Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Lethal Injection Cruel and Unusual?; University of Memphis Athlete Gunned Down
Aired October 01, 2007 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's shocking, brutal, and tragic -- a promising young athlete gunned down outside a college dorm. What it's not, say police in Memphis, is random. Somebody wanted Taylor Bradford dead.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And lethal injections, cruel and unusual? Is crack cocaine that much worse than powder? Law and order tops the docket in a new term of the Supreme Court, but the buzz is all about Clarence Thomas' new memoir. Our Jeffrey Toobin joins us in the CNN NEWSROOM to talk about all of it.
Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN NEWSROOM world headquarters in Atlanta.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
First, let's get straight to the newsroom. T.J. Holmes working the details on a number of developing stories for us today.
What do you have, T.J.?
T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this one here we're working out of Big Bear Lake in California, Kyra.
This one, we understand a number of firefighters have been injured. Broken bones is what we're told, after the vehicle they were in pretty much fell about 150 feet down in the San Bernardino Mountains. It fell down an embankment there in the San Bernardino Mountains near Big Bear Lake. And six or seven, some various reports out there, but we believe six or seven that were aboard this U.S. Forest Service vehicle have been injured.
We understand that one or two also had to be rescued. They were trapped in that vehicle for a while. This is a live picture out of KCAL you're seeing. You can't make it out too well, but that's the vehicle, that white vehicle, in the middle of your screen there that is tucked in between those -- among those trees there.
But we understand no fatalities here to report, but this crew was working the Butler fire, supporting some other firefighters who were there working that fire. Don't know what happened, how they lost control, and why they ended up in the position they were in, which is pretty much 150 feet. A pretty nasty fall for this vehicle, but we understand no fatalities, a lot of broken bones. Some of them having to be taken to the hospital, but Highway 18, which goes into Big Bear Lake, has been closed right now while they continue this rescue effort. We do believe right now that they are all at least out. Everyone who was trapped in that vehicle or involved in this accident have been taken out.
Again, some of the pictures here, earlier pictures, some of the newest video of some of those having to be rescued and taken to a hospital. No fatalities again, a lot of broken bones, one person possibly with a broken pelvis, even, but no fatalities at least to report. But trying to figure out exactly why this happened up there, but it looks like several of these guys, Kyra, apparently pretty lucky to survive this fall anyway with just some broken bones. So don't appear to be too severe of injuries
PHILLIPS: OK. We will keep tracking. Thanks, T.J.
HOLMES: All right.
PHILLIPS: Well, police in Memphis are asking for the public's help on this one. They're looking for whoever shot and killed a University of Memphis football play last night near his dorm.
Twenty-one-year-old Taylor Bradford managed to get in his car and drive a short distance before he crashed into a tree. The university called off classes just to be safe, but authorities think someone was out there to get Bradford officially.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHIRLEY C. RAINES, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS: While we cannot release any information about the suspects at this time, the initial investigation indicates that this was an act directed specifically toward the victim, and it was not a random act of violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, Bradford was from Nashville. He was a defensive lineman on the Memphis football team. Their game with Marshall will go on tomorrow night in Memphis with a moment of silence for Bradford.
LEMON: A 3-year-old girl raped on videotape, it happened four years ago, and she has now been found, but time hasn't made the crime any less horrific. And it's only made police more determined to catch the suspect.
Thirty-seven-year-old Chester Stiles is on the run right now, and CNN is hearing more about him from the woman who dated him for 10 years. Tina Allen says the girl in the tape is the daughter of a family friend and she, Allen, had brought Stiles to the apartment where the girl was living.
Allen talked to CNN's Dan Simon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Is it Chester Stiles on that tape?
TINA ALLEN, FORMER GIRLFRIEND OF CHESTER ARTHUR STILES: It's Chester Stiles on that tape. It is him.
SIMON: How is this weighing on you knowing that you're the one who brought him to this apartment?
ALLEN: I'm disgusted. I'm ashamed. I'm embarrassed. I'm mortified.
I regret every -- every step I ever took. I feel bad for the baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Allen says Stiles could be charming at times and she once thought he would be a good role model for her sons.
They're out there somewhere, and police want your help finding them. Chester Stiles is not the only suspected child predator on the run. Dan William Hiers Jr. is on the U.S. Marshals' 15-most-wanted list. He's also a former school police officer. He's accused of shooting his wife to death. And, just months earlier, an 11-year-old girl accused him of molesting her.
The girl's mother says Hiers seemed like a positive role model. He's 34 and was last seen in Walterboro, South Carolina. He's also been known to frequent strip clubs.
