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American Morning

Andrea Yates New Trial; Stolen 'Code'?; Filming In New Orleans; In The Line Of Fire

Aired March 20, 2006 - 07:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Support for operations there. He's expected to take questions from the audience after a speech later today in Cleveland at the City Club. Now the City Club touts itself as nonpartisan and does not take positions on issues. All the speakers must answer unfiltered, unrehearsed questions directly from the audience. CNN will have live coverage of the president's address. It's set to get underway around 12:20 p.m. Eastern.
Vice President Dick Cheney is dismissing suggestions that the White House needs a shake-up. Rumors of replacing some top officials have been circulating. This after the administration's response to Katrina has slumping poll numbers. But the vice president says he's staying put and so are other cabinet members. He appeared Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Police in Paris used water cannons against protesters over the weekend. Union leaders are giving the government until today to withdraw a new jobs law or face a possible one-day general strike. The government vowing not to give in. The plan allows employers to fire young workers during the first two years on the job without giving any reason.

Last week, fire in Texas. Now it's heavy rain and flooding. Firefighters evacuating some homes in the Dallas area. More than five inches of rain fell there Sunday alone. At least one person died due to the flooding. And there could be some snow, snow today in the -- lots of snow, actually, up to 20 inches maybe, in parts of Nebraska.

And FEMA has a new message to thousands of people who got federal aid in the wake of Katrina. Ah, could we have our money back? Since the agency sent out about 50,000 checks by mistake, they range from $2,000 in cash to more than $26,000. The errors were found during an audit.

Can you imagine, $26,000 and then FEMA asks you, John, could we have that $26,000 back?

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: I would say good luck in getting the money back, Carol.

COSTELLO: I think you're right.

ROBERTS: I don't think it's going to happen. Thanks very much.

The woman at the center of a horrific crime is getting a new day in court. The second trial of Andrea Yates is scheduled to begin this morning. But over the weekend, a story that has had a lot of unusual twists took yet another one. CNN's Ed Lavandera has the details for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Andrea Yates is about to get a second chance. She's being tried again for the same crime, but could this outcome be different? It seemed like an unimaginable act on June 20th of 2001, Andrea Yates, a woman with a history of psychiatric problems and attempted suicides, systematically drowned her five young children in a bathtub. Her husband, Russell Yates, said his ex-wife was ill and should not be treated like a killer.

RUSTY YATES, ANDREA YATES' EX-HUSBAND: She needs to be held and loved and just, you know, the -- you know, like every step of the way, they've treated her like a serial killer, you know, for no reason. You know, a hardened serial killer and she's now.

LAVANDERA: Now as his ex-wife starts a new trial, Russell Yates is starting a new life. Yates divorced Andrea in 2005 and over the weekend he remarried in the same Houston church where he laid his five children to rest. After the ceremony, the couple left in a red Corvette. Reverend Byron Fike read a statement on behalf of them.

BYRON FIKE, PASTOR: He came to us needing help and support and so we helped him with the funeral of his children and we have continued to help him as he has walked a very lonely road.

LAVANDERA: Russell Yates says it's just coincidence that his wedding day falls just days before his ex-wife's new trial. A lawyer for Andrea Yates says the news stunned her client because she understands that her ex-husband needs to move on.

Andrea Yates' second chance comes after an appeals court overturned her conviction and life sentence. The problem was false testimony from the prosecution's star expert witness. This time the defense will once again claim insanity, saying that postpartum depression and psychiatric problems were behind the death.

GEORGE PARNHAM, YATES' ATTORNEY: This time around we have an additional four years of medical testimony related to her psychiatric condition. Those children were too precious to her, are to this day and she has a very difficult period of time each day of her life.

LAVANDERA: Ed Lavandera, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to another story.

It could be several weeks before the verdict is in, but "The Da Vinci Code" trial is wrapping up today with a final word from the attorney of two men who claim that Dan Brown stole their ideas to produce his blockbuster novel. Paula Newton's live for us in London this morning. Hey, Paula, good morning.

How is the case looking for the defendant, Dan Brown?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, he was on the stand last week for three days and at times he really seemed exasperated by the line of questioning. They went over every note in detail. But right now the claimants are the authors of "The Holy Blood, The Holy Grail." Their lawyers are making their summation. You know, the judge keeps interrupting them.

You'd have to say that at this point, Dan Brown's credibility, while it's on the line, he seemed to defend it quite well on the stand. They expect to have a verdict really within about three weeks. And right now they're really waiting to see, at the end of the day, what line of questioning the judge will take throughout the rest of the summation. It's supposed to wrap up here in a couple hours.

Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: When that verdict is in, the implications, of course, will go farther, Paula, than just "The Da Vinci Code," obviously. But what about the movie, which is set to open in May? Does the verdict -- potentially could it be effected by that?

NEWTON: It could affect that here in the U.K., but many people here believe that by that time they will have made some type of financial arrangement so that that doesn't happen.

But just to let you know, there is a lot of money at stake here. They can go through the exercise of trying to share profits, royalties. But, you know, the other side of the coin, there's already been more than $300 million just spent on fighting this case here. And while Random House, that published all the books, went to court here to defend Dan Brown, it really did seem to come from him. He wanted to make sure that his credibility would say intact, especially when he's hoping to launch another book in the next few months.

Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Paula Newton for us this morning. Paula, thanks.

John.

ROBERTS: Let's take a moment now and check back on the weather. Chad Myers is at the CNN Center in Atlanta with the latest weather update for us this morning.

And, Chad, looking a lot more like the first day of winter than the first day of spring.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The NCAA men's basketball tournament in full swing, upsets let and right, as you well know. Bradley University knocked out Kansas in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The final score was 72-66. Blah, blah, blah, who cares about the game. Did you see the scoreboard, though? Let's show a shot of that. Bradley University, Pittsburgh. Let's see.

ROBERTS: Brad Pitt.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Brad Pitt. See. Oh, there it is right there. Brad Pitt. Right at the bottom of your screen. Are they going to show us -- isn't that cute, Brad Pitt. That made the game worth watching for me.

ROBERTS: Free advertising.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Well, most airlines, as you well know, are downsizing their menus, trying to save some money. Flyers, though, who are looking for a decent meal have some new choices, yum, thanks to a surprising source. We'll explain coming up this morning. I'm afraid to ask.

ROBERTS: Yes. Also other sign of life in New Orleans. We'll show you how Hollywood is helping the city get back on track.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Then later, a photographer who risked her life to uncover dangers in Iraq. Her story and some of her incredible photographs too are ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Another sign of new life in New Orleans. Cameras are finally rolling on a Hollywood murder mystery. The plot is fiction, but the movie setting is very real. We get more now from CNN's Susan Roesgen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roll it.

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): This is a movie that almost didn't get made here at all. Production was scheduled to start last October. Then the hurricane hit and the filmmakers began looking for another location. In the end, they decided they wanted the Mississippi River to be part of the plot.

Now in this scene there's an explosion on the ferry and Denzel Washington comes looking for a suspect. Denzel Washington is the big name for this movie, but in many ways the real star of the movie is the city itself.

The move is called "Deja Vu" and Washington plays an ATF agent chasing a killer. It's a plot that could work anywhere, but New Orleans has become especially attractive to movie makers. Over the last few years, New Orleans had begun to market itself as Hollywood south. The state legislature passed a series of tax breaks for the film industry and it worked. Last year, movies produced in Louisiana had a combine total budget of $550 million. Malcolm Petal heads a local production company. MALCOLM PETAL, CEO, LIFT PRODUCTIONS: We've experienced three and a half solid years of record growth and we're nipping at the heels of California and New York. And if we could have another record growth quarter despite the hurricane and the displacement, we could weather through any storm.

ROESGEN: And when "Deja Vu" opens next fall, New Orleans audiences many feel like they've seen it before.

BARRY WALDMAN, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, "DEJA VU": They'll see boarded up window. They'll see some signs down. Most of our movie is shot on the ferry in the Mississippi. So there's not a lot that you can see from there. But here on the French Quarter, if it's there and it's existing, we've left it.

ROESGEN: A case of life, imitating art, imitating life.

Susan Roesgen, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Interesting.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, that is interesting, isn't it?

ROBERTS: I wonder if they clean up afterwards?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You know, that's a good question because, of course, in some areas -- where do you stop the cleanup? I mean, as you know, it just keeps going and going and going.

ROBERTS: Every little bit helps, though.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Right. Right. Hum, interesting.

Let's talk business news with Carrie Lee.

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: She's in for Andy this morning, talking about Dell.

LEE: Dell. And the company's based in Round Rock, Texas. A lot of workers there. But starting to, like a lot of other countries, expand its overseas workers. Dell says it plans to double its total staff in India to 20,000 workers over the next three years, making a big push for Indian engineering talent. They churn out a lot of engineers there. Also they're looking for new workers at its call center operations in the country.

So Dell, like a lot of other companies, looking for English speaking workers who are willing to work for lower wages than people are here in the U.S. That's the latest from Dell. The stock down about 27 percent over the past year, so probably a good idea for them to shrink some costs.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Trying to figure out how to save some money there.

LEE: Yes, exactly.

A we also have a story about traveling. Now, we all know the airlines, you're lucky if you get a bag of pretzels, right, these days on the domestic flights?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: They throw it at you.

