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Oberlin College Cancels Classes After Series Of Hate-Related Events Crop Up; Live Coverage And Analysis of Jodi Arias Trial

Aired March 05, 2013 - 15:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Oberlin, Ohio, is 35 miles from Cleveland, home to this small liberal arts college. It's called Oberlin College.

The school has a progressive reputation, known to be the first U.S. college to admit African-American students, and the first to grant degrees to women.

And this community here in Ohio boasts the legacy of inclusion and respect for diversity.

But that is far from what students here have been feeling in the wake of 15 hate-related events in the past month targeting African- Americans and gays.

They include a sign proclaiming "whites only," a swastika drawn on a building, reports of someone wearing KKK robing.

But the most recent event, that was the last straw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUNCERAY TAVLER, STUDENT WHO REPORTED THE INCIDENT: As I was in the car, I saw someone in what seemed to be KKK paraphernalia walking on a pathway that's like a pathway that leads to south campus.

And just like seeing that and having it sink in, like, this is something that's real that actually happens.

PROFESSOR MEREDITH GADSBY, OBERLIN COLLEGE: Some faculty have had invitations to the "New KKK" delivered to our mailboxes.

CHINWE OKONA, STUDENT: There are definitely moments of fear. I think we all have moments of fear.

And then there's also that kind of belief it won't happen to you, and then you re-evaluate and realize it can happen to anybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Classes were canceled yesterday. Instead, students got together for campus-wide demonstrations of solidarity. I want to bring the president of Oberlin College. He is Marvin Krislov, joins me now from campus. Sir, welcome to you.

Let me just begin with sort of what we have gotten here at CNN, that police there in Oberlin, they have just told us at CNN that they have identified two students involved in some of these incidents.

Can you corroborate that with me?

MARVIN KRISLOV, PRESIDENT, OBERLIN COLLEGE: Good afternoon. It's great to talk to you.

I'm not able to talk about the details of the investigation, but I can tell you that we are taking it very seriously and it continues.

BALDWIN: Can you tell me if these people perhaps involved that you're hearing are students? Can you at least confirm that?

KRISLOV: You know, I'm really not able to talk about the details of the investigation. It's a law enforcement matter, and we're cooperating with various law enforcement agents on this.

BALDWIN: OK.

Mr. Krislov, how in the world, in this last month, these multiple incidents now, over a dozen incidents of hate, how are students, how are faculty reacting on your tight-knit campus in Ohio?

KRISLOV: Well, I think that yesterday was a very important day for us, that it was an educational moment where we took time off from our normal classes to have special classes and special discussions about how we're feeling, but also the role of race and religion and other issues about the way we relate to each other.

And I think that what I'm hearing from students and faculty and staff today is that they feel very inspired. And they feel inspired because this institution has the courage to talk about these issues and to confront concerns and that that is part of our educational mission.

BALDWIN: Why, with all of these incidents happening over the course of a month, why yesterday be the first day that classes are canceled?

KRISLOV: Well, suspending formal classes is very unusual as you can imagine.

BALDWIN: Are those protesters? What is that behind you, sir? Can you just fill me in?

KRISLOV: I gather there are some students yelling behind me.

BALDWIN: Some students yelling behind you? Can you continue on?

We can't -- I can't make out what they're shouting. Would you like to end the interview? KRISLOV: This is very hard to ...

BALDWIN: OK, let's just call it.

KRISLOV: Yeah, I think we're done, thank you.

BALDWIN: OK, let's call it. OK. There we go.

That was the president, Marvin Krislov, from Oberlin College.

Some students, I guess, towards the end there, we could see them yelling behind him, not sure what they were saying.

Nevertheless, local police, Mary Snow covering the story for us, she's a correspondent with us at CNN, getting some corroboration from police that perhaps they're investigating students as part of this investigation.

We'll hear from Mary in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Let's move on. Jodi Arias gets ready to take the stand any moment. The jury will be allowed to ask her questions, the jurors, very soon.

What kind of questions will they ask? Legal experts weighing in, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Well, we may soon have a head of the CIA here, John Brennan. You know there's been some back and forth on his confirmation.

Now, looking at my e-mail, looks like the Senate intelligence committee has now voted 12-to-three to approve him -- to approve John Brennan as chief of the CIA.

And, of course, the next step, full approval by the U.S. Senate for that to move on. Of course, he is the president's pick for that position in the CIA.

The murder trial of Jodi Arias is resuming this hour in Phoenix, Arizona. Arias, once again, answering questions from her attorney, Kirk Nurmi.

No getting around it, a lot of questions about her steamy sex life with Travis Alexander, her ex-boyfriend, the man she admits to killing in self-defense, she says -- 27 stab wounds, slash to the throat, one bullet to the head.