Now, we don't have a lot of information on the next suspected predator, and that makes police even more eager to catch him. He's known only as Internet John Doe number eight. Take a good look at that. You might recognize something.
An Internet tape has turned up apparently showing him molesting a baby. Police don't know where he is, but they say he's 180 to 200 pounds, and has brown hair. He also has a large scar on his right arm. And I'm reading this slowly, because I want that picture to stay up there as long as possible.
If you have any information on these cases, please call "America's Most Wanted." Their number is 1-800-CRIME-TV. That's 1- 800-274-6388. You can also log on to www.amw.com.
PHILLIPS: well, it could be months before final autopsy results are released on Carol Anne Gotbaum. She's the 45-year-old mother of three who died in a bizarre incident at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Police say that Gotbaum lost her cool after she missed a flight. That's when they arrested and handcuffed her.
Sergeant Andy Hill of the Phoenix police describe what happens next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SERGEANT ANDY HILL, PHOENIX POLICE DEPARTMENT: She was placed in a holding room with her handcuffed behind her back, according to policy. And we also, according to policy, checked once every 15 minutes, at least. So, after five to 10 minutes, she actually stopped yelling and screaming. And the officers went to check on her. They found her with the handcuffs up against on her -- by her neck area.
She was unconscious. They tried to revive her. They used the AED, which they have used to save 17 lives at that airport prior to that. And they also tried CPR. The fire department arrived and they could not review her. And tragically she died.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Gotbaum's stepmother-in-law, Betsy Gotbaum, is New York City's longtime public advocate. She says the family is extraordinarily upset.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BETSY GOTBAUM, NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC ADVOCATE: Carol was a wonderful, wonderful person. She was a wonderful mother. She was sweet and kind and loving. At this moment, we are awaiting the results of the investigation. We don't know any more than has been reported in the press.
This is obviously very, very difficult for us. We are dealing with it as best we can. My number one focus is those children and my stepson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office tells CNN a preliminary autopsy report could be released today, but that's tentative.
LEMON: The Blackwater security firm under several microscopes this week. Iraqis claim the company's guards have killed civilians for no reason, a charge the company denies.
Today, a House committee released a report claiming Blackwater has fired more than 120 people in the past three years. A misuse of weapons, violence, drug and alcohol problems all raising questions about the quality of Blackwater's work force. The company's owner is set to appear tomorrow before that committee.
CNN's Suzanne Simons has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE SIMONS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): The owner of Blackwater USA doesn't often find himself in the spotlight. Eric Prince, a former Navy SEAL, will be answering tough questions Tuesday before the House Oversight Committee. Lawmakers are turning their attention to the man at the helm of the company entrusted with more than $1 billion in U.S. government contracts.
The committee, led by Representative Henry Waxman, is expected to ask about a September 16th shooting involving Blackwater contractors who were accompanying State Department personnel in Baghdad. Iraq's interior ministry contends Blackwater guards opened fire indiscriminately in a crowded Baghdad intersection, killing more than 20 civilians. The company has said its men were responding to hostile fire.
In light of the incident, the Iraqi government is calling for an end to contractor immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law.
The U.S. government relies on private contractors to provide security for diplomats moving around in the country.
A joint U. S. -Iraqi commission on the incident is expected to meet for the first time this week in Baghdad. (INAUDIBLE) also expected to be pressed on details about the incident that thrust the dangers facing private contractors into the headlines more than three years ago. An insurgent attack in Fallujah in which four Blackwater contractors were shot, burned, their bodies dragged through the streets. Two of them hanged from a bridge as a group of spectators cheered. The questions now focus on whether Blackwater properly prepared the men for the mission under the terms of their contracts. The men's families are suing Blackwater over the incident.
Suzanne Simons, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: CNN has learned a Blackwater contractor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad wrote the initial report on that shooting last month for the State Department. A government spokesman says the report was just a quick write-up of the event and wasn't meant to be a key document in the investigation.
PHILLIPS: Remote-controlled toys are a new security concern at American airports. Coming up in the NEWSROOM, we're going to tell you why security screeners are taking a closer look.
LEMON: And he's one of the most private, least open, hardest to read justices ever to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, but Clarence Thomas is speaking out now in print and also on the air. Ahead in the NEWSROOM, Thomas' take on some of the trying times in his celebrated and controversial life.
PHILLIPS: And, as we go to break, let's take a look at the Big Board right now, stock market. It looks like the Dow Jones industrials up about 209 points. That's less than an hour to go before the closing bell.
More from NEWSROOM in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Straight to the newsroom. T.J. Holmes, what are you working on for us now?
