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Moussaoui Mistrial?; Captivating Case; Stolen 'Code'?

Aired March 14, 2006 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. Lots to tell you about this morning. We're going to cover the story, as they've been covering here in New York City in a very big way, front page almost every single day, Imette St. Guillen, whose brutal murder and rape has shocked the city, I think it's fair to say, in a city that's really not shocked very often. A young lady who was studying criminology ironically enough now, of course, the victim of a brutal crime herself. Kelly Wallace will report for us this morning on just why this particular story seems to have really touch a nerve with New Yorkers.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: "The Da Vinci Code" also on our agenda. Dan Brown, the reclusive best-selling author, is offering up some testimony in a case where he is accused of plagiarizing. You know the story in that in his book is that Jesus supposedly married Mary Magdalene and the blood line of Jesus continues. Well, apparently there's some other people who wrote similar things. The question is . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Did he steal it?

MILES O'BRIEN: Did Dan Brown steal the idea? And the other question we might ask is, are there any new ideas at all? It's just a question of how they're presented, I suppose, in some cases.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The court will decide, as they say.

MILES O'BRIEN: The court will decide.

Carol Costello got some headlines for us.

Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

And good morning to all of you.

We begin this morning in the Middle East. There are violent clashes going on between Israeli forces and Palestinian guards at a jail in the West Bank. The Israelis want to take custody of six prisoners inside of a jail in Jericho, but those prisoners refuse to surrender. At least one Palestinian police officer has been killed in the raid. Other prisoners have given themselves up.

A gruesome discovery in Iraq. Dozens of bodies, perhaps as many as 71, have been found in the past 30 hours. Families now showing up at the morgues to identify the victims. It's believed the killings are part of reprisals for recent attacks.

Talking terror in Indonesia, Condoleezza Rice is there in her first visit as U.S. secretary of state. She's meeting with that country's president. In addition to the war on terror, the two are also talking about Iran and the Mid East peace process. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world.

Fire crews now saying they are making some progress against massive wildfires burning across the Texas panhandle and the southern plains. The flames have charred about 700,000 acres now. At least 11 people died because of these fires. And so far there is no rain in sight.

And a blast from music's past. That's Debbie Harry as a red head. Blondie was among a new group of musicians inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. Ozzy Osbourne was there. His former band, Black Sabbath, had been snubbed seven times before. He was kind of coherent. The late Miles Davis also honored. The event held last night at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. And, of course, the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame is actually in Cleveland, but they hold the ceremonies here because it's more exciting.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And it was a dramatic year.

COSTELLO: It was.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh, yes, it was. All right, Carol, thanks a lot.

The judge in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui may be ready, believe it or not, to pull the plug on the government's attempt to put the admitted al Qaeda conspirator to death. CNN's Senior Legal Analyst Jeff Toobin joins us this morning.

Some pretty startling developments. And it really is based on coaching. So, first, back up and tell me exactly what the prosecution is charged with doing.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK. Basically, in all federal criminal cases, there's what's called the rule on witnesses, which is that rule says that any witness in the trial is supposed to be told don't listen to the testimony, don't read the testimony, just stay away from the case until it's your turn to testify.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And that would be because?

TOOBIN: That would be -- you could shape your own testimony based on what you've heard. Try to be consistent, try to have a clear story. It's prosecution 101. Every lawyer involved in trying these case knows that.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Did the prosecution coach the witnesses? These seven witnesses?

TOOBIN: Well, what happened was, not the Justice Department prosecutors, but this lawyer, Carol Martin, from -- used to be with the FAA, now with the Department of Homeland Security. She represented apparently seven witnesses who are going to testify. On her own initiative, she e-mailed them instructions about how to testify and transcripts from an early part of the trial. Completely inappropriate. Inexplicable and awful.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And this is why the judge is absolutely livid because that's exactly going against what the judge had explicitly said?

TOOBIN: It's not only going against the general rule, but specifically Judge Brinkema had ordered against this. So's livid and she may toss the case.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: So these seven witnesses, these are critical witnesses, if their testimony is excluded, which I would imagine is on the table right now -- I mean they've been coached, they've got to exclude their testimony, does that mean that the government's case collapses?

TOOBIN: Hard to say. It certainly cripples the case in a major way. But as you point out, there are several options available to Judge Brinkema. One, she could just say, this is so bad, case over, he gets life in prison, not the death penalty.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: There's no, case over, we toss the case out altogether?

TOOBIN: Exactly. He's pled guilty. The only options on the table are death penalty or life without parole.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Got it.

