXIS NETWORK: They seem to be the leading cause of severe or fatal allergic reactions. We don't know what it is about the peanut versus milk or soy or some of the other allergens that makes them so potent.

WOOD: If people are cracking open peanuts, especially in a confined space like a waiting area of a restaurant, you could have a very severe reaction if there's enough airborne peanut there.

GUPTA: Which is why five airlines have decided to stop serving peanuts. Jacqui Corba had her first reaction on an airplane even though she wasn't eating peanuts herself.

JACQUI CORBA, FOOD ALLERGY SUFFER: I found out I think when I was two years old. I was actually on an airplane flight with my mom. She ate peanuts and gave me a kiss on my face. I blew up like all over.

GUPTA: Whenever she flies an airline like Jet Blue, which does serve peanuts, she asks that they make an announcement on her behalf.

She also had a full-blown reaction at school after a classmate opened a bag of peanuts near her. Now many schools reserve separate tables where no peanut butter is allowed.

With no cure, the only prescription is strict avoidance, which is not easy. Some candies kids love warn they may contain traces of peanut, which means for this teenager... UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Candies may contain peanuts.

GUPTA: ... reading comprehension takes on a whole new meaning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You never know where peanuts may show up in anything you eat or touch.

GUPTA: Or any one you touch. Michelle Risinger has been severely allergic to peanuts and all nuts for as long as she can remember. She and a boyfriend found out about the severity of her allergy the hard way.

MICHELLE RISINGER, FOOD ALLERGY SUFFERER: He started kissing me and my lips started tingling. Immediately I was like, "We have to stop. I need to go take Benadryl."

GUPTA: To avoid what could be the kiss of death, Michelle gives all of her dates a choice: It's either peanuts and nuts or her.

GUPTA (on camera): The medical community still cannot fully explain why we have such a tremendous rise in allergies, Anderson.

Interestingly, developing countries have almost no allergies. The theory is this: The more time actually spent fighting germs, the less time you develop allergies.

Another theory, Anderson, is that we're just exposing children more and more to peanuts at a younger and younger age.

It's unclear for now, but certainly there is a rise there.

COOPER: I can't believe that someone sitting on a plane, just because someone sitting nearby them opens it; that's just incredible.

I had no idea. And I didn't realize that's why they don't serve peanuts on a lot of planes now.

GUPTA: Exactly.

COOPER: I understand you have had an anaphylactic reaction. What was the reaction to?

GUPTA: Mine was actually to mangoes. It was sort of interesting. I developed an anaphylactic reaction, first some itchiness in the palms, then I had some difficulty breathing myself. I ended up having to go to the hospital.

But what was sort of interesting was that it was probably modulated or sort of caused by exercise in addition to consuming large amounts of fruit. And that can happen as well. People who have never had an anaphylactic reaction after a significant bout of exercise can eat a food that was otherwise OK for them and develop a reaction to that. So that was interesting in my case.

COOPER: Scary stuff. All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much. GUPTA: Thank you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Medicare says it will pay for Viagra, but is sex for seniors really a medical necessity? Tonight, why the federal government wants to spend your money on erectile dysfunction drugs, but won't pay for other medicines.

They call him the Piano Man. Found alone, mute and disoriented. The only clue to his identity, his remarkable piano playing. Who is this mysterious musician? And how can authorities unlock the key to his identity?

Cops said he murdered his mother. They even got him to confess. But this teen was innocent. Tonight, how a young man's life was turned upside down for a crime he didn't commit.

This two-hour special edition of 360 continues in a moment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Soon, some elderly and disabled people will be able to rekindle the passion with the help of your tax dollars. Starting in January, Medicare is going to cover prescriptions of Viagra and other impotence drugs. Now, it's going to cost the government about $2 billion over the next decade, they say, and that's out of about $750 billion that is going to be spent on all Medicare prescriptions.

Still, some lawmakers think the government should not even spend a dollar on impotence drugs. Earlier, I spoke with one of them, Representative Steve King of Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Congressman King, why shouldn't Medicare pay for impotence drugs?

REP. STEVE KING (R), IOWA: Well, Medicare prescription drugs are designed to pay for prescription drugs for people to improve their health, maintain their health, and provide life-saving medication. This is not life-saving medication. There are only two reasons for sex, and one is procreation; the other is recreation. And in either case, it's not the taxpayers' responsibility to subsidize it.

COOPER: You said that one of the things Medicare does is give drugs to improve health. You're saying these are sex drugs. They're certainly abused, but plenty of people take them for legitimate medical reasons -- erectile dysfunction. I mean, isn't quality of life just as important for seniors and disabled as it is for the rest of us?

KING: I think life is more important to seniors and more important to the taxpayers. We've been making the argument to young people, remain abstinent until married, be responsible. They have raging hormones. And now we're saying to them, work a few extra overtime hours and we'll tax you on that, and we'll send that money off so we can pay for grandpa's recreational Viagra drugs. It's just wrong, Anderson.

COOPER: So if seniors were capable of having babies, would it be OK?

KING: No, it wouldn't be OK in that case either. We don't subsidize -- we don't subsidize reproductive activities at the younger level either. This is something that's not life-saving. It's not medically necessary. And there are some rare exceptions. And those exceptions might cost that patient $140 to $140 for the full prescription of treatments. So to open that door for that $140 exception would open the door for as many as $1.93 billion worth of Viagra, Cialis and Levitra drugs. And that's far too much money, and it blows our budget. And it takes the money away from life-saving drugs.

COOPER: But your opponents, though, say, look, it's $2 billion in a budget of $750 billion over the course of 10 years. You know, compared to 750 billion, 2 billion doesn't seem like that much.

KING: We can make that excuse for almost anything we spend money on, no matter how ridiculous it might be. But there wasn't anybody involved in the prescription drug bill that we passed a couple of years ago that had the idea that this would be paying for sexual enhancement drugs. And so to argue that it's an entitlement now, I think we need to stop it before it becomes an entitlement.

COOPER: We don't take sides on the program. We try to look at all the angles. Your opponents say, look, this is a real problem -- PhRMA, which represents the pharmaceutical industry, sent us this statement. I just want to read you part of it. They say: "Erectile dysfunction is quite often the result of debilitating conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and depression. ED, in fact, can be an early sign of these diseases. Products that treat erectile dysfunction are part of the overall treatment of patients."

So I guess I put it to you again, why deny patients with these illnesses access to drugs that may improve their lives or save their lives in some cases?

KING: Well, if I were a pharmaceutical company or a doctor prescribing these drugs and I had a financial vested interest in that, I could have written that paper just as well. I think that the paper that they have written and the position that they have taken certainly protects their financial interests. But it doesn't provide justice here for the taxpayers, and I would ask the taxpayers what they think. And I'm convinced that they are with me on this issue.

