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Suspected Prison Chief Killer Dead; Mayors Begin Gun Ban Ads this Week; Clashes at Anti-Gay Marriage Protest; Murder in Mississippi; Snowstorms in Ohio; FBI Searches for Missing Brown Student; Russian Businessman Found Dead; Pink Floyd at 40
Aired March 24, 2013 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: No fun at Disney World today. It's been one miserable day all over in Central Florida. Take a look at this few hours of severe weather that sat on top of Orlando. The rain, the wind and tornado warnings shut down the PGA match that was underway. Tiger Woods was leading the tournament when the downpour started.
A week out from Easter and tens of thousands gathered to hear the new pope lead Palm Sunday prayers. The Pope broke with tradition at the start of the ceremony, greeting the crowd in an open jeep instead of a bullet proof Pope Mobile. During his message Pope Francis urged his followers to shun corruption and greed.
Secretary of State John Kerry had some strong words for Iraq's Prime Minister -- do something to stop the flight of Iranian weapons to Syria. Kerry's visit to Baghdad comes amid growing concern over Iraq's role in the Syrian conflict. Iraqi officials deny allowing the transfer of weapons through Iraqi airspace to President Bashar al- Assad's regime.
If you haven't heard the news yet, the winning Powerball ticket for $338 million was sold in New Jersey. The winning numbers are 17, 29, 31, 52 and 53. The Powerball number is 31. The largest Powerball jackpot in history was back in November. It was worth close to $558 million -- $588 million.
Do not adjust your calendar. Winter is over, but good luck trying to tell people that in the Great Plains today. Some parts of Kansas City, Missouri got nine inches of snow today. The city is in full blown snow emergency mode sending out plows and working to get the power back on in thousands of homes. Single-digit temperatures and heavy snow shut down both main interstates in Colorado today. More than 100 flights were grounded in Denver.
And no snow in Atlanta to report thank goodness but a line of severe thunderstorms overnight knocked down trees all over the city, it made officials worried enough to issue flood warnings until late tomorrow.
Let's talk to a couple of our affiliate reporters who got bad weather duty today. Kelli Cook is down in the soaking wet central Florida today and Chance Walser is in Indianapolis.
Kelli, to you first, you really got beat up today. Did anything come out of those tornado warnings?
KELLI COOK, CENTRAL FLORIDA NEWS 13 REPORTER: Yes, we're talking about winds at about 2:30 this afternoon; gusts of winds up to 86 miles per hour Don. Those are hurricane force winds. In Titusville alone our space coast they have reports of a plane that actually flipped over.
There's another example right here up in Orlando of these strong winds we saw here. We saw this tree topple over. Inside a woman said she was huddled in a bathroom with her mother. She came outside and she found this, Don, a tree that fell on top of her car. They said she's only had this car for about a year now. It is a total loss.
And we have got examples like this all across central Florida. Localized flooding, power outages, heavy rain and they are looking into it. They do believe it was possibly a tornado that touched down here in Southern Orange County and Southern Lake County all the way up Rovart (ph) County. And what's worse Don, we are expecting a little bit more of this rainy and high wind to continue on into the evening.
LEMON: All right, Kelli. And we'll go to Chance now. Chance, how much snow are you snowing there in Indianapolis today and -- and are people taking it in stride?
CHANCE WALSER, REPORTER WRTV: Yes, not too much actually. Less than half -- half an inch just giving you an idea this parking lot that I'm in was black top about a half hour ago. The snow started to fall pretty rapidly though, and we have just enough to give it a nice white glazing over. Most of the bulk of our snow is expected to come in the overnight hours. So we are at the local division of Homeland Security. They're preparing to meet with local agencies keeping a close eye on this thing and to pulling resources wherever necessary.
So the intensity of this storm has been on again, off again, on again, and we're kind of in the middle of an intense part of this thing right now.