HOLMES: All right. Same story here.
This is the deal. Eight injuries now, Kyra, in this accident out at Big Bear Lake in California. There is one of the best pictures we have seen of it close up of this vehicle that was carrying eight Forest Service crew members, went down an embankment some 150 feet and ended up right there.
Eight people on board, six injuries, considered minor, two of those considered moderate to major. They have been taken to the hospital to get checked out, but no fatalities in this accident. We do not know what caused this vehicle to go out of the control and to go down this embankment, again, 150 feet to end up right there. This live picture coming to us from KABC out there, one of the best shots we have seen of the actual vehicle there.
But that's what they were traveling in. They were there, these -- the fire crew members were actually supporting the Butler fire that is going on out there in the San Bernardino National Forest, is what happening.
But we just want to wrap up and get you a confirmation of the number of people we now know that were on board, and the extent of those injuries, six considered minor, two of them moderate to major, but still no word of them considered life-threatening, and no one killed in this accident so far.
Highway 18 is the highway you're seeing there and that is now closed. That's surrounds Big Bear Lake, a well-traveled highway there for people getting in and out to visit that area, but that's the word. We do know there were eight on board, no fatalities, but six minor injuries, two moderate to major injuries. Just wanted to wrap you up and give you that update, because we just were able to get that word and confirm that for you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, T.J., thanks.
HOLMES: All right.
LEMON: Something new today on the list of items you might not want to take to the airport. Security screeners across the U.S. are looking twice at remote-controlled toys.
Here to tell us why, CNN Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve. She's in Washington.
What kind of toys are we talking about, Jeanne?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're talking about toys like this one.
You have seen them. If you have a kid, you probably have some on your shelves or in your toy boxes at home. And authorities are worried that they would move from the toy box into the terrorist toolbox.
The Transportation Security Administration is warning passengers that if they have one of these in their carry-on bags, they could be subjected to extra scrutiny. A TSA official says no specific intelligence led to the change, but there is general threat information indicating these remote-controlled toys could be used as detonators.
For instance, you may have heard about the two University of South Florida students arrested in August in South Carolina with low- grade explosives in their car. Well, authorities allege that one of them posted a video on YouTube demonstrating just how to use one of these toys to trigger a bomb.
So, the advice from TSA, pack the toys in your checked baggage. Otherwise, you could have to allot some extra time to go through security, as authorities check to make sure the toys haven't been modified to be something much more dangerous -- Don.
LEMON: OK. So, if you bring your kid to the airport, are they going to like pat your kid down if they see a toy or something?
MESERVE: Well, that's not how the TSA wants to spend its time, but it could happen if there's a toy like this in your kid's backpack or in their carry-on suitcase.
That's one reason why the TSA is publicizing the change, to get people to put the toys in their checked baggage. And they say another reason is they want to let the terrorists know that authorities are aware of this tactic. Hopefully it will have some deterrent effect.
LEMON: All right, Jeanne Meserve, thank you.
MESERVE: You bet.
PHILLIPS: Well, can the United Nations do anything about the crisis in Myanmar?
The secretive leader of Myanmar's military regime is fending off a meeting with U.N. envoy Ibrabim Gambari, but in other meetings, Gambari has been able to relay international outrage over last week's bloody violence against pro-democracy protesters. He's also met with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning democratic activist who has long been under house arrest.
Meanwhile, Myanmar's plight is fueling demonstrations in other nations, including the U.S. You're seeing marchers in Houston, Texas, as well as India and Israel. And they're condemning reports of brutality against students, nuns, and Buddhist monks. Myanmar has expelled international media, and reliable information is hard to come by, but one Norway-based dissident group says that more than 100 protesters have been killed.
LEMON: Death threats, house arrest, personal tragedy all part of Aung San Suu Kyi's life since saying goodbye to her husband and two children in London and taking up the mantle of pro-democracy leader in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON (voice-over): Rebellion is part of Aung San Suu Kyi's heritage. She's the daughter of Aung San, the assassinated independence hero of the country when it was a British colony.
Suu Kyi was two years old when her father was killed in 1947, six months before Burma became independent. While a student at Oxford University, Suu Kyi met her future husband, Michael Aris. Suu Kyi was living a secure life, the wife of a university professor, raising their two sons, when she returned to Burma to care for her dying mother.
It was 1988, and Burma was engulfed in pro-democracy protests.
"As my father's daughter," she said, "I could not remain indifferent to all that was going on." Suu Kyi traveled the country, calling for peaceful reform and free elections. The army responded to the protests with a brutal crackdown, and seized power.