COOPER: Representative Steve King, good to talk to you. Thanks very much for being on the program.

KING: Thank you, Anderson. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Next on this two-hour edition of 360, a close call with death. A survivor from the Mount St. Helens eruption that happened 25 years ago this week. Hear how he escaped the deadly lava. It's an amazing story.

Also ahead tonight, identity unknown, the mystery of the Piano Man. That's what they're calling this guy. His only language, music. The question is, who is he and why won't he talk?

Also a little later tonight, "Justice Under Fire"." A man wrongly convicted of killing his own mother three decades ago. See how the accused has now become the investigator trying to find the real killer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Hard to believe, you are looking at the massive mud slide triggered from the most destructive volcano eruption in U.S. history. We're talking, of course, about Mt. St. Helens. Twenty-five years ago tomorrow -- that's when it happened -- May 18th, 1980, the mountain awoke with a force equal to 27,000 atomic bombs. Hard to believe. In just seconds, 230 square miles of forest land was reduced to ash. In all 57 people would die. Now, you're about to meet one man, however, who escaped death that day. It's a survival story like no other.

CNN's Peter Viles brings it to you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the spot where Roald Reitan was sure he would die 25 years ago. In fact, he asked for death.

ROALD REITAN, SURVIVED ST. HELENS ERUPTION: If it is going to kill me, I'm saying, just do it. Get it over with.

VILES: It started as a romantic camping trip -- 19-year-old Roald, his girlfriend Venus Dergan. It's true, Mount St. Helens was acting up, but nobody thought this area was at risk.

How far are we right now from the mountain itself?

REITAN: About 46 miles as you go on the highway.

VILES: Forty-six miles?

REITAN: Right.

VILES: So, you're way in the safe area.

REITAN: Oh, yes. I mean I figured...

VILES: At least you thought you were. REITAN: Yes. I mean, so did the scientists and everybody else.

VILES: But on Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, a peaceful river turned violent.

REITAN: When it was rumbling around the corner, it sounded like a monster coming through the forest.

VILES: The monster was a river made of mud, ash, and trees, and suddenly, two scared teenagers.

REITAN: I told Venus to jump. I said, jump, you know, and then we jumped, and I landed on a big log, like you ride a horse, just -- and she went just right in between two of them. And she was gone.

VILES: She went under.

REITAN: Yes. Like, I mean, gone. She was next to me one second when we jumped, and when I hit a log, you know, I looked at her, and I saw her head go right in between two of them. I thought she was dead for sure, and you know, I thought I was going to be dead too.

VILES: Somehow Roald steadied himself. Twice he grabbed his girlfriend, but twice the river took her back.

REITAN: Fear is ebbing from me and now I'm getting mad. I mean, I'm really getting mad because, it's like, you know, I've found her twice. It's like -- and it's taken her away from me. It's like, no way.

VILES: The third time he held on.

REITAN: She was freezing and I grabbed her by her shoulders and hair and I pulled her out if it, all the way out. You know, and I was telling myself, there's no way I'm going to let her go.

VILES: He held on for half an hour, fighting his way out of the torrent of mud.

REITAN: When we got out of it, the ordeal wasn't over. You know, I mean, basically, the worst part of it was when we got out, because we had to walk all the way back.

VILES: They stumbled in the woods for hours, rescued at last by helicopter, the pilot revealing to Roald what had happened that morning at Mount St. Helens.

REITAN: He looked right over me, you know, cause the other fellow's in between us, and he looked at me and he goes, you want to see what almost killed you? And I said, what? And, as he was like feeling the G-forces of the thing going up, he spun it right around and that's when I saw it.

VILES: Saw the mountain.

REITAN: Oh, yes, and it was like a surreal steam engine. Just the smoke going straight up.

VILES: In an instant Mount St. Helens had blown apart, killing 57 people, leveling hundreds of square miles of forest, scarring the landscape and those who survived.

REITAN: Just like it was yesterday. I can close my eyes and relive it, every second of what happened.

VILES: Peter Viles for CNN, Toutle, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS joins us with the latest at about a quarter to the hour. Hey, Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: Hey, Anderson.

Heading off to Los Angeles, now, first of all, where it is deja vu as vallots -- vallots? Voters, that is, cast their ballots for mayor. I'll get this one day. The election is a rematch of the race four years ago in which Antonio Villaraigosa lost to James Hahn by a seven point margin. Recent polls indicate Mayor Hahn may actually be the underdog in his bid for re-election. Voter turn-out, though, is expected to be pretty low and that makes the outcome of the election pretty much anybody's guess.

In Washington, the FCC is planning to require 911 service on Internet phone lines. 911 calls made over an Internet connection don't always provide response centers with the caller's address and they're often routed to administrative lines. On Thursday the FCC will likely give Internet phone companies 120 days to provide full 911 services to their customers.

Texas City, Texas, employees are deemed responsible for a deadly blast at a BP oil refinery. Today, the company released its interim report which says the March 23rd explosion was caused by mistakes made during the unit startup. Fifteen people were killed. The plant operators say some employees could be dismissed as a result.

And researchers in Boston say pills made from kudzu vines, apparently, cut down the urge to binge drink. The researchers aren't exactly sure why this happens, but they speculate kudzu speeds up the effects of alcohol, meaning drinkers need fewer beers to feel drunk. And I know plenty of people in Georgia that would be willing to give up their kudzu vines, Anderson.

COOPER: Yeah, Mississippi as well. I got a lot of relatives down there, and it's just -- kudzu's everywhere.

HILL: It is!

COOPER: It's an amazing, amazing vine. Moves so quickly. Ah, Erica Hill, thanks very much.

HILL: You're welcome.

COOPER: See you in again about 30 minutes.

Coming up next on this two-hour edition of 360, a mysterious patient -- this is a fascinating story -- he's known only as the Piano Man. Now, he was found wandering on a British beach. He won't talk but he plays the piano amazingly well. Maybe someone out there will figure out who his real identity is.

Also tonight, "Justice Under Fire"," a mother murdered and her son wrongly convicted of the crime. Why did it happen and will the real killer ever be found? Take a close look at that case tonight.

Plus, how to handle a prisoner: an inside look at the special training cops and jail guards get that could save their lives and even yours if a prisoner tries to escape.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: This next story sounds like something you'd see in a movie. A tall young man was found wandering alone on a beach. He was dressed in a black suit and tie. He was drenched, disoriented and mute. Now, that was five weeks ago, and still nobody knows who this guy is or where he came from. The one clue to his identity: He can play the piano extraordinarily well. CNN's Paula Hancocks has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It was here, on the seafront of this small island just off the east coast of Britain that police found the man they now call the Piano Man. He was wandering aimlessly along this road, dressed in a tuxedo, a white shirt and tie, drenched to the skin.

