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CNN Live Today

Staff Shake-Up in the White House? Florida Court to Decide Fate of Child Murderer Joseph Smith

Aired March 15, 2006 - 10:30   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at what's happening right "Now in the News."
Late word just in about the scuttled ports deal. Dubai Ports World says it will sell its operation to an unrelated American buyer. The company walked away from the deal to manage six U.S. ports after an outcry over security concerns. There was still concern that Dubai would turn over the deal to one of its U.S.-based subsidiaries.

Free speech claims a victory in Denmark. Denmark's top prosecutor says he won't press charges against the newspaper that published those cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. The drawings ignited worldwide Muslim protests that resulted in dozens of injuries and even some deaths. But the prosecutor says the drawings don't violate Denmark's ban on racist or blasphemous speech. Denmark's foreign ministry issued new travel warnings for citizens in Muslim countries.

In London, British police are following up on some of those anti- cartoon demonstrations. Four men have been arrested on suspicion of inciting murder, and a fifth for attempting to incite racial hatred. Police surveillance tapes showed the men at a rally last month from a London mosque to the Danish embassy. They say they're considering more arrests.

And reports today that opera great Luciano Pavarotti is in the hospital. The tenor apparently canceled a show in Brazil and was flown to New York to create a back injury. Pavarotti is currently performing his farewell tour.

One after the other, there have been miscues and miscalculations. Critics, even some supporters, say the White House dropped the ball on Iraq, Katrina, ports, wiretaps. Does President Bush need to shake up his staff to get out of his poll-sinking slump?

That's exactly the buzz that our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is hearing this morning.

So, Suzanne, are we about to see some new faces at the White House?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, if it was up to people outside the White House, you would see some new faces. And this, of course, is coming from Republicans, advisers who are outside of this building who are talking to all of us about the suggestions that they are making to Chief of Staff Andy Card, as well as Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove. Those conversations have been taking place the last three weeks, but certainly this last week in earnest.

We talked to Scott McClellan this morning, who said that the president has "a smart, capable, experienced team," in his words. Of course, he's not giving up any information about those kinds of conversations.

But I spoke to one person this morning who said, well, who are they looking at, what are they looking at? They're talking about someone who is experienced, like a Senator Dan Coats or a Senator Fred Thompson to come in. Or even a Karen Hughes. Karen Hughes, of course, already has a very big job, but doesn't necessarily want that one.

But this is what they're talking about, someone who has experience, who has a good relationship on the Hill, a good relationship with the media, and someone that the president could trust.

KAGAN: But how likely is that to happen? Because the president tends to be very loyal and also value loyalty.

MALVEAUX: Well, you know, Daryn, it's hard to say. I mean, of course, we're getting the sense here that the president certainly is not entertaining any kind of shake-up whatsoever, that they are listening. At least Andy Card and Karl Rove, we're told, are listening to these suggestions. Whether or not the president is really going to move forward on this is anyone's guess.

What they are talking about is conversations. They say it's less about the names and more about the job itself. They're talking about someone who, perhaps, would be a senior counselor to the president, would report to Card, would report to Karl Rove and be able to move smoothly back and forth in the legislative world, also here in the White House.

KAGAN: Suzanne Malveaux, live from the White. Suzanne, thank you.

Good medicine, bad salesmanship, or both, rolled into one bitter pill? President Bush is back on the road today, stumping for his Medicare plan for seniors. And today's planned stop may not provide the positive feedback that the president is counting on.

Our national correspondent Bob Franken has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Day one of the president's tour selling his controversial Medicare prescription program, Plan B, definitely stayed on message.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: How is it going?

SUSAN WILBER, HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL: It's going well. There was a little bit of confusion at first. But...

BUSH: No, but, I mean, you don't want to recommend someone to sign up and they say, why did you get me to sign up for this? I mean...

WILBER: For the most part, it's worked very well. We've gotten some excellent feedback from our customers.

FRANKEN: The feedback from this assisted living facility near Washington that the president visits today was a sharp contrast to that.

ERICA RYBECK, AGE 77: And I think it's totally a farce, but I had a great deal of help in the beginning. I read over it. I truly didn't understand a lot of what I was reading.

WALTER RYBECK, AGE 81: I was just baffled by it. Really, that's the only word I can say. It was just so complex. And I just found it very difficult to follow how it worked.

DORA SPELLMANN, AGE 82: I got so confused from the very beginning trying to figure out all of this stuff. I thought, how in the world is the retirement age people going to understand this?

FRANKEN: But if the president's latest appearance on his Medicare plan is any indication, that will not be his take on Plan B.

BUSH: It's working. It makes lot of sense.

E. RYBECK: I don't think the majority of people understand it, and I guess my question to him would be, do you understand it, Mr. President?

FRANKEN (on camera): Even as some say they're beginning to grasp the intricacies of Plan B, many who will see the president here complain that instead of solving a problem, it is creating one.

Bob Franken, CNN, Silver Spring, Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And then there's this story out of California. Robert F. Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, is up for parole again in California. And the decision could present some problems for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Two parole board members are hearing Sirhan's case today, and frankly, they're unlikely to recommend his release. But if they do, the ultimate decision on whether to free him goes to the governor. Well, Schwarzenegger, as you know, is married to RFK's niece, Maria Kennedy Shriver. Sirhan received the death penalty for the 1968 assassination, but the sentence was later commuted to life in prison.