Two years later, the military held elections for a national assembly, which the junta said would write a new constitution. Suu Kyi's party won in a landslide, despite the fact that she was under house arrest. The junta nullified the result. A year later, Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years. Visits with her family have been rare and far between. In 1999, Suu Kyi's husband died in London. The military junta said she could attend his funeral, but she refused, fearing that, if she did go, she would not be allowed to return.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Millions of pounds of hamburger patties under recall today. We're going to tell you which ones and why straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.,
LEMON: And the U.S. Navy's image problem -- 40 years after it was built, Internet imaging shows a disturbing design flaw. What can be done about it -- straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: You may want to check your freezer. A frozen hamburger recall is expanding to nearly 22 million pounds of meat patties. Health investigators are looking into possible E. coli contamination in eight states where more than a dozen people became sick. All the frozen patties were distributed by Topps Meat Company, but sold under several different brand names. All have a sell-by date or best-used- by date of September 25, 2007, to September 25, 2008.
You can find a complete list of the recalled products at CNN.com.
(BUSINESS REPORT) LEMON: The Navy has an image problem on the Internet, and it will take a lot of money to fix it.
CNN's Chris Lawrence takes a look at that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These Navy barracks have been standing in San Diego for 40 years. But aerial videos revealed a startling image, the symbol of Nazi Germany.
MORRIS CASUTO, SAN DIEGO ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: I don't know how anyone could take a look at that shape and say it's only four L- shaped building.
LAWRENCE: Morris Casuto saw a swastika and so did the people who complained to the Anti-Defamation League.
The Navy agreed to camouflage the barracks, saying it, quote, has received approval to spend up to $600,000 for the best cost effective solution to modify the building.
CASUTO: We asked the Navy to try to do it at the least possible cost. In my naivete -- I'm no engineer -- I thought some paint on the sidewalk might break up the shape. The Navy tried that. It didn't work.
LAWRENCE: The head of a California watchdog group says the military shouldn't spend taxpayer money on what it calls a manufacturing issue and asks, If someone saw a random crop formation in that shape, would they demand the former change it?
The thing is you can't see it from the ground. They look like any other military buildings -- brown, blocky, boring.
(on camera): And since there's no commercial landing pattern that flies directly over the base, you're not going to see it from the air either.
(voice-over): The Navy is authorized well over $500,000 to essentially change a Google Earth image that may not be updated for years.
DOUG SUISMAN, ARCHITECT: $600,000 seems like a lot of money just for camouflage.
LAWRENCE: Architect Doug Suisman, says, if the Navy is going to spend that much, he suggests planting a garden to absorb pollution and turning the rooftop into a sustainable energy product.
SUISMAN: It would be unfortunate if that much money was sent for the equivalent of a comb-over.
LAWRENCE: Bottom line, the swastika shape will disappear and the Navy may end up putting a positive spin on a negative symbol.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, San Diego.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Back to the NEWSROOM now, a developing story.
T.J., what do you have for us?
HOLMES: Yes, a strange story, another turn here in -- I guess we have here, Don.
The story of the woman who was detained at the airport in Arizona, Phoenix Airport, there she is, 45-year-old Carol Anne Gotbaum. She was detained after becoming irate and then died while in police holding.
Well, her family says she was actually getting on the plane and heading to Tucson, where she was going to alcohol rehab. This is according to the Associated Press, which is quoting an attorney that has been hired by the family of that woman, Carol Anne Gotbaum.
Now, the story of what happened here is that she was trying to make this plane. She was late. They wouldn't let her on the plane. And then she became irate. Officers had to detain her. She was handcuffed, put into a holding room by herself. And when police came to check on her later, they found her dead.
Don't exactly know what happened to her. Autopsy being conducted now, but an attorney that has been hired by the family now said they're waiting to see what the results of this autopsy are going to be, not sure how they're going to proceed, but in fact says that she was getting on that plane and she was heading to Tucson, where in fact she was going to be going to alcohol rehabilitation. So, kind of a I guess a strange detail coming to us from the Associated Press, which is quoting the attorney from this woman's family. But kind of just a strange twist here, Don, on what is certainly a strange story.
People trying to figure out exactly what happened to her, what could have happened. She was supposedly handcuffed behind her back, and some kind of way, ended up dead in that room in that holding cell, in that holding room by herself by the airport, so kind of a strange twist here, that she was heading to alcohol rehab. Certainly, we will be hearing a lot more about this story in the coming days, I'm sure -- Don.
LEMON: You said it. It's not the last we have heard of that.
HOLMES: Oh, no.