He hasn't uttered a word, not even to give his name. The labels were cut out of his clothing, and any identifying marks on his shoes had been erased.

That was five weeks ago. And authorities are still no closer to finding out who the Piano Man is.

(voice-over): All they know is when they gave him a pencil and paper, he drew a picture of a grand piano. When they took him to the chapel in the local hospital, he walked straight to the piano and began to play, beautifully. The man with no voice communicated through the language of music.

MICHAEL CAMP, SOCIAL WORKER: He's lost in his music, really. I mean, he -- when he's not on the piano, he's out of contact. He's solid. He wouldn't allow you within probably two or three yards of him. When he's on the piano, you can stand as close as you like. You can -- you know, you can touch him. You can -- and he's extremely relaxed.

HANCOCKS: The plight of the Piano Man draws parallels with David Helfgott, the pianist whose breakdown was documented in the 1996 film, "Shine." The nameless man seems to find comfort only in his music. DR. ANDREW MCCULLOUGH, THE MENTAL HEALTH FOUNDATION: It's the mind perhaps responding to a trauma by blotting out the events that have happened and the history that goes with it. But the normal functions of day-to-day living, like eating, sleeping and so on are not blotted out. And clearly in the case of this man, piano playing for him is like something basic.

HANCOCKS: Initial theories -- he'd been attending a funeral or a concert -- have been dismissed. So for now, the six-foot pianist with deep brown eyes will remain simply the Piano Man.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, on the Isle of Sheppey, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, it's inevitable somebody knows who this guy is. We'll keep you updated when we find out.

Coming up, a special edition of 360: "Justice Under Fire"." A man wrongly convicted of beating and stabbing his own mother to death. Now, it took decades to clear his name. And he's now searching for the real killer. We'll bring you his story ahead.

Also ahead tonight, a lawyer caught in the crosshairs, targeted by a gunman outside a courthouse. We'll tell you what happened to this man.

Plus, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm about to receive 50,000 volts of electricity. Do it.

(SCREAMING)

SANCHEZ: It hurts. It's painful. But no one's dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: No one's dead indeed. Rick Sanchez gets a jolting look at how courthouse deputies can try to stop a runaway prisoner. All that and more on a 360 special report, ""Justice Under Fire"."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, all this week CNN is focusing on crime in America. Tonight, in the next hour we're going to be looking at "Justice Under Fire" -- the many ways our justice system is being put to the test. And though crime is down around the country, the system itself is burdened like never before. Justice truly is under fire.

Tonight, we begin with a story of one young man. A story about how easily justice can be denied and how it can be found again. You're about to meet a man named Peter Reilly. And when he was just a teenager, Peter's mother was murdered, and he was the prime suspect. He confessed to the killing, even though he did not do it.

Now, I've heard these stories before, and every time I find it hard to understand why would anyone confess to something they didn't do, especially something like killing a parent.

You are about to see how it can happen. The answer lies in the interrogation itself and the ways that police can work on a vulnerable suspect and get him to simply make things up.

Tonight, in recordings never before played on a network newscast, you're going to hear the confession that led to this man's conviction. That's only the beginning of a story you will see only on CNN. Heidi Collins joins me now with more -- Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And Anderson, in those recordings, you will hear how police led a sleepless and isolated Peter Reilly to make a false confession. Reilly is now 50 and rarely does TV interviews, but he sat down with us to explain how one tragic night nearly ruined his life, not to mention the terrible pains he feels having lost his mother in a most violent way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): Peter Reilly thinks about his mother's murder every day.

PETER REILLY, WRONGLY CONVICTED OF MOTHER'S MURDER: My focus is to solve the crime. That's exactly what my focus is.

COLLINS: His mother, Barbara Gibbons, viciously beaten and stabbed almost 32 years ago. Her throat slit, her legs broken. Peter Reilly found her in a pool of blood inside their modest four-room home in western Connecticut. He was 18.

REILLY: Because this was all one property, and we rented the cottage from the property owner.

COLLINS: It was a moment that changed his life, and a murder he would be blamed for. It would become a decades-long fight to clear his name and find the real killers.

REILLY: This was home. And unfortunately, this is also where some people killed my mother.

COLLINS: Barbara Gibbons had raised her son alone, a single parent, taking him to Little League games and teaching him how to fish and hunt.

She loved to read, and pushed Peter to do the same.

REILLY: She would always put me before her. If there were needs in the house, my needs always came first. And she would sacrifice to make sure that I had good clothing, or you know, the things I needed for school.

COLLINS: Barbara Gibbons had worked for an insurance company and for a time, managed the gas station across the street. Then, she went on welfare, and people who knew her say she drank too much. Peter Reilly was more interested in guitars and cars than in school. But he wasn't one to stir up trouble. He drove a used Corvette but never got a speeding ticket.

REILLY: I guess, you know, I was 14, 15, 16 years old, somewhere in there. We had a sit-down, and one of her things that she taught me she said is you have to remember you always have to take care of number one. Nobody's going to do it for you.

COLLINS: It was advice he wishes he had followed that fateful Friday night, in September, 1973. He'd spent the evening after school in a teen center at a local church. After dropping off a friend and driving himself home, he found his mother. She was on the floor, bleeding, and barely breathing.

(on camera): Were you scared? Were you sad?

REILLY: I was terrified, but I didn't have time to be sad. What I had time to do was do something. I had to get help right away.

COLLINS (voice-over): Reilly called for an ambulance. Soon, police were on the scene and Reilly was a suspect. Strip searched, place in a police car and kept from friends and neighbors.

REILLY: I didn't know this was a murder. I didn't understand. I thought it was possible that my mother had been suicidal and had done this to herself. I didn't know and I didn't know that she was dead.

COLLINS: State police took Reilly to their barracks and kept him up all night, questioning him alone.

REILLY: They just plain exhausted me to the point of, I was just absolutely lost and terrified, and didn't know which way to turn.

COLLINS (on camera): Is there anything that you would have done differently?

REILLY: Yeah, I should have asked for a lawyer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have a right to remain silent. If you talk to the police anything you say can and will be used against you.

COLLINS: Peter Reilly cooperated, agreeing to answer all the police questions. In Canaan the questions went on all night, then transferred the next day to the state police headquarters in Hartford, with only a couple of hours of sleep in jail the questions continued.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we have a little problem here, Pete.

REILLY: What do you mean?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About hurting your mother last night.

REILLY: I didn't do it.