We're going to pick it up live here in just a moment, but first, here is a snippet from just this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRK NURMI, JODI ARIAS' DEFENSE ATTORNEY: When he grabbed your arm and bent you over the desk on June 4th, 2008, and had sex with you, did you view that as a mistake?

JODI ARIAS, DEFENDANT: No.

NURMI: How did you view that?

ARIAS: It was just -- by then we were engaging in all kinds of activities without any boundaries and, so, it was just something he wanted to do and something I was fine with. I guess it was a way for him to release his anger.

NURMI: It was a way for what?

ARIAS: For him to relieve his anger.

NURMI: You were fine with it because it was an alternative to violence?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection, leading.

NURMI: Is that what you're telling us?

ARIAS: (Inaudible).

NURMI: Are you telling us that this was an alternative to anger?

ARIAS: Yes, to it escalating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Sunny Hostin, former federal prosecutor, CNN legal analyst with me there in New York. And in Atlanta, criminal defense attorney Holly Hughes. Ladies, welcome back.

Sunny Hostin, let me just begin with you. And perhaps in that -- part of that back and forth we heard, maybe the point is that they're trying to make that Jodi Arias was willing to have sex with her ex- boyfriend, shortly before she killed him, to mollify, to ease his anger.

They're saying that didn't work, so later, she had to kill him in self-defense because if she didn't, she feared he would kill her.

What would the prosecution say to that?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, I got to tell you, I don't know what the prosecution would say.

I mean, if I were the prosecutor in this case, I would be so frustrated because, at this point, we're talking about this steamy sex life, which, by the way, she has admitted was consensual, rather than talking about the issue at hand, which is whether or not she murdered him or whether or not this was self-defense.

And, so, I've got to tell you, while it's steamy and salacious and we're all talking about it, I don't get this defense. I don't understand how this rehabilitates her, to discuss this sex life that she had, consensual sex life that she had, with Travis Alexander.

Maybe Holly Hughes as a defense attorney can explain it to me because I don't get it.

BALDWIN: Criminal defense attorney in the studio right now. She can't make sense of it.

HOLLY HUGHES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Oh, yeah.

BALDWIN: Can you?

HUGHES: Thanks, Sunny, for putting me on the spot like that. Appreciate that.

But what he's going for here is, again -- and it's unusual, Brooke, because this is not the typical battered woman defense we see raised.

When we think of a battered woman, we think someone who's been physically, repeatedly assaulted.

Now, admittedly, they're throwing in on or two accusations of domestic violence. Oh, he hurt her finger. He shoved her to the ground.

What they are really trying to focus on is an emotional abuse and hope that rolled up with those two accusations or three accusations that he was physically violent with her, that will amount to her having a reasonable fear, because that's what the jury's going to have to do.

They're going to have to interpret what was in the mind of Jodi Arias at the time that she killed him and was it reasonable to think that this man was going to kill her if she didn't get to him first?

BALDWIN: Talking about the jury's interpretation, and, again, we're waiting and we're watching for them to be back up in the Jodi Arias trial, I want to talk about the jury and the fact that they here in this case, in Arizona, can ask questions of her themselves.

Is this a Maricopa County thing? Is this an Arizona thing?

HUGHES: This is an Arizona thing, and there's only five states in the entire nation that allow the jury to do this.

And it's fascinating because, you know, the folks on the -- they're just regular folks. They just want to know the truth. That's why they're sitting there, serving for nine weeks, 10 weeks, giving up all this time of their life, their job, their family time.

And, so, when they get to ask questions, they're not necessarily going to word them in a legally admissible way, but the attorneys will get together with the judge, they'll decide what's permissible to ask, and the jury is really -- they're going to surprise us.

They're going to come up with some fantastic questions which we lawyers are thinking, wow, we should have probably asked that, one of us should have posed that question because they're just going to be common sense, Brooke.

They're going to want to know why would you go back to this man? You're claiming he's a pedophile. You're claiming he beat you. Why in the world would you go -- just flat-out answer the question.

BALDWIN: Is it also, Sunny Hostin -- isn't it also known, not only how she -- it's the answer she provides to these jurors, but it's how she provides the answers because we saw her in that back and forth on cross with the prosecutor, Juan Martinez, right?

That was -- some people say he was quite bully-ish, pit bull, but in the way she reacted, but she can't react that way when asked questions from the jurors, can she?

HOSTIN: I think that's right. I mean, she can't be evasive. She can't be aggressive with them.

But I've got to tell you what's so fantastic about Arizona allowing these jurors questions is that you get to sort of peek into the minds of the jurors and figure out how they're processing it.

And, as an attorney, I actually think it's a gift when you have a jury that can ask questions.

Where I practiced, they didn't ask questions, and so you sort of spent a lot of your time trying to guess as to what the questions in their minds were because the worst thing that you have, the worst situation as an attorney, is that those jurors go back into that jury room, Brooke, and they have questions that you failed to answer.