LEMON: OK. Thank you.
HOLMES: All right.
Coming up, Tornado Alley, the scene of this damage. Chad Myers has the info on the twister that caused this mess -- straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Hello, everyone.
I'm Kyra Phillips live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon.
The U.S. Supreme Court opens its new term.
PHILLIPS: And a supremely private justice opens up in a new book.
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
LEMON: Let's get you right to the Severe Weather Center hurricane headquarters.
And Chad Myers working on -- what do you have for us, Chad?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We're getting some new video in, guy. And this out of Jasper County, Iowa, from a storm yesterday. This thing was on the ground on and off for almost 20 miles. This is about 40 -- 35, 40 miles east of the city of Des Moines. And this was right across -- and, actually, we're right across the -- about mile marker 190 of the interstate, I-80.
Now, this is obviously a bit farther south than that of I-80. But look at that damage created by this tornado. The Weather Service out there looking at the damage now. And I know a lot of this damage looks like machine shed -- there you go. A lot of this metal just really gets sent flying like a missile. It's not very heavy. It's big sided, so it's like a piece of plywood getting blown around in the wind. And these buildings were really taken out. I can see F2, maybe three damage with this thing. It's easier to tell with more structural buildings, like houses. But there's a -- actually, there's a house right there, completely missed. But the barn there on the outside of it taken down like nothing.
And we're getting a lot more pictures in from our affiliate there, KCCI, in Iowa.
We're not expecting any severe weather. We'd like to get some rainfall around, Don. But so far, we're not seeing too much out there -- back to you guys.
LEMON: Yes, it's kind of amazing how they just sort of hopscotch around everywhere and some places untouched and others (INAUDIBLE)...
MYERS: That's a pretty long-lived tornado. We'll have to see.
LEMON: Yes.
Chad, thank you.
MYERS: You bet.
PHILLIPS: The first Monday in October, by tradition the start of a new term for the Supreme Court of the United States. And this year it coincides with the release of Justice Clarence Thomas' new memoir, "My Grandfather's Son". The book traces Thomas' life from childhood to his contentious confirmation hearings. Thomas almost never gives interview, but he's speaking out now.
Looking back to his youth, Thomas talks about some of the advice that his grandfather gave him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "60 MINUTES," COURTESY CBS NEWS)
STEVE KROFT, CBS CORRESPONDENT: Did your grandfather ever give you any advice in terms of how to handle yourself with the police or with white people?
JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS, SUPREME COURT: Oh, goodness, that was constant, as we got older particularly, as we entered puberty. It was constant. And I remember the day he said, "Boy, you're up in age now. Don't you ever look a white woman in the eye."
That was the kind of thing you heard.
KROFT: Did he explain why?
THOMAS: Oh, yes, because the point was that you could be accused of -- you could be accused of anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That's good.
OK.
PHILLIPS: CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, has a new book about all nine members of the Supreme Court, including Thomas. I wasn't laughing about Justice Thomas. I was laughing because we were trying to figure out how to get Toobin's mike on.
Are we good?
OK.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: That's good.
PHILLIPS: OK. It's live television...
TOOBIN: You know what?
I'm nervous here in Atlanta.
PHILLIPS: I k. And it's just a little...
LEMON: I know.
TOOBIN: I've never -- it's just so fabulous to be here...
PHILLIPS: To be here. Of course, happy to be here.
TOOBIN: ...with the real Don Lemon and Kyra Phillips. Fantastic.
PHILLIPS: Jeffrey Toobin.
LEMON: Hi.
PHILLIPS: We're actually going to talk about Thomas' new memoir, the very emotional interview, actually -- we were all glued to the tube yesterday. We are talking about the "60 Minutes" interview.
We're going to take, of course, about your new book, as well.
But let's start with Clarence Thomas.
Just tell me if I'm wrong, he seems like he is still very angry.
TOOBIN: Sixteen years later.
PHILLIPS: OK, I'm not crazy?
TOOBIN: It is incredible.
PHILLIPS: OK.
TOOBIN: Sixteen years later. And he is as angry as the day this happened.
PHILLIPS: Why?
TOOBIN: Well, because this is the defining public experience of his -- of his life. It's whatever everybody remembers about him. And, also, I think it's part of his personality. If you look through -- back, you know, he was angry when he was at Holy Cross. He was angry at Yale Law School. And, you know, the targets have varied. But now it's the liberal media, it's Democrats, it's the people who attacked him during the hearings. And he's never let that go.
PHILLIPS: Let's take a listen to another part of that interview, because it addresses that anger.