LEMON: Chance Walser in Indianapolis. Thank you very much. We appreciate you. We also I appreciate Kelli Cook as well.
Now to the brutal killing of Colorado's former prison chief Tom Clements who was shot dead in the doorway of his home, his own home. And police say this man Evan Spencer Ebel is a suspect in the shooting. Ebel is linked to a white supremacist group. He's also dead. Authorities believe Ebel drove to Texas where he was killed in a shootout with sheriff's deputies and here is where the case gets even more bizarre.
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper who broke down about losing his friend Tom Clements this week is also friends with the suspect's father.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D), COLORADO: It sort of felt like I was in -- I was caught in a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from right -- that all of these things kept happening. That it were people that I -- that I loved and -- and they didn't seem to be connected in any way. To me the emotional toll has been much deeper than worrying about security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: A memorial is set for Tom Clements tomorrow morning.
Three Marines who died in a shootout at the base in Quantico, Virginia have been named. Military officials say Eusebio Lopez, a decorated machine gunner who served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan was the man who gunned down two of his colleagues, 19-year-old Corporal Sara Castromata and 23-year-old Corporal Jacob Wooley were both killed by the tactics instructor. A relationship dispute is believed to have been behind the shooting. Lopez shot himself after killing his victims.
To ban or not to ban has been the question on Capitol Hill and in communities across the countries. While a national assault weapons ban may have been all but killed in the Senate last week, the fight isn't over. A group of mayors led by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is starting a nationwide ad campaign this week hoping to force Congress to act. But gun supporters are firing back.
CNN's Athena Jones has more now from Washington -- Athena.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Don. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's anti-gun violence group is stepping up its campaign to try to win support for new gun measures.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe in the Second Amendment and I'll fight to protect it. But with rights come responsibility.
JONES (voice over): Mayors against Illegal Guns, led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is pouring $12 million into ads like these to push Congress to act on guns.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Closing loopholes will stop criminals and the dangerously mentally ill from buying guns.
JONES: Here is the Mayor on NBC's "Meet the Press".
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), MAYOR, NEW YORK CITY: There are an awful lot of people that think that this is one of the great issues of our times. We have to stop the carnage --
JONES: The ads will air in 13 states starting this week to pressure Democratic and Republican senators home for spring recess to support comprehensive background checks. The Senate will debate a bill that includes those background checks next month.
BLOOMBERG: We're trying to do everything we can to impress upon the senators that this is what the survivors want, this is what public wants. JONES: The National Rifle Association is running its own ad campaign against expanded background checks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So when gun owners hear universal background checks, we know it means --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Universal registration --
JONES: And NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre also on NBC promised to continue the battle against regulations he said won't work.
LAPIERRE: The whole thing, universal checks, is a dishonest premise. There's not a bill on the Hill that provides a universal check. Criminals aren't going to be checked. They're not going to do this. The shooters in Tucson, in Aurora, in Newtown, they are not going to be checked.
JONES: The Obama administration supports universal background checks. Appearing with Bloomberg last week Vice President Biden urged Congress to show courage and confront the gun rights lobby.
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look folks we have a responsibility to act, the loudest voices have to be for those silenced voices, close to 3,000 since Newtown gunned down on American streets, homes and neighbors.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Vice President Biden talked about gun control again last night at a speech to a Democratic congressional committee issues conference. He said getting these gun control measures through Congress is going to be quote, "One hell of a fight" and it's going to require the support of members of Congress from districts with heavy gun ownership -- Don.
LEMON: All right Athena thank you very much for that.
And as the Supreme Court prepares to weigh in on same-sex marriage on the debate this is what's going on in France.
A rally against gay marriage gets violent.
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LEMON: An anti-gay marriage protest in Paris led to a showdown between police and protesters.
Police fought the huge crowds with tear gas and riot gear. Protesters are against the proposed law allowing same-sex couples to marry. French lawmakers approved the "marriage for everyone" bill last month. It's up for a vote in the Senate in April.