LEE: Exactly.

ROBERTS: Hey, I got some Goldfish yesterday and it was a treat. It was a real treat.

LEE: Talking about pinching pennies. Well, luxury hotels, some of them are stepping up to fill this void. The stomach void, you might say. Names like the Ritz Carlton and the Peninsula are offering pretty high-end takeout sandwiches for their customers. So you can check out, you can get a sandwich.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: What's high end?

LEE: Well, here's an example. According to the AP, a poached chicken breast, pita sandwich with tarragon mayonnaise. That's available at the Ritz Carlton in Washington, D.C.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Corsocresta (ph).

LEE: Yes, the Peninsula in Beverly Hills, platters of blue fin tuna, poached salmon and cobb salad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: What does it cost? That sounds so expensive.

LEE: $20.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Really?

LEE: If you're staying at the Peninsula in Beverly Hills, what's another $20?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: A $20 sandwich.

LEE: Charge it to CNN, right, you know.

ROBERTS: Just grab it on your way out to the airport.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Why I'd never do any such thing, Carrie. Don't be ridiculous.

LEE: They put it in a neat little container with a little handle. Make it very easy for you. I think it's a great idea. Obviously, they're making money on it and they seems like it's starting to take off. They sell maybe 20, 30 a week.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Really?

LEE: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Interesting. You know, later on this morning we're going to talk a little bit more about no frills flying. How you really get pretty much nothing any more.

LEE: You really have to be self-sufficient these days.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Gosh, you really do.

LEE: Bring it all yourself on a carry-on.

ROBERTS: And one airline, which we will name later, of course, is charging extra money for certain seats in economy . . .

LEE: Yes, I've heard about that.

ROBERTS: Have a little bit more space or maybe you're on a certain part of the airplane.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I'd pay for that though. The food I'm not going to pay for. I'm not going to . . .

ROBERTS: That's ridiculous that you would have to pay more money for a seat in economy.

LEE: Unprincipled. It's not the dollar amount . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: He's morally outraged.

ROBERTS: Oh, absolutely.

LEE: It's not the dollar amount for the extra row, it's the principle, I think, exactly.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Hey, if it's $15, I would so pay for more leg room. $15. You're tall. You need the more leg room. You've got to pay for that.

ROBERTS: It's just ridiculous.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, Iraq seen through the camera's lens. One photographer talks about why it is nearly impossible now for journalist to get out the truth about Iraq.

And after an apparently (INAUDIBLE) misstep by a government lawyer, can the prosecution recover in the Moussaoui sentencing trial? Senior Legal Analyst Jeff Toobin's going to join us live.

Those stories are just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Murder, not war, is now the leading killer of journalists in Iraq according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. During the past two weeks alone, three Iraqi journalists and one media support worker have been killed by suspected insurgents. And since the war began, 67 journalists, 24 media support workers have been killed. Again, that's according to the committee. Making it the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history

How is this danger affecting the work of journalists in Iraq? AMERICAN MORNING's Kelly Wallace joins us with that story.

Hey, Kel. Good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey. Good morning, Soledad.

Definitely having an impact. You know, we're going to show you the story of one war photographer who risked her life really traveling throughout Iraq to tell the story. But she says now, at the third anniversary of the conflict, the danger is so great for herself and her colleagues that so many of them can no longer travel freely around the country to photograph what life is really like inside the war-torn country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE, (VOICE OVER): Images of war. Behind the lens, 34-year- old freelance photographer Kael Alford.

Is it still, when you look at that photograph, kind of hit you emotionally?

KAEL ALFORD, FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER: Yes, that was a difficult -- that was a difficult thing to see. I mean there are so many things like that in Iraq that are difficult to see. But, you know, I felt they were important to bring home.

WALLACE: The Middletown, New York, native spent a total of eight months in Iraq between 2003 and 2004 trying to capture images of daily life. From smiling women on their way to a bridal shower, to a father carrying his son across the front line between U.S. forces and a militant group in Najaf.

ALFORD: It's just difficult to capture that terror, you know, and I think kids probably express it better than anyone else because they can't hide it.

WALLACE: Her work is included in a new exhibit surrounding the release of the book "Unembedded," which features photographs from Alford and three other journalists. They all traveled around Iraq without the U.S. military and without any security.

ALFORD: The general level of anxiety is so high when you're working in situations like that. Every time you get in the car and go outside, you know, something bad can happen to you.

WALLACE: Like the kidnaping of freelance journalist Jill Carroll in January, who was on assignment for the Christian Science Monitor. Her status is unknown. Alford worked for the Monitor and traveled around like Carroll with just an Iraqi translator and driver.