I want to ask you a question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "60 MINUTES," COURTESY CBS NEWS)
THOMAS: I think I was angry at everybody. I was angry at the church, because the church wasn't aggressively pointing out how immoral racism was. I was upset with my grandfather because he didn't understand what I was going through. I was upset with the country because of the bigotry. And I wanted -- I was upset at the -- probably the submissiveness of blacks in putting up with bigotry. And this was the era when you had the black power movement and that was enticing. It was liberating. And you started to get swept up in that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: OK. This anger goes back a long way. You still sort of feel that now in some respect. Let me play devil's advocate.
Could that be a good thing when making some major decisions that affect the entire nation, from a legal standpoint, in one way or another?
TOOBIN: To be outraged at racism, who could possibly disagree with that?
Who could have walked in his shoes?
The problem now is it's anger at a great number of people, many of whom he has to work with.
And, you know, the question is, does it cloud his judgment about what -- the cases he has to decide?
But to me, the interesting thing about Thomas is not so much the Anita Hill story at this point. But if you look at his record -- which is now a long record on the Supreme Court -- he's not just the most conservative justice on the Supreme Court now, he's the most conservative justice since the 1930s.
This a guy who thinks much of the New Deal is unconstitutional. I mean this a view of the law, it's intellectually coherent. It's certainly a respectable view, but it's very different from even his most conservative colleagues.
PHILLIPS: You mentioned Anita Hill. Of course, a lot of people wanting to know his thoughts about that all these years later.
He talked about it.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "60 MINUTES," COURTESY CBS NEWS)
KROFT: You denied all of the allegations.
THOMAS: Oh, absolutely. From day one. That didn't happen. I mean somebody -- if somebody makes a broad allegation against you, what would you do?
KROFT: Ask them to prove it, I guess.
THOMAS: Yes.
KROFT: Was the Anita Hill that testified on the Hill the Anita Hill you knew at EEOC?
THOMAS: She was not the demure, religious, conservative person that they portrayed. That's not the person I knew.
KROFT: Who is the person you knew?
THOMAS: She could defend herself, let's just put it that way. (END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: What did you make of that?
TOOBIN: Well, I mean, I think that's real unfair to Anita Hill. I mean Anita Hill wasn't just someone making accusations. There were corroborating witnesses. There were facts and allegations that he could have responded to and Steve Kroft could have asked him -- you know, what about the incident here? Did you ever go -- were you -- was she ever in your apartment?
Were you ever -- was she ever alone in your office?
Did you ever see her after hours?
I mean those are the kind of questions "60 Minutes" sometimes asks the people they're interviewing. They didn't -- he didn't ask that time. So all he was allowed to do was simply assert his innocence and, you know, disparage Anita Hill.
PHILLIPS: All right. It's not just "60 Minutes," but our own Jeffrey Toobin that gets the inside scoop.
TOOBIN: That's right.
PHILLIPS: "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court". This is Jeffrey's new book.
You actually had a little Clarence Thomas scoop inside this book.
TOOBIN: Well, I mean it's just, you know, we've talked about Thomas' anger. But there's very much another side to him. He's a beloved figure at the court, very friendly.
Let's talk about gay rights. He is certainly against constitutional protection of gay rights. Yet at one point, he was so friendly with one of Justice Stevens' clerk's, who was a lesbian, this lesbian had a partner was a snow -- a professional snowboarder. He kept a photograph of the snowboarder in his office.
He gets along with everybody. He likes everybody.
So what makes him so paradoxical is that there's anger, but there's also great friendliness.
PHILLIPS: Well, you have all these amazing tidbits in here. Obviously, I just got the book.
TOOBIN: That's right. I know.
PHILLIPS: I wish I could say, Jeffrey, I'm sitting here, I've read your book, I loved it...
TOOBIN: Because I didn't deliver a free copy early enough. But that -- I can correct my error.
PHILLIPS: I'm going to get you to sign it, as well.
TOOBIN: That's right.
PHILLIPS: What's going to draw people in?
How did -- you got amazing access.
How did you...
TOOBIN: Well, think about Sandra Day O'Connor, just for one person...
PHILLIPS: OK. OK.
TOOBIN: Here you have a woman who, when she graduated at the top of her class at Stanford Law School, the best job she was offered was as a legal secretary. That's what life was like in the 1950s for women.
Flash forward -- she becomes a Supreme Court justice, dominates her era, you know, controls the outcome in abortion, civil rights cases, "Bush v. Gore."