TOOBIN: But she could say, these witnesses are excluded. The best option for the government is to say -- is that she'd say, well, I'll allow them to testify, but I'll allow the defense to cross- examine about all of this information that they've gotten. She could also read the jury an instruction explaining that the government made this mistake. So there are several options short of tossing the case for her.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Is there any indication why this lawyer would go ahead and absolutely contradict the judge's -- not only the general order, as you point out, but the judge's explicit order?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, I've been struggling about that. And the prosecutors in court said they were baffled by this. I think when you get these big cases, lawyers, you know, want a piece of the action. They want . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Those lawyers.

TOOBIN: Well, no, they to feel important, they want to get involved, they want to sort of pretend they're a big chief.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: So you're saying she didn't know?

TOOBIN: You know, I don't know. I really just don't know.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I mean if that's . . .

TOOBIN: I mean it's just -- it is so inexplicable and so inappropriate. And this woman is a fairly high-ranking lawyer at the Department of Homeland Security. It's not like she's, you know, a new kid on the block. She's a 1990 law school graduate.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: On the other hand, you're not going to -- I mean if you're trying to do something secretive and sneaky, saying everything by e-mail is a little blatant.

TOOBIN: Right. I guess that's in her defense that her misconduct was so blatant that there's no subterfuge involved here. But I think a larger problem here, too, is that the judge is uncomfortable with this case. This is such an unusual death penalty case because usually the death penalty goes to someone who fired the gun, who wielded the knife. This is a case where Moussaoui . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Conspiracy.

TOOBIN: Is said to have -- because he didn't tell the truth, all these people died, that's an unusual theory and the judge is uncomfortable with it.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Two seconds or less. What do you think happens?

TOOBIN: I think she will not toss the case, but there will be some lesser sanction, excluding the witnesses, allowing extensive cross-examination.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Jeff Toobin, thank you, as always.

TOOBIN: OK.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: It's a brutal murder that has captivated New Yorkers and has received a lot of national attention. The case of a young graduate student who disappeared after a night out, was later found dead, bound and strangled. AMERICAN MORNING's Kelly Wallace joins us now with more on the story of Imette St. Guillen and why it has resonated with so many.

Good morning, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

And we've been talking to people about this question, why is this case getting so much attention compared to others. A lot of people say, many people look at it as a situation of, perhaps that's something that could happen to you or me or our kids or other people. Also, one person I talked to said that there is another way to explain the massive interest. He said St. Guillen had one of those faces where you right away thought this was a decent, kind, genuine person who never could have imagined her life would end the tragic way. It did.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE, (voice over): Imette St. Guillen of Boston was just about to turn 25, a graduate student in criminal justice who considered New York City home. A woman friends and acquaintances say was smart, outgoing and nice to everyone.

SEAN COOPER, HIGH SCHOOL ACQUAINTANCE: She's one of those people that just knew your name, even if you didn't know her name. That, to me, sets a mark on anybody, you know? It's like, that's something that -- to remember.

WALLACE: New Yorkers have gotten to know her. Her killing has been the lead story in most of the city's newspapers and on the local news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Startling weighing evidence against bouncer Darryl Littlejohn.

WALLACE: But in a city where there have been more than 100 murders so far this year, why has this one resonated? Michael Daly, who's written about the case for the "New York Daily News," says part of the interest has been the mystery. How she disappeared from outside a Manhattan bar and was found strangled to death, raped, and bound in a remote part of Brooklyn. Another part of the intrigue, says Daly, the irony.

MICHAEL DALY, "N.Y. DAILY NEWS": What does she study? She studies criminology. And she's studying the exact thing that happened to her. And that they -- in trying to find her killer, they were using a lot of the same techniques that she had studied.

WALLACE: There's another twist. Daly says he believes one of St. Guillen's goals was to improve life behind bars. The man New York City police say is a prime suspect in her murder, Darryl Littlejohn, was in and out of prison doing hard time since he was a teenager.

DALY: I mean, I think part of what she felt, from what I understand, is the prison makes monsters. I mean it breaks people down and there are certain monsters who need to be locked away but prison does make monsters.

WALLACE: At her college in Manhattan, students continue to sign condolence books which will be sent to her family. I never knew you, but I feel as if I lost a good friend, said one. In one of her graduate classes, her chair sits empty. The professor says everyone is missing her.

PROFESSOR RICHARD CULP, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: The most common response when the topic comes up is people close their eyes and shake their head.

WALLACE: Because it's so hard to comprehend, says Michael Daly.

DALY: I mean her mother once said that wherever she goes, you know, she lit up the room wherever she went. And I think, you know, she met a guy that like darkened the room wherever he went. And I think that grabs people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: And Professor Culp also said that St. Guillen talked about one day working in a federal law enforcement agency such as the FBI. She also talked about studying for a doctorate in criminal justice. And, Miles, Michael Daly points out, she wasn't in this for the money. You don't study criminology to become a millionaire, you do it because you want to improve life for other people.

MILES O'BRIEN: But all those components are compelling reasons to do this story, but I can't help but wonder if people look back on this and wonder if there's some other motivation. Perhaps some sort of underlying racism which has something to do with this.