ALFORD: I think about her every day. And I've never met her. All of us, I think, yes, I mean it could just as easily have been me or a close friend of mine.

WALLACE: She says Iraq has gotten much more dangerous for journalists, which means there are fewer photographers traveling throughout the war-torn country and, therefore, she says, there is limited coverage of what is actually happening.

ALFORD: It's sort of this odd paradox where the story, just as the story really needs to be told, it isn't physically possible to tell it in the depths that the news media usually has access to.

WALLACE: It hasn't been easy since she left Iraq.

ALFORD: It makes it hard to come home then and live a normal life because you're acclimated to a sort of very anxious existence.

WALLACE: Still, she would like to return to tell more stories, but the violence holds her back.

ALFORD: Although you might feel a little bit protected by your status as a journalist and your resources and your equipment and even sometimes the camera in front of your face, you know, but we're just as mortal as everyone around us and that's chilling to it comes home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Those are beautiful pictures.

WALLACE: Beautiful pictures indeed, Soledad. You know, Alford, who got her start in war photography covering the conflict in The Balkan, said that she spent a lot of time trying to getting up close to the Sunni and Shia resistance, the fighters. And I said, why? Why focus on them? Focus on members of the insurgency. She says, if we don't understand why these people are fighting, then how can the U.S. really, truly combat them?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I've got to imagine that there are not a lot of female war photographers. Did she talk about that at all? How that might effect people's perceptions?

WALLACE: We asked her about that. And I, in particular, asked her, did she find it more difficult, in particular, to get close to these fighters being a woman? Ironically, Soledad, she said it was easier.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's easier? Interesting.

WALLACE: Interesting. She said it was less threatening. People didn't necessarily sort of find her threatening. She thought it was easier to approach them. Certainly she was dressed in a way that wasn't threatening. So she got closer and sometimes thought she got more access by being a woman than had she been a male photographer.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: She talked a little bit about the anxiety of returning to a place where you're, you know, where you're not used to looking over your shoulder all the time. Does she feel like she has post-traumatic stress? WALLACE: She touched on that and she said that what she's feeling is, obviously, just a little bit of what soldiers must be feeling when they come back here to the United States. But definitely a sense of, you know, dealing with that stress at all times and then coming back and trying to resume a normal existence. It's very difficult.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Is she getting help for that?

WALLACE: Dealing you know, some help. I think she's dealing with a little bit of depression, but she seems to be doing better. A little bit of moving around. She's working on this book and this exhibit and the big question is, what will she do next? You know, she sort of wants to go back to Iraq and continuing covering the story, but there's definitely something holding her back.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: A lot of fear, I would imagine too.

WALLACE: Absolutely.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Kelly, beautiful, beautiful pictures. Beautiful work and our thanks.

WALLACE: Oh, thank you. Yes. Pictures are beautiful is right.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: John.

ROBERTS: A very compelling story.

Our top stories ahead.

The Moussaoui sentencing trial resumes this morning.

Prosecutors deliver closing arguments in "The Da Vinci Code" trial.

Riot police are on alert in Paris where there are more youth job protests.

Search crews find more bodies in New Orleans.

And a powerful cyclone slams into Australia.

We'll have the latest on that, as well as some severe weather here in the United States. It's all ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. A pretty terrifying story. A woman who's kidnaped then locked in the trunk of her car.

ROBERTS: And driven around. Yes, she was coming out of a club late one night last week in Houston, this a guy came running at her, said get in the trunk of the car or I'll going to kill you and she happened to have her cell phone in her pocket. And as they were driving around, she got on the phone to 911 and slowly police closed in on her location with a helicopter and, miracle of miracles, she managed to get out of this whole situation alive.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes. Kept a cool head when you consider all that was going on around her and how terrified she must have been.

ROBERTS: Yes, kept her wits about her and that's probably what saved her.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We're going to talk about that story just ahead this morning. Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

ROBERTS: And I'm John Roberts in for the vacationing Miles O'Brien this week.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Nice to have you. Thank you very much.

ROBERTS: Good to be here.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Our top story. After three years of war in Iraq, debate now over whether or not Iraq's in the middle of a civil war. We're live in Baghdad and at the White House with more on that story.

ROBERTS: Trial and errors. Zacarias Moussaoui's prosecutors learn if their case is still any good after a government attorney turns the case upside down.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The most powerful cyclone to hit Australia in three decades. Now thousands of people may have no homes to go back to.

And they can't catch a break in Texas. Torrential rains follow a week of wildfires. We've got that story for you as well.

ROBERTS: And the services are getting as thin as the air up at altitude. A growing list of what you don't get when you fly on this AMERICAN MORNING.

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