But then she gets alienated from President Bush and wants to -- and starts voting against him all the time, from 2000 to 2005. But her husband gets sick. He gets Alzheimer's Disease. So she feels like she has to leave to take care of him. She winds up leaving, but her husband disappears into Alzheimer's Disease. So she loses both her seat on the court and her husband simultaneously. It's a remarkable story. She is a remarkable person.
PHILLIPS: Yes.
Now, you've talked a lot about her in the past.
All right, "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court," Jeffrey Toobin.
Thanks for joining us.
TOOBIN: What a great...
PHILLIPS: It's nice to have you here.
TOOBIN: Well, it is -- to see you in the flesh, it's so exciting.
LEMON: I want to know...
TOOBIN: There's Don Lemon right over there.
LEMON: ...why did we have to find out about your book on "The Colbert Report?"
TOOBIN: Well, I was...
LEMON: Why didn't you come down and say, Don... TOOBIN: I was all over -- I've been on CNN.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: He's been doing the primetime.
TOOBIN: Exactly.
PHILLIPS: Now he's moving in on the afternoon.
TOOBIN: Right.
No, happy to...
PHILLIPS: It's great to see you.
TOOBIN: Great to be here.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Jeffrey.
TOOBIN: Thank you.
LEMON: It's good to see you.
TOOBIN: Thank you.
LEMON: Take it easy.
A farewell tribute to the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. President Bush was on hand as General Peter Pace was honored this morning at Fort Myer, Virginia. Well, Pace has held the chairman's post for two years. He wasn't nominated for a second term.
Also at Fort Myers, a welcome to new Joint Chiefs chairman, Admiral Mike Mullen. Mullen has served as chief of naval operations for the past two years. Before that, he was commander of the U.S. naval forces in Europe.
The 61-year-old native the Los Angeles graduated from the Naval Academy in 1968. He'll be the first admiral to serve as Joint Chiefs chairman since William Crowe, who left the job in 1989.
PHILLIPS: He cheated death after crash landing his plane near an interstate. We're going to hear from the pilot who survived this amazing wreck straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
LEMON: And this man is suspected of an horrific sexual act against a child.
How does a predator get access to our kids or our grandkids?
An experience on child Abuse says it might surprise you how easy it is. That eye-opening conversation straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: 3:45 Eastern.
Three of the stories we're working on for you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
In California, eight fire crew members were hurt today when their vehicle plunged about 150 feet off Highway 15 in Big Bear Lake. The crew was supporting helicopter crews battling a blaze in the San Bernardino National Forest.
Police need the public's help to nab the person who shot and killed a University of Memphis football player near his dorm. The school canceled classes today. The team plays Marshall tomorrow. They plan a moment of silence in honor of 21-year-old Taylor Bradford.
And a metal detector might have saved the day at the U.S. embassy in Vienna. Austrian officials say a Bosnian man carried a backpack filled with grenades, nails and screws to the building and tried to get inside today. But the metal detector went off and he took off. Police arrested him a short time later.
PHILLIPS: A 3-year-old girl raped on videotape -- it happened four years ago and she's now been found safe. But time hasn't made the crime any less horrific and it's only made police more determined to catch the suspect. Thirty-seven-year old Chester Stiles is on the run right now and CNN is hearing more about him from the woman who dated him for 10 years.
Tina Allen says the girl on the tape is the daughter of a family friend. She also says that Chester Stiles fooled her and her family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TINA ALLEN, STILES' FORMER GIRLFRIEND: He can be charming, beguiling, said he had been in the Navy. And, you know, I was looking for a strong guy to represent to my sons what I thought they needed to be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, child sexual predators -- they could be anyone, anywhere. And they might have their sights set on your children.
So what can you do to protect your kids?
Earlier, I had a chance to talk with Dr. David Walker, a forensic psychologist.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
DR. DAVID WALKER, FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST: One of the things is to really know your child and have your child where they are comfortable talking to you, telling you things, if something out of the ordinary or unusual -- the good touch/bad touch, those type of things.
PHILLIPS: What if they're two or three years old, though? WALKER: Well, certainly if a child is being abused -- in this case, physically abused, then you would wonder if you would begin to see changes such as in their personality or other changes you can see when somebody is physically injured.
PHILLIPS: So someone like a Stiles, how does he find the perfect situation for his, you know, disgusting addiction, I guess is the way to put it?
Does he look for single moms who work a lot and he just happens to be there and watches the kids?
What does someone like Stiles look for?
WALKER: You would expect an individual in this kind of situation would look for a vulnerable victim. And so that is a victim where they might be able to be around -- alone with this victim frequently. They can look at victims who psychologically may be at risk. And so a single parent who's not there certainly could be more at risk.