WALLACE: Well, you know, it's brought up a little bit. Because here in New York City, I mentioned, 102 murders so far this year. Just earlier this month in March, two Chinese women were slain in a Brooklyn warehouse. Their family is doing an interview with a "New York Times" columnist saying, why the disproportionate attention on this case and not on their own? Even New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg encouraged people to say, this is one case of many. There are several hundred murders in New York City, so people need to pay attention to them. Again, a lot of factors. Why one person is that that New Yorkers can only focus on one big tragedy at a time.

MILES O'BRIEN: And what about the situation on the case right now, Littlejohn?

WALLACE: Yes, we understand prosecutors and Littlejohn, we should mention, was the bouncer at the bar, the last bar she was seen. We understand prosecutors are expected to try and seek an indictment with a Brooklyn grand jury sometime this week.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Kelly Wallace.

WALLACE: Sure.

MILES O'BRIEN: Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Forty-one minutes past the hour and it's time to get a look at the weather again with Chad.

Hey, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MILES O'BRIEN: Look who's back. Andy, good morning.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, I'm back. Good to see you, guys.

Coming up in business news, the U.S. is famous for exporting movies, jet aircraft and fast food. Now here comes the latest, baseball to Europe. We'll tell you all about that coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SERWER: He's a friend of AMERICAN MORNING.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Friend of AMERICAN MORNING.

MILES O'BRIEN: Michael Caine, friend of the show. Friend of the show.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Happy birthday, guys.

SERWER: And we want to get Billy Crystal back on the Oscars. What do you think?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, that would be great to see him again.

SERWER: Bring him back?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, no, he's always been the best.

SERWER: Yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: He's the high water mark.

Andy Serwer is here and we're talking about Major League Baseball in Europe. That's not cricket, is it?

SERWER: No. Very good. Did you see President Bush playing cricket the other day? Did you see that photograph?

MILES O'BRIEN: Really?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: No.

SERWER: That's a great picture.

MILES O'BRIEN: Was he a batsman?

SERWER: He was. He was . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, really? Really?

SERWER: Yes. I'll have to show you guys.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Enough with the accent.

SERWER: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Moving on.

SERWER: Moving right on.

We're talking about bringing Major League Baseball to Europe. Here's how it works. Suppose you're going across the pond this summer and you're sitting around in your hotel room in London, Frankfurt, The Hague, or even Geneva and you're missing the Cubs/Cardinals series. Well, you don't have to worry because this year Major League Baseball is selling the rights to 275 games to a network, the North American Sports Network, that will be broadcasting games in Europe. And, believe me, if you've been over there, even trying to watch highlights is very difficult because they have ESPN but they're always showing Australian rules football or something like that.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Right. Right. Right.

MILES O'BRIEN: And CNN International.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Nothing wrong with that.

SERWER: Nothing wrong with -- sorry, no anti-Australian remarks. Sorry, Soledad.

MILES O'BRIEN: But CNN International, God bless them, they do cricket and rounders before they do baseball scores . . .

SERWER; Yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: Because they're going after the appropriate audience.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The audience, yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: But you know what, I want to know a little bit about baseball while I'm there. SERWER: Yes, well you can watch a whole games in the U.K., Ireland, Germany . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: In English, by the way? This will be in English?

SERWER: Yes. In Germany. In Switzerland. Well, actually, I don't know that. It may be in English, it may be in the local languages. It doesn't say here. That's unclear. Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium. But you don't need -- you can follow on what's going on. MILES O'BRIEN: Well, I know.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Even I could follow along what's happening in baseball without the translation.

MILES O'BRIEN: I know, I know, but it's . . .

SERWER: And, you know, this whole thing about bringing American sports to Europe is interesting because there's the NFL Europe, which was sort of all across the continent and now it shrunk down to one team in Holland and five in Germany. And American football very popular in Germany. Mostly American players. One of my favorite teams, the Hamburg Sea Devils. Now who couldn't root for a team like that, right?

MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, yes, right.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: They're winners. MILES O'BRIEN: Absolutely.

SERWER: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I can tell.

MILES O'BRIEN: A lot of guys feel like they're married to a sea devil -- or that's a she devil. I'm sorry.

Let's talk about Comcast.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Present company (INAUDIBLE), of course.

MILES O'BRIEN: Not me. Not me, of course.

SERWER: Yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: We're talking about Comcast.

SERWER: Yes, Comcast, according to published reports, is in talks with Disney to buy 40 percent of the E! Networks that it doesn't already own. Interesting because Comcast tried to take over Disney. Some say that this network is worth $2.5 billion. It gets about 400,000 viewers during prime time. And, you know, it's really been a huge success. I mean, you think about this thing. When we were growing up, there was nothing like that out there. And it's just the explosion of entertainment TV and the red carpet and people want to see the celebrity coverage all the time. And so it's a valuable property.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: All the time, 24/7.