COLLINS: Reilly voluntarily took a lie detector test measuring changes in his heartbeat and breathing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These charts say you hurt your mother last night.

REILLY: But the thing is -- I don't remember it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These charts don't say that, Pete.

COLLINS: Police wouldn't give up, telling him their high-tech equipment read his denials as lies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said a moment ago that you had doubt in your mind if you flew off the handle last night, and you don't recollect.

REILLY: It doesn't seem like me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No?

REILLY: Cause I'd never flown off the handle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, there's always the first time.

COLLINS: There were eight more hours of interrogation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't know for sure if did you this thing, do you?

REILLY: No, I don't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So let's go over this thing again. Maybe we can bring it out of your subconscious. As long as you don't get it straightened out in your mind, you'll never have a day of peace.

REILLY: I've got to get it straightened out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

COLLINES: After dozens of leading questions, Reilly eventually conceded he had snapped. But Reilly told lead investigator James Shea that his memory was still foggy.

JAMES SHEA, CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE: You recall cutting her throat with a straight razor?

REILLY: Um, it's hard to say.

SHEA: Well...

REILLY: I think I recall doing it. I mean, I imagine myself doing it. It's coming out of the back of my head, but I'm not absolutely positive of anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said to us repeatedly that you were responsible for your mother's death. You told us a half a dozen times that you cut your mother with a straight razor. REILLY: I said I thought that I did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, you said you did. You didn't say you thought you did. You said you did.

COLLINS: Shea told Reilly police had evidence to prove he did it.

SHEA: So if she died when you were in the house, and there were only the two of you there, somebody is responsible for the other's death. That other is you, Pete.

COLLINS: Reilly told another officer he wasn't sure about that.

REILLY: It seems like I'm being pushed into saying things. He won't allow me to say what I think I did.

COLLINS: Shea wanted a confession in writing, and got angry when Reilly refused.

DONALD CONNERY, AUTHOR, "GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN": I want I don't want to you play any more head games with us. And if you want to play this way we'll take you, lock you up and beat you like an animal.

COLLINS: Finally without a lawyer present, Reilly signed a confession with no doubts.

CONNERY: It just seemed to me it was a classic exercise of brain-washing.

COLLINS: Journalist Donald Connery has studied and written about the Reilly case from the beginning. His daughters were in school with Reilly. Connery, and experts we talked to say during a long, aggressive interrogation, false confessions can happen. And a suspect can be persuaded of his own guilt, even fabricate details to back up the accusations, especially when the suspect's confidence in his memory is attacked and police confront him with false incriminating evidence over and over again.

CONNERY: I was astonished at the power of the police in the confinement of an interrogation room to use psychological ploys and pressures to get a totally innocent person to believe himself to be guilty, and to start to speculate, as Peter did about how he could have committed the crime he didn't commit.

And those speculations ended up in a one-page confession that he signed in his exhaustion.

COLLINS: That confession would cost Pete Reilly his freedom.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: When we come back, the verdict that wasn't the end of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REILLY: At first I was kind of knocked down, and then again that, overwhelming feeling of, we have to fight on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Peter Reilly's fight for freedom continues in his quest to find a killer.

Later, in this special report, ""Justice Under Fire"" when courthouses turn into shooting ranges and what court officers can do to stop a crazed convict.

Rick Sanchez shows us how courthouse deputies learn to handle the toughest criminals or toughest reporters.

When we return, Peter Reilly's search for justice. He was wrongly accused. But here's a justice quiz, going to the break: When was America's first documented wrongful conviction murder case? Was it in 1812, 1845 or 1862?

The answer when our 360 special report, ""Justice Under Fire"" continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Before the break we asked you: When was America's first documented case of a wrongful murder conviction? The answer, 1812.

Russell Colvin disappeared in Vermont. His two brother-in-laws were convicted. Fortunately for them, Russell turned up in New Jersey alive and exonerated both of them.

Welcome back to this special edition of 360: ""Justice Under Fire"." I'm Anderson Cooper.

Tonight we're looking at the many ways our criminal justice system is being strained. Before the break we introduced you to a man named Peter Reilly. He was wrongly accused of murder. He was just a teenager when he became a suspect in the killing of his mother.

Now police kept questioning him all night long, questioning him without a lawyer present. He knew he was innocent. Nevertheless after hours of interrogation he signed a written confession. Next, there was a trial, and a fight to be exonerated.

Now a man once convicted of murder searches to find the truth, searches for justice for his mother. Heidi Collins picks up the story you'll see only on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: One month after confessing on tape to his mother's 1973 murder.

REILLY: It's the straight razor that I used, that I slashed my mother's throat with, and I remember, I think, jumping up and down. COLLINS: Eighteen-year-old Peter Reilly was allowed to go to his mother's funeral, but he went in handcuffs concealed by a jail guard's coat.

REILLY: One-hundred and forty-three days here, that I'm never getting back.

COLLINS: Reilly spent five months in jail, released on bail raised by friends and neighbors, just as his trial began in the spring of 1974. By then Reilly had recanted his confession.

Still, the confession became the prosecutor's main exhibit in the six-week trial at the Litchfield County courthouse, but there were no eyewitnesses and little physical evidence. No bloody clothes belonging to Reilly, no definitive murder weapon. The government's forensic experts said a kitchen knife with blood residue might have been used. He never identified whose blood was on the knife. A jury deliberated just two days before finding Reilly guilty of first degree manslaughter.

REILLY: It was amazing they could convict me, standing there knowing full well I'd never done anything wrong. At first I was kind of knocked down and then again that, overwhelming feeling of, we have to fight on.

COLLINS: Reilly was facing 6 to 16 years in prison. Families in the community, again, bailed him out, while he appealed his case. He was allowed to finish high school. And supporters began a drive for a new trial. Connecticut celebrities, led by playwright Arthur Miller, chipped in with much-needed cash. Neighbors like journalist Donald Connery, believed in Reilly's innocence.

CONNERY: It was hard for anyone to understand that this particular person, who had no reputation for wrongdoing or violence or anything, would have done this. I was appalled at the prospect that the authorities had seemingly ignored evidence of innocence and evidence of others who were probably guilty.

COLLINS (on camera): Why would they do that?

CONNERY: There is the belief that, even among police, to this day -- and prosecutors -- most of them, that no one will confess to a crime he didn't commit, and once they have a confession, it's like then they get lazy.

COLLINS: Connecticut state police refused requests by CNN to be interviewed on camera about their investigation. So did now-retired lead investigator James Shea. A private investigator hired by Reilly's new defense team dug up fresh evidence for the appeal: a newly identified fingerprint on the back door of his mother's house. It belonged to a local teenager who stole Reilly's mother's wallet one week before her murder. And a statement by an off-duty cop who saw Reilly driving his Corvette five miles from the house at the time prosecutors contended Reilly was committing the murder.