And, so, now, we know what the questions are. So, I actually think more states should allow jurors to ask questions.

BALDWIN: Yeah, this defense team has to probably think of every single possible question that she could be asked and be prepped for it.

Ladies, stand by, and to all of you, stand by. Again, we're awaiting the return from recess of the Jodi Arias trial unfolding.

Again, she is accused of first-degree murder. If convicted, she faces the death penalty.

Back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Want to take you back in and, just because we can, eavesdrop on what's happening here.

This is day 15 and Jodi Arias taking the stand. She is being questioned. This is part of the redirect process, so this is her defense attorney, a much more sympathetic questioner here in the courtroom, asking her questions.

Let's see where they are right now.

NURMI: The cans, you didn't fill 15 gallons worth here, right?

ARIAS: No, I didn't.

NURMI: OK.

Now, and just for the record, the comparison related to exhibit 237013, comparing this now to 237012, and looking at the times, you had 20-military-time, being 20:53-and-24 seconds as to the receipt that's on your left, correct?

ARIAS: Correct.

NURMI: And about a minute and a half later or so, you had put more gas or you had purchased more gas, correct? That's the one receipt on the right, looking at 20:54:52?

ARIAS: I can't quite see the time on the right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection. Lack of foundation. You can ask -- there's two times listed on each of the receipts. And it hasn't been established as to which one is the one she used to put in the gas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: State your next question.

NURMI: Miss Arias, let me -- maybe I'll do it this way so you can see it a little better so there's no confusion.

ARIAS: I apologize. I can actually see it. I was just confusing my left and right and I couldn't see the left and thought that was the right, so I can see it.

NURMI: OK, we see this receipt, 20:54:52, right?

ARIAS: Yes.

NURMI: OK.

Now, these receipts, these two here, the receipts that are of similar nature -- now I'm going to have to zoom back out -- these two receipts that are of a similar nature, this is also after -- after over 10 gallons of gas, right?

ARIAS: Yes. In total, yes.

NURMI: Yeah. So, we have 2.7 gallons and we have 9.6 gallons, roughly, so, again, we would have this situation where, if this would have gone into a gas can, the third gas can, you just for whatever reason would have put very little in it, right?

ARIAS: The two gallons, yeah. It's nonsensical.

NURMI: OK.

When you had filled -- you mentioned a couple different occasions when you filled your car with gas and you mentioned -- I want to make sure I've got -- Desert Sky?

ARIAS: Desert Center.

NURMI: Desert Center. And also you've mentioned filling up with gas in Buckeye (ph), right?

ARIAS: Yes, at the Shell.

NURMI: OK.

Now, if you remember -- do you remember the quantity of that gas, the -- closer to the equivalence of this 13 gallons we see here?

ARIAS: It was around that, yes, each time.

NURMI: So it might be a safer bet that this gas went into the car? These receipts? Is that correct?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection. Leading, speculation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She can tell us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sustained.

NURMI: Do you believe then, looking at this receipt from 20:53.24 and 20:54.52 from the register that those are more likely to have gone in your Ford Focus rental car?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection. Speculation. She doesn't know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sustained.

NURMI: Do you see it likely, to your recollection, that you would have filled up one source of gas at 8:42 p.m., put more gas in at 20:53 and, bearing in mind now, Miss Arias, even if you had that third gas can, that would be a good 16 gallons worth, right?

ARIAS: Yes.

NURMI: Over 16 gallons. So, that couldn't have gone into any gas cans even if you had this third gas can, correct?

ARIAS: That's correct.

NURMI: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection. Speculation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Overruled.

NURMI: OK. So, going back to my question, then, do you believe that you would have filled one source, came back and 10 minutes later thought that you could have put $40 into the gas cans after putting 8.3 gallons into them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection. Speculation. She can tell us what she did. He's asking her to speculate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sustained. Restate your question.

NURMI: Having filled two -- if the first one, the first receipt were to be the gas cans and you put in $34 to fill both gas cans, would it make sense to you that you would put $40 worth of gas, tried to put that into the remaining gas can?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection. Speculation. (Inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Overruled. You may answer.

ARIAS: No, that makes no sense.

NURMI: Bringing back -- removing exhibit 237001 and now including 2370013, does it make more sense ...

BALDWIN: OK, so, we've been watching the last couple of minutes as they after recess. Jodi Arias, again, day 15, taking the stand, accused of first-degree murder of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander.

So, we will continue watching that, of course. And interesting here in Arizona that, again, members of the jury can ask questions all along the way, very rare in the state, they can do that.

Coming up, Wolf Blitzer on the other side of the break as we have been watching and it's looking good, today could be the day that we close finally above our last high, five years ago in October of '07, above the last high.

Big day for the 401(k)s folks.

Wolf's up next. Thanks for being with me.

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WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Brooke, thanks very much.