All right, Andy, thank you very much.

SERWER: Thank you.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Did you guys hear these comments from "Da Vinci Code" Author Dan Brown taking a stand in defense of his book. We're going to talk this morning to a reporter who is covering the trial. What he has had to say is pretty interesting.

Then later this morning, a potential break-through in the treatment of heart disease. Details straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Dan Brown, the author of "The Da Vinci Code," is defending himself in a London courtroom against charges that he stole from another book to produce his blockbuster best seller. Brown is testifying for a second day today. Maev Kennedy is covering the trial for "The Guardian" newspaper. She joins us from London.

Maev, good morning. Nice to see you.

MAEV KENNEDY, "THE GUARDIAN": Good morning, Soledad. It's very cold here.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh, it is. Wow, that's too bad. Listen, I know you just ducked out of the courtroom because the trial is going on again today. Yesterday you wrote that Dan Brown on the stand seemed somewhat baffled. Is that the case again today?

KENNEDY: No, he's much livelier this morning. I think he's finally got the hang of it. He's facing very tough cross questioning as to when exactly he bought the copy of "Holy Blood and the Holy Grail." He says that he bought the book long after he wrote the synopsis for "The Da Vinci Code." And the book itself has been produced in court and it's really not standing up to the trial process at all well. "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" copy. It doesn't fall (INAUDIBLE).

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Well, you know, and that critical time line is really at the heart of this case, in addition to the book being at the heart of the case. Here's a little bit of what Dan Brown has testified to. He says this, Holy Blood, Holy Grail "was not a crucial or important text in the creation of the framework of 'The Da Vinci Code'." Yet he has admitted that he's read the book. How is -- there's no jury here, is there?

KENNEDY: There's no jury. But lawyers for both sides and the two of the three authors of the "Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" and Dan Brown on the other side. One of the crucial missing pieces in this court is Blythe Brown, who did almost all his research for him. She hasn't been called to give evidence. She's mentioned in the evidence almost every five minutes. It's one of the interesting admissions, why she wasn't called since she presumably could have said exactly what materials she got and from where.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: So they're very different books. I mean, one is nonfiction and the two authors are sitting in court. The other, of course, "The Da Vinci Code," is fiction. Where do you think the court stands now? I mean, what have you made of the evidence so far? Whose side are you buying?

KENNEDY: It's a very interesting one. I mean this is of huge interest to journalists as well because this is what we do all the time. We hover (ph) up materials from all sorts of different resources and we regurgitate it into something else entirely different. If that process of regurgitation becomes plagiarism, there's a lot of us in trouble. There are a lot of publishers out there watching this one with great interesting. There are a lot of media syndication people watching this one with great interest.

My feeling, although I have to say the judge has threatened to throw us out of the court if we say during the proceedings how we feeling it's going, is that Baigent and Leigh have a shaky case and Dan Brown gets happier by the day. He looks absolutely chirpy today. He looked absolutely delighted with himself.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And how is this case playing in London today? I read that there was people who were lined up to get his autograph outside the courtroom. Is that right? KENNEDY: It's huge. Well, I mean, as you know, this is a man who very rarely does appearances. He's spoken in his evidence that when he had to do the publicity carousel for his first three books, when they really weren't selling very well, and he obviously hated every moment of it and now he's a millionaire, he doesn't have to do that. So the court is being mobbed every day with people who are just dying to see Dan Brown.

The first day he came into court, when he had to face a crowd of cameras just across the road from me here, who hang out outside the court and lay an absolutely -- you know, they're there like an ambush every morning. He looked petrified. He looked absolutely scared out of his wits and he comes in and out by a back entrance these days.

But the interesting thing is, when he's in court, when the fans actually get him, and several of them who have come in and manage to get in to the public gallery, I may never get back into court now. There are five people looking for every place in court. But when he actually confronts one of the fans, he practically charming. He's very natural. He's very relaxed. He has signed copies of the books. He actually signed a copy of a book for a journalist this morning, which I thought was quite funny because I know the journalist in print had been giving him quite a hard time. So I think it's a whole publicity carousel that he can't stand. He's quite a natural, simple man, I think, and fine on a one to one basis with people.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Maev Kennedy is with "The Guardian" newspaper, reporting for us from London today.

Nice to talk to you, Maev, thank you so much.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: In a moment, the top stories, including the government's star witness wrapping up testimony in the Enron trial.

President Bush slipping further in the polls.

Mad cow disease found in Alabama.

New evidence, heart disease can actually be reversed.

An intense situation in Texas as wildfires destroy hundreds of thousands of acres of grassland. All ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Good morning. I'm Miles O'Brien.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

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