And on appeal, testimony from a defense psychiatrist who told the court Reilly's confession was coerced. In 1976, two years after his conviction, a Connecticut judge tossed it out. He granted Reilly a new trial saying, "A grave injustice has been done."

The next year, the state dropped all charges, and a judge ruled Reilly could never be prosecuted again for his mother's murder.

REILLY: It was a great injustice. My mind was full of youthful ideals where things don't go wrong in the United States, and they had at that point.

COLLINS: Peter Reilly went on with his life, working as an emergency medical technician and as a salesman. He was married for a few years in California, but now lives back in Connecticut with the family that took him in during his darkest days.

(on camera): When you meet new friends, does it come up?

REILLY: It can be a little rough in the dating department, when you're trying to explain to someone who you are and the things you've done in your life. And it's not everybody's got a murder conviction that's been overturned.

COLLINS: What's the reaction?

REILLY: One hell of an ice breaker. I have nothing to hide. I'm not ashamed of who I am. If anybody should be ashamed, it should be the activities of the police, the way they handled me back then.

COLLINS: Reilly and Don Connery petitioned the state to obtain access to all the police files from the case. They finally won access this month. CNN was there when they went to police headquarters for the first time to inspect two filing cabinets full of documents, documents that may hold clues to finally crack the case.

REILLY: This is the day we've been waiting for quite some time.

CONNERY: Well, 32 years.

COLLINS: Reilly and Connery contend the police never stopped believing in Reilly's guilt, and never investigated leads that pointed to anyone else. Even though a grand jury report filed after Reilly was cleared named five suspects worthy of investigation, including the neighbor we told you about, who stole Reilly's mother's wallet, but he's always denied committing the murder.

REILLY: The state knows who we think did it. They're going to spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulder because I'm not going away.

CONNERY: We're in a position of being able, at this point, with the new files to look at everything, all the testimony, independent information, police information, and try to see if it will hold up. It's like at long last we're putting the puzzle together.

COLLINS: A state police spokesman tells CNN the case is an open investigation, and "We never name suspects in any investigation at all for fear of compromising the progress of it."

But he added, "If anyone came up with any lead whatsoever, it would be pursued."

(on camera): Some people would say, you know what? Ultimately, the justice system did work here, Peter Reilly is not in prison. Peter Reilly was exonerated.

CONNERY: But some people would say that the system didn't work in this case, and it still isn't working. So long as the crime is unsolved, and the killers are out there and free and never convicted, justice has not been done in this case, but maybe it will be.

REILLY: It's all about my mother, and it's all about bringing to justice the individuals who committed this crime. And beyond that, how it affects me really doesn't matter anymore.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: You can say the once-accused has now become a detective in the case. As for the police closing their eyes to any other possible suspects, we talked to James Shea, the lead investigator on the case and now retired. He told us on the phone that's not true. And said "We went where the evidence took us."

Meanwhile, Peter Reilly gave Don Connery power of attorney to read all of the case files. And I just got off the phone with him before the show, he tells me, with the information he already found in these documents he thinks he'll be successful in explaining why the police got it so wrong in the first place, and that other suspects were always known about but never pursued, Anderson.

COOPER: It's amazing when you hear the interrogation tapes how easily someone can be convinced to confess to a crime that they didn't commit. In this case a young man confessing to his own mother's murder.

Is this still an open case?

COLLINS: Well, we're determining it as an open case, but it's known as a cold case at the same time. In fact, Reilly and Connery are going to have to present strong evidence to the police commissioner and the chief state's attorney in order for them to go ahead and pursue it. But Don Connery said he's already spoken within both of those men and is confident they will do the right thing and go after Barbara Gibbons killer.

COOPER: All right. Great story, Heidi Collins thanks very much. Erica Hill from "Headline News" joins us with the latest about 18 past the hour.

Hey, Erica.

HILL: Hey, Anderson.

The Department of Homeland Security, we're learning, has 48 hours to decide the fate of Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, the former CIA operative who has made a career out of trying to kill Fidel Castro, was detained in Miami after a failed bid for asylum. He's on the run from charges he blew up a Cuban airliner in the '70s, killing 73 people. He denies it.

On to the segment "Security Watch": A loophole in security. Unscreened cargo is still being loaded onto passenger planes. Today some members of Congress called for new rules to inspect all cargo on commercial flights.

The housing market, by the way, still bubblelicious, you might say. Translate that as no signs of a slowdown as the number of new homes being built surged by 11 percent in April.

An insurance giant is dealing with a little damage control. Here's Valerie Morris with a "Market Movers" report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALERIE MORRIS, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): American International Group has weathered hurricanes, earthquakes and terrorist attacks but a government investigation into its books is a different issue all together.

AIG, the giant insurer, and Dow component, has uncovered nearly $3 billion in improper accounting. Its shares have plunged 30 percent since February, when federal and state regulators launched separate investigations into some questionable accounting practices.

The controversy forced Wall Street legend Maurice Hank Greenburg to resign from the company he founded 40 years ago. Still, AIG continues to post solid results, reporting a 19 percent increase in profit in 2004 to $11 billion.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: The latest from HEADLINE NEWS at this hour. Now back over to you.

COOPER: Erica, thanks very much. See you again in about 30 minutes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER (voice over): Caught on tape, a man shot five times at point blank range. Tonight, whatever happened to the man who dodged bullets behind a tree?

And what happens when a cop is overpowered by a crazed suspect? Tonight, the latest in self-defense and security technology that could help save lives in the line of duty. This special edition of 360: ""Justice Under Fire"" continues in a moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: ""Justice Under Fire"" in America. We're looking at all the ways our system of justice is being attacked, literally in some cases. The recent killing of two family members of a Chicago federal judge and the Atlanta courthouse shootings drives home that point. According to the U.S. Marshall Service, which is charged with protecting judges an estimated 700 threats are made against judicial officials each year.

Of these, about 20 are serious enough to require police protection; 12 others triggered round-the-clock protection. One California lawyer had no protection at all when a disgruntled client made him the target of a shooting rampage. That client is still behind bars awaiting a competency hearing this week in a Los Angeles Superior Court.

CNN's Miguel Marquez has more on the brazen attack that happened in front of TV cameras.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(GUNFIRE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It was Halloween, October 31, 2003. Gerry Curry, a lawyer, walked out of a southern California courtroom and into a horror story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we have a first aid kit over here ASAP?