Coming up next, the picture you're not going to want to miss. It's our "Video of the Day." We're taking you to India. It's a festival that's all about kicking out Old Man Winter and getting a little crazy in the process. Throw your crayons in the blender an meet us back here in just a minute.

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KAGAN: Developing story now on the Dubai ports deal, and on the next move in that. Let's go to our Andrea Koppel who has been following the story store out of Washington, D.C. -- Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

And CNN first reported yesterday, Dubai Ports World really wants to really put to rest the speculation and rumors as to what its intentions were when it announced last week that it would transfer its North American port operations to a U.S. entity.

CNN has now attained a press release from the company, which it lays out in detail, at least as much detail as it has right now, how this is going to work, for the first time using the word "sell." DP World says it's going to sell its North American operations here as an entire group, basically those six port operations. They're not going to be broken up.

They've also identified both a financial adviser as well as a legal adviser. The financial adviser is going to be the Deutsche Bank Securities. And the legal advisers is the New York law firm, Sullivan and Cromwell, LLP. They anticipate all of this to take four to six months, Daryn, and they don't believe they're going to suffer a loss. They believe they're going to get what the company has been valued, which we've been reporting all along, is somewhere in the neighborhood of $680 million -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Not too bad, chunk of change there. There was some doubt when this was starting to go forward, Andrea, that they were just selling to one of their own U.S. subsidiaries, like kind of selling to themselves.

KOPPEL: Exactly. And we certainly heard that from many lawmakers on Capitol Hill, as well as other skeptics out there that this was just another attempt by DP World to push through its ownership of companies, of the ports here in the United States. They've made clear as well in this press release that the U.S. entity that they sell it to will be absolutely unrelated to Dubai Ports World. It will not be a foreign company. That means it won't have to go through that approval process that's required by law, and that really got lawmakers up in arms in the first place that it managed to squeak through in January.

So what that means is Dubai Ports World North American operations is on the block right now. You can bet that there are going to be a few phone calls out there. But, Daryn, some people have also said that the fact that we know Dubai Ports World needs to unload the North American operations, sort of like a fire sale, makes you wonder whether or not they're going to be able to get what they believe the market value is. KAGAN: Sounds like so far they're not too worried about that.

Andrea, thank you. Andrea Koppel.

Still ahead, we're going to Florida. He took a life. Will he have to surrender his own in return? A Florida judge come face to face with the child killer and makes a final call on the death penalty or life in prison. That story is coming up.

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KAGAN: Later today, a convicted child killer will learn whether he will die for his crime. A Florida judge will decide the fate of Joseph Smith, who abducted, raped and murdered an 11-year-old girl. You probably remember this chilling videotape from a surveillance camera that showed Smith walking up to her and leading her away. Last year, a jury recommended that Smith die after the brutal attack on Carlie Brucia.

Our John Zarrella joins us from Sarasota with more.

John, is there any doubt or even a sliver of doubt of how this is going to go down today?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not a whole lot, Daryn, because of the fact that this crime was so heinous, so absolutely outrageous, what Joseph Smith did in that abduction two years ago that, as you mentioned, was captured on that surveillance tape. Ten seconds of grainy video from a car wash, where Smith abducted her.

Most of the legal experts that we speak with tell us that because the jury recommended ten to two that he die, and because it is law here in Florida that the judge has to weigh that very heavily, what the jury said, it's not likely that he will go against the jury recommendation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENDALL COFFEY, FMR. U.S. ATTORNEY: The experience in Florida is that when a jury recommends life, sometimes a judge will overrule it and impose death. When a jury recommends death, it's almost unheard of for a judge to ignore that recommendation. So the sentence of death is a virtual certainty here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: It is also likely that if he is sentenced to death, that his road to execution will be a lot shorter than in most cases here in Florida because he has, in fact, admitted to that killing -- Daryn.

KAGAN: We heard him do that. Actually, we saw it live here on this program as this man, Joseph Smith, pleaded to the judge for his own life. I think the biggest case he made is how difficult it would be for his family and his girls if he wasn't there for him, even though he would be spending the rest of his life in prison. ZARRELLA: Right, that's exactly right. It was an emotional plea, went on for minutes. He talked about how he had been -- his wife was leaving him, how his business had collapsed on him, and that he was high on all kinds of drugs. It was the most incredibly induced high he'd ever been on, and that that's what led him to what he did. So he really threw himself on, as I say, the mercy of the court, begging for his life a month ago when he was in this courtroom, telling the judge that he really wanted to hopefully have his life spared because of his sorrow for what he'd done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH SMITH, CONVICTED CHILD KILLER: I want to tell you and Carlie's family and my family and this community how very sorry I am for these terrible crimes. Every day I think about what I did and I beg God for forgiveness. I will continue to think about the pain I caused for the rest of my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: You know, despite his pleading in court a month ago, I can tell you, Daryn, as I'm sure our viewers and everyone and yourself can understand, there is not much, if any, sympathy here in Sarasota, Florida, for Joseph Smith.

KAGAN: When you see the terrible, terrible thing that happened to that poor young girl. We'll be watching. John Zarrella, live from Florida, thank you.

Legendary newsman Mike Wallace is not exactly saying good-bye. He is 87. He's decided to join the rest of his generation and cut back on his workload. Coming up, Jeanne Moos makes the most of one of "60 Minutes"' originals.

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