PHILLIPS: I was reading that they go to MySpace, that they go to single dating Web sites and look for moms with kids.
Is that true?
WALKER: Yes. In my experience, what they find is -- what I found is that they will search out vulnerable victims. And the Internet makes that much easier to do, whether it be through chat sites or whether it be through the official networking sites that you mentioned.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
Dr. Walker says finding out about the background of a suspected child predator can be difficult, so it's more important than ever to communicate and supervise your kids.
Now tonight on LARRY KING LIVE, the ex-girlfriend of Chester Stiles speaks out against the allegations, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
LEMON: A woman who spent eight days trapped in a wrecked SUV is starting to improve. Tonya Rider has been upgraded from critical to serious condition and doctors say they think they'll be able to save her leg. Rider was seriously hurt September 20th, when her car ran off the road and into a ravine. Her husband says he had to hound deputies into searching for her. She was found Thursday when searchers tracked the signal from her cell phone.
Bob Robertson thought he was a goner. And after a look at these pictures, it's amazing that he wasn't. Look at that. The plane he was piloting literally disintegrated around him. He had just taken off from Fort Lauderdale Airport when he had engine trouble and was forced to crash land on the side of the interstate. Robertson suffered a fractured ankle, arm, cuts on his head and knee, as well as bruised lungs. But he survived and today he's talking about how he cheated death.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB ROBERTSON, SURVIVED PLANE CRASH: I really had no choice but to make it there. If things had worked out badly, I would have had to take the freeway. And it was jam packed. And there was nowhere else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The experience changed Robertson profoundly. The former agnostic has not only gotten religion, he's also proposed to his girlfriend.
PHILLIPS: A major Mohawk to match a major appetite -- grits and guts, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Grits and guts -- I don't know if that -- is that guts?
PHILLIPS: It's gross. Grits, guts and gross.
LEMON: Grits and gross. Everybody say it all at once -- kiss my grits. No, grits and guts were display at the Louisiana Downs over the weekend. That's major league eater Pat Bertoletti in the Mohawk, a Chicago chef.
He's a chef?
He gulped down 21 pounds of grits in 10 minutes at the world's first grit eating championship. His feat earned him $4,000. No word on whether he ate breakfast today.
PHILLIPS: Chomping their way to a championship in the Lone Star State, contestants at the Texas State Fair had to watch out for the sticks as they downed corn dogs in Dallas yesterday. Texans call them corny dogs. Mike Wilkes and Brent Ricord shared top honors, downing 12 corn dogs each in 10 minutes. And for the record, that adds up to 5,400 calories per man.
LEMON: Congratulations, I guess.
The closing bell and a wrap of all the action on Wall Street straight ahead, minus the corn dogs and the grits.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the American Cancer Society is encouraging all women 40 and over to get mammograms. But many women with family histories are not waiting. They're having preventative mastectomies to head off what they fear would be inevitable. We're going to speak to someone who did just that tomorrow in the NEWSROOM. We're also going to talk with a doctor. So if you have any questions about breast cancer and hereditary, e-mail us at cnnnewsroom@ceml.
We're going to read some of your questions on the air right there with the doctor.
The closing bell about to ring on Wall Street.
LEMON: That means we go to Susan Lisovicz standing by with a final look at the trading day -- hi, Susan.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi.
LEMON: Happy Monday.
LISOVICZ: Happy Monday. Happy October. Happy Q4. And, you know, you were talking about empowering women, Kyra. That's a perfect segue into the "Fortune's 50" -- the list of the most powerful women in the United States.
And it's a testament to how far women have come in the corporate world. You look at the women who head these companies -- consumer products, technology, health care.
A special shout out to Anne Mulcahy of Xerox. You know, when we had the blackout in August of 2003, she walked up all 20 flights of CNN to do "LOU DOBBS," to do an interview with Lou Dobbs that night.
How many CEOs would do that?
LEMON: Jeez.
PHILLIPS: Wow!
LISOVICZ: Yeah. She was a very good sport.
LEMON: And you were number 24. Kyra was number 23 on that list that (INAUDIBLE)...
PHILLIPS: Oh, yes, right.
LISOVICZ: Martha -- hey, Martha wasn't on the list. Kyra and I weren't, either. So it took the sting out of it.
LEMON: And no Oprah?
No one like that?
LISOVICZ: Oprah was in the top ten.
LEMON: Yes.
LISOVICZ: She's been on the list every year that list has come. That one, everything that she touches is gold. And good for Oprah. Oprah, Inc. We like to call her.
LEMON: Yes.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com