MARQUEZ: The man with the gun is William Strier. He was angry at Curry; angry about legal work Curry had done for him, angry enough to kill, or at least try to.

DANIEL DIAZ, SHOOTING WITNESS: He was angry. He was very focused, yes. He just kept saying, "That's what he gets for taking my money."

MARQUEZ: After emptying his revolver, Strier strolled off as if nothing happened. Daniel Diaz, a local LA journalist followed alongside Strier. He shot video with one hand and pointed Strier out with another until he was finally tackled and then swarmed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's the gun?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His right pocket.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His right pocket of his jacket.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right pocket jacket.

(CROSS TALK)

GERRY CURRY, SHOOTING VICTIM: I remember this really loud pop, because I remember my ears ringing.

MARQUEZ: Curry, a probate and estate planning lawyer was shot five times. CURRY: Hit me three times here, these bullets went in and out. And he also hit me in the right forearm. This bullet went in the forearm and ended up in the top of my arm here. And the first shot, when he shot me when I came out of the courthouse, he shot me in the neck right here.

MARQUEZ: After the first bullet went in the neck and lodged near his spine, Curry had seconds to decide, run away or run for cover.

CURRY: I was worried if I ran away he could shoot me in the back and just kill me.

MARQUEZ: Curry ran for the nearest tree. At only about two-feet around, it was wide enough to protect him from a fatal shot.

(GUNFIRE)

CURRY: I was trying to keep the tree between the gun and my head, trying to protect my head and torso. And so he went right, I went the other way.

MARQUEZ: Media was everywhere that day. The courthouse in Van Nuys is the same place where Robert Blake was defending himself on a murder charge.

On a normal day the focus was on the famous defendant. In an instant it was on William Strier. Jerry Curry still practices law. He often walks by the tree and believes it was his lawyerly fast thinking that saved his life.

CURRY: Trial lawyers have to think quickly on their feet. I think maybe my training as a lawyer helped me out, because you have to think very quickly.

(GUNFIRE)

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Bizarre.

Next, what can court deputies do to subdue an out-of-control prisoner? Rick Sanchez is about to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: I'm about to receive 50,000 volts of electricity.

Do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: What happens when 50,000 volts meets Rick Sanchez? You'll see in just a moment.

Also coming up, a time when bullets were the only option and a man from Texas put his life on the line.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, Brian Nichols today pleaded not guilty to all charges in the March Atlanta courthouse shooting spree. Nichols is accused of killing a judge and court reporter in the courtroom, killing a sheriff's deputy outside the courthouse, and killing a federal agent while escaping. Investigators say Nichols began his rampage after breaking loose from a female guard who was taking him to a court appearance. Now, that prompted talk about whether a female guard should have been handling a male prisoner by herself and what all guards can do to be better prepared for such situations. Rick Sanchez decided to look into both those subjects.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The live lines are always open and toll-free throughout south Florida.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's the talk on the radio.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want it. It should not be a female job. Shouldn't.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It makes no sense, what you're saying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, makes perfect sense.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It does not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it does.

SANCHEZ: And on the streets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She shouldn't have been trying to guard the guy she was guarding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And move.

SANCHEZ: Here, though, at one of the nation's largest training facilities for police and jail guards, it's more than talk. In this building, it's a question of life or death.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand up straight. I need you to walk this way, sir.

SANCHEZ: These recruits, just two weeks from graduation, are being trained and retrained on how to handle a prisoner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we're going into handcuffing. Remember we need to give clear commands to the subject at all times.

SANCHEZ: How to handcuff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, sir.

SANCHEZ: How to disarm a suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, why you going to do this, sir? Get back, sir. Get your hands up. Get your hands up.

SANCHEZ: And perhaps most importantly, what to do if that suspect turns on you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your hands behind your back.

ED DEL TORO, INSTRUCTOR: What we do, mostly to mitigate the circumstance in which only the largest officer would win, we teach them to work with technique as opposed to working with strength.

SANCHEZ: Every correctional officer, you believe needs to know this technique.

DEL TORO: Oh, absolutely.

SANCHEZ: In this class, recruits are taught to overcome what some might see as odds, including size, and yes, gender.

For those who say, you're a woman. You're not capable of doing this, you say what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Meet me on the mat.

SANCHEZ: OK, so we did.

DEL TORO: OK, you're going to come up behind her, wrap your arm around her throat, as if, though you intended to pull her off balance and attack her.

SANCHEZ: So, I'm going to come behind her and put her in a chokehold.

DEL TORO: Right.

SANCHEZ: Oh!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Put your hands behind your back.

SANCHEZ: Notice the control she's maintaining over here.

OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all right?

SANCHEZ: Yes. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

There's something that's also getting applause from law enforcement officials these days. All over the country, courthouses are experimenting and wrestling with new technology, like the shock belt.

DEL TORO: They're growing in popularity and they've worked out very well for us.

SANCHEZ: Let me tell you what judges tell me when I bring this subject up. They say, I don't want a guy wearing a shock belt in my courtroom because the jury's going to see it and it's going to prejudice the jury and they're going to be more apt to find him guilty and then they're going to come back on appeal and say, you know what, we got to have this trial all over again.

DEL TORO: Rick, that's not it.

SANCHEZ: That's what they're saying.

DEL TORO: You know what, Rick? That's not a valid argument anymore because technology has made these devices small enough that we can conceal them under your clothing.

SANCHEZ: Holsters with double or triple latches are also a hot item with police and guards. The idea is to make it more difficult to grab the officer's gun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he doesn't understand the mechanism to take the gun out.

SANCHEZ: Now, when it comes to technology, many in law enforcement recommend stun guns over real weapons. To show you how it works, I'm go about to receive 50,000 volts of electricity. Do it.

Oh! It hurts. It's painful. But no one's dead, and that is how law enforcement would like these scenarios to end up. In fact, they call it the wave of the future, a future that didn't arrive soon enough for countless officers, including the four who lost their lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): Hurts to watch it. Here's what I tried to do in that piece. I wanted to find out what kind of technology, what kind of methods are out there police could use to save lives. I called an awful lot of police departments and courthouses and I found out, for the most part, surprisingly, a lot of them aren't employing some of these new methods.

I'm Rick Sanchez. Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: Ah, Rick, I mean, you know, I can't -- I've seen that a million times and I really never get tired of seeing it. What did it actually feel like, I mean, to have 50,000 volts going through you and what are you saying when that's happening?

SANCHEZ: It's like being shocked, but you can't imagine how 50,000 volts feels. It only lasted two, and like a quarter of a second, so it wasn't an awful lot of time. If it were to be a lot longer it certainly would've done a lot of damage. What I was saying was -- English is my second language and for some reason, when I was in all that pain and I guess I felt somewhat desperate, I wanted them to stop, I started saying ya, ya, ya, ya. In Spanish, that translates to stop, stop, stop, stop.

COOPER: Fascinating. All right, Rick Sanchez, thanks very much.

SANCHEZ: All right.

COOPER: Let's see it one more time.

SANCHEZ: What the heck.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: ...the electricity. Do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Did you get it, the ya, ya, ya? I'm glad I finally got to clear that up.

COOPER: Man, you're a braver man than I am. Rich Sanchez...

SANCHEZ: Well, it told the story.

COOPER: Thanks very much. Appreciate it.

Next in our special hour, a Texan who saw "Justice Under Fire" and fought back.

And later a case where police put the right guy in prison, but not even that stopped him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back to this special edition of 360: ""Justice Under Fire"." We're looking at the many ways that our system of justice is under pressure, even under attack.

On February 24th, a gunman with an assault rifle opened fire outside the Tyler Texas courthouse. Police say the pain and suffering he inflicted would have been much worse if not for the brave efforts of one man, Mark Wilson. They say he's a hero who deserves to be remembered.

Sean Callebs has his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

911 OPERATOR: (INAUDIBLE) County 911.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fired shots at the courthouse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's about to shoot somebody.

911 OPERATOR: He's shooting at the courthouse? OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) courthouse, yes.

911 OPERATOR: OK.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Shots fired outside the Tyler, Texas, courthouse.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's shooting with a machine gun.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're still shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get away from the window!

CALLEBS: Sheriff's deputies scrambled to respond.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's policemen coming out the back door.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think one might've been hit. He's on the ground.

CALLEBS: Police say it's the work of an enraged David Arroyo, who was battling his ex-wife over child custody issues.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Automatic weapon. He is at the back door shooting at these people.

CALLEBS: Arroyo, strapped with body armor and brandishing an assault rifle, kills his former wife, shoots his son, and critically wounds a deputy. By all accounts, the death toll would be greater but one man, without a badge, grabbed a gun and ran into the crossfire.

His name, Mark Wilson.

Scott Lieberman now owns an indoor shooting range Mark started, and is one of many praising his bravery.

DR. SCOTT LIEBERMAN, LOCK & LOAD SHOOTING RANGE: People always talk about the fact that there is, you know, this -- the Texas myth, you know, there are Texas legends. I think in Mark Wilson's final act, we saw, you know, the birth of yet another Texas legend.

CALLEBS (on camera): For nearly nine years, this was Mark Wilson's home. Friends said he liked to think of the town square down there as his front yard.

On February 24th, he had just finished lunch when he popped back into his apartment for a quick moment when the shooting started. He ran into the bedroom, grabbed his .45, left the gun case on the nightstand, and ran downstairs so quickly he left the front door open.

(voice-over): Witnesses say Wilson, who was licensed to carry a gun, sprinted down the street. He was able to shoot the gunman several times, but David Arroyo, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was unfazed. Arroyo turned, killed Wilson, then sped away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God! The other is running away. He killed him.

CALLEBS: A short time later, Arroyo died in a shootout with authorities. Police say Mark Wilson's bravery saved lives.

ROBERT LLOYD, WILSON'S FRIEND: It doesn't surprise me that he would do this. He would never even think about it. It was automatic. I think Mark had probably played this scenario out in his mind many times. He knew if he was ever confronted with this, he would handle it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... laid down his life for his friends.

CALLEBS: At a memorial for Mark Wilson, it was clear, if stature is gauged by the number of friends, he stood tall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mark was never defining himself as a hero.

CALLEBS: I sat down with five of Mark's closest friends at their favorite watering hole.

JIM CARTER, WILSON'S FRIEND: I know it's happened, but I've come to terms with it. But it's just impossible, absolutely impossible to believe.

JODY HARGIS, WILSON'S FRIEND: He went out there and did what he did, because Mark Wilson, because Mark Wilson, he's a hero. That's how he was built.

CALLEBS: These are buddies who went around the country, racing cars, and frequently went to sunny beaches of Costa Rica, where his friends say Mark's parents would like his cremated ashes scattered.

HARGIS: So we're going to take that urn, put a pair of flip- flops on it, a pair of sunglasses, and we're going to have a party.

CALLEBS: Between the laughter and tears, Mark's closest friends want it known he wasn't a gun-toting Texas cowboy with a death wish.

Friends who spent so much time here now quietly remove Mark's belongings. For someone who meant so much to so many, they say two simple words just aren't enough.

Sean Callebs, CNN, Tyler, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And we remember him tonight.

Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS joins us with the latest at about a quarter to the hour -- Erica. HILL: Hi, Anderson. Verbal fireworks on Capitol Hill in the investigation of the U.N. oil-for-food program. British lawmaker George Galloway defiantly rebuffed allegations that he helped Saddam Hussein violate the oil sales embargo. In a sharp exchange with Senator Norm Coleman, Galloway accused Congress of a smokescreen for American companies that did business with Saddam.

Continued terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia have caused the U.S. State Department to renew a travel warning for Americans there.

And Anderson, a story that you covered last night on 360, the government now expected to require companies that sell unlimited Internet phone service to also have full 911 emergency service. The FCC vote on that could come as soon as Thursday. Some subscribers have learned the hard way some Internet phones don't always automatically give police and other emergency workers the location of the call, or even connect with 911 centers.

And that's the latest from HEADLINE NEWS at this hour. Anderson, back over to you.

COOPER: Erica, thanks very much.

You know, if you think sending criminals to prison puts them out of business, you're going to be shocked at what you're about to hear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON ANGELONE, CORRECTIONS CONSULTANT: If they're serious about it, and they're angry enough and they're quiet about it, they can accomplish a lot from inside a prison cell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Committing crimes from inside the prison cells. See how much some bad guys got away with, and how they were finally stopped.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, today federal prosecutors did not get everything they wanted in a gang murder trial in Virginia. Brenda Paz was a gang member, federal informant, and four months pregnant when she was stabbed 16 times nearly two years ago. She'd left the Federal Witness Protection Program just three weeks before she was murdered.

Now, a federal judge today -- or federal jury I should say -- convicted two gang members in her killing, but the jury also acquitted two other gang members. One of them was the reputed mastermind, who reportedly gave the order to kill in a message sent from his jail cell.

Despite the outcome of that case, inmates do manage to communicate from prison. Happens all the time. And as Tom Foreman explains in our continuing look at ""Justice Under Fire"," prison guards are at times powerless to stop them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is a cold night in Washington, D.C. Police and the FBI are in the midst of a 10-year investigation into the K Street Crew, a gang that's suspected in more than a dozen murders while dealing drugs near the Capitol, when authorities catch a break -- gang leader Jerome Martin is picked up on a murder charge, and there is a witness, 19-year-old Chrissy Gladden. Quickly, she is put into hiding. After all, prosecutors Ken Wainstein and Jim Dinan know what the K Street Crew can do.

KEN WAINSTEIN, PROSECUTOR: The key to her survival was that they had a penchant for intimidating or killing witnesses.

JIM DINAN, PROSECUTOR: This group was dogged and tenacious in going anywhere they could to try and find these witnesses.

FOREMAN: True to form, authorities say Martin calls a fellow gang member, Sam Carson (ph), to visit him in jail, where unheard by any of his jailers, Martin orders Carson to kill Chrissy Gladden.

Prosecutors have her well hidden, but only days before the trial, she slips back into her old neighborhood for a party.

WAINSTEIN: She was walking out of this party. Sam Carson jumped out of an abandoned house, shot her once in the chest. She fell to the ground. He then stood over her and shot her two or three more times right in the head and killed her.

FOREMAN (on camera): And this was orchestrated from jail?

WAINSTEIN: This was orchestrated, commanded or requested by Jerome Martin, who was in jail at the time.

FOREMAN (voice-over): A scathing report on the federal prison system six years ago found criminals behind bars routinely dealing in murder, drug trafficking, and fraud on the outside.

ANGELONE: Nothing has changed.

FOREMAN: And Ron Angelone, one of the nation's most experienced corrections experts, insists the problem is growing with inmates at every level of the prison system.

ANGELONE: If they're serious about it, and they're angry enough and they're quiet about it, they can accomplish a lot from inside a prison cell.

FOREMAN: But how does it happen? I called a bank robber to find out.

JOE LOYA, CONVICTED BANK ROBBER: Hey, you, what's up?

FOREMAN: Joe Loya was one the terror of Southern California, knocking off more than 30 banks and eventually serving seven years hard time, events chronicled in his book, "The Man Who Outgrew his Prison Cell." He says countless messages -- what inmates call kites -- are passed to the outside.

LOYA: You can communicate by phone. You can communicate by visits. You can communicate by letters. Only in rare instances are people cut off from having communication with the outside world.

FOREMAN: This message in microwriting, for example, was taken from a California inmate. The thousands of words crammed onto this paper relate to the criminal dealings of a major Latino gang.

Corrections officers in Texas discovered an entire dictionary of code words inmates use on the phone to keep guards from spying.

Loya says coded messages can be shockingly simple, and effective.

LOYA: You know, I sent out a birthday card to so-and-so, and you know, I, you know, it was for her 25th birthday and the 25th stands for $250 that you just sent to somebody so that you could buy a gram of heroin.

FOREMAN: And of course, the river of inmates coming in and out of the system every day provides a ready avenue for passing notes. Simply put...

LOYA: It's impossible to stop illegal communication with the inside world and the outside world.

FOREMAN: Deadly dealings from behind bars used to be primarily associated with major organized crime families.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you live by the gun and by the knife, then you die by the gun and by the knife.

FOREMAN: But now, prison experts say dozens of gangs keep regular and easy contacts with their convicted members.

ANGELONE: We know that when they go to prison, they're looking at how they can strike out to those that sent them to prison.

FOREMAN (on camera): Why can't prison professionals protect us more, though?

ANGELONE: It's very simple. We don't have the tools to do that.

FOREMAN: Prisons have tried to develop the tools. In many places computers now record and monitor all phone calls, listening for key words that might signal trouble. But the Bureau of Prisons study found less than 4 percent of inmate calls are monitored by correctional officers.

(voice-over): The courts have reaffirmed inmates' rights to make phone calls, write letters and talk to visitors with little or no interference. So law enforcement officers often focus on criminals outside who might help them.

Remember Jerome Martin and his K Street Crew? He escaped one murder charge by reaching out from jail and ordering the killing of the witness, Chrissy Gladden, but his plan backfired. Authorities added her death to a huge list of charges against the K Street Crew, and two dozen members or associates of the gang, including Martin, were convicted. The worst locked up for good. For killing Chrissy Gladden and eight others, Sam Carson is in Leavenworth.

WAINSTEIN: They ended up all getting locked up and sent away for life without parole. That message that got out there on the street -- and it got out there -- tells other crews, other criminals or criminal -- wannabe criminals, that you're going to pay a price if you hurt our witnesses.

FOREMAN: Still, if the nation's more than 2 million prisoners each talk on the phone for just five minutes a day, that's more than 19 years of continuous talk every day, too much for anyone to monitor.

Bottom line, if an inmate wants to get word to the outside, for good or bad, he probably will.

ANGELONE: No matter what you do to put up roadblocks, someone who has 24 hours a day to think about it is going to find...

FOREMAN (on camera): Going to find a way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Just one of the many ways justice is under fire.

Coming up next, we can't help but noticing all of a sudden there are 360 degrees of just about everything.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight, taking flattery to "The Nth Degree." You know the expression, right, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? Well, if that's so, then the compliments have been coming our way hot and heavy recently. And we thought we really ought to say thanks. To Microsoft, for instance, which is calling its new whiz-bang video game thingy the X-Box 360. Great name there, Mr. Gates. Very all- encompassing, panoramic, sweeping, we might say, or so we've always thought. And thanks as well to Colgate Palmolive, which is calling its wizard new toothbrush the Colgate 360. By the way, in case you're wondering, AC 360 also leaves your whole mouth clean, although we have to admit that in the tongue-scraper on the back department, there 360 has RS Beat.

And then a tip of the hat as well to ESPN, which has just tried out a feature called ESPN 360. This is, the network says, an always- on application that provides sports content directly to your computer. Yeah, well, AC 360 could be an always-on application too if we weren't human and needed a break every once in a while.

As for the Perry Ellis fragrance called 360, at 36 bucks for just under two ounces for the eau de toilette, we feel we offer a much better value.

And then we also thank that TV series called "NASCAR Drivers: 360.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is "360," the wildest party people are in the building right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Fantastically popular "Dance 360," which describes itself as TV's hip-hop party where the deejay drops it and the dancers bust it, shake it and move to the grooves. As if we weren't doing that first.

And a beta program from the browser folks called the Yahoo 360, an easier way to keep connected to friends and family.

I expect that a couple of you wise apples out there are thinking that we weren't exactly the originators of the 360 idea either, 360 being the number of degrees Babylonian astronomers divided the circle into after the number of days a year they thought it took the sun to make its circuit.

Well, sure, but that wasn't in prime-time.

I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks for watching. CNN's prime-time coverage continues now with "LARRY KING LIVE."

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