Right now people are lining up outside the Supreme Court trying to get front row seats to history. The court tackles same-sex marriage in less than two days. Justices will hear arguments for the first case on Tuesday involving California's Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage. The second case centers on the Defense of Marriage Act DOMA, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
CNN.com the number one news Web site on the planet has been covering this issue very closely and extensively.
John Sutter is an opinion writer, one of the voices featured on the site. And John, you recently followed some gay couples. I looked at the video you had this morning, I didn't read the entire thing, trying to get married in Mississippi, a state that bans same-sex marriage. Here's a quick clip of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Rockwood is going to start on the x's, Miss Welch on the o's.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know this application is a record, and it is a permanent record. But we're showing it's denied.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't imagine what it might be like to be in your position, to have to tell people who clearly have a home together, share things and love each other --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, and I appreciate you all --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That's part of the story on CNN.com by John Sutter.
Also with us is Ryan Anderson of The Heritage Foundation. He's also written on this issue for CNN.com. Ryan's most recent column argues that the court should not rewrite marriage laws.
So first to John -- what compelled you to get so invested and put together these pieces about same-sex marriage for CNN.com?
JOHN SUTTER, CNN OPINION COLUMNIST: Well I think there's an incredible amount of bravery that those women you saw in that clip showed by being part of that protest. Mississippi is one of 29 states where gay people can be fired simply because of their sexual orientation. It's one of 29 states where you can be evicted simply for being gay.
I think it's important to try to broaden this conversation about LGTB rights in our country. It's not just about marriage. That's what's before the court this week, but there are a host of ways that our laws discriminate against LGTB people and make them, give them basically second-class citizen status.
LEMON: Ryan you said you don't believe gay marriage should be legal and especially you took issue with what's happening at the Supreme Court. Why did you take issue with that, and you took issue with a Pediatric study that was -- that came out this week saying that gay parents -- that parents with children were well off even with gay parents and it made them to be better kids even if they had been with single heterosexual parents. RYAN T. ANDERSON, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Sure. Just to clarify, the issue here is not legality. So in all 50 states, there's nothing illegal about same-sex marriage. Two people of the same-sex can live together and love each other. They can go to their church and their church can perform a same-sex wedding ceremony. They can work at a place of employment that will give them same-sex benefits.
The issue right now is whether or not the Supreme Court will redefine marriage for everyone. Now whether or not the Supreme will then --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Wait, wait, wait -- hang on. You said same-sex marriage is not illegal?
ANDERSON: It's not illegal. There're no laws against it. When something's illegal, it's criminal to engage in that activity.
LEMON: That's just not true. That's not true. I know it's a matter of semantics that you're saying but that's just not true. It is illegal. They can't be married. Gays --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Hang on, let me finish. Gay people don't have the same benefits --
ANDERSON: Well, you interrupted me, just to be clear.
Well, I'm the anchor of this show, so I can interrupt as much as I want. So let me interrupt and then I'll let you talk. It is a matter of semantics what you're saying because it is illegal. Gay people don't have the same rights --
ANDERSON: No, no, it's not illegal. When something is illegal, you can go to jail for doing it.
LEMON: Did you hear what I said. I said let me finish, Ryan. Let me finish and I will let you talk. Ok.
It's a matter of semantics what you're saying, because it is illegal. They don't have the same rights. People don't have the same rights. You can't see in many places people in the hospital, people who are sick. You don't have the same rights under tax laws. You don't have the same benefits. It's not legal to marry -- to be a married person in many states. Now go ahead.
ANDERSON: All right. So again, I disagree with you, because when something is illegal, you can go to jail for doing it. It's illegal to kill, it's illegal to rape, it's illegal to steal. Being in a same-sex relationship is not illegal. So I think it's not a matter of semantics. You're just using the wrong terminology.
LEMON: No. You're using the wrong terminology. You're saying being in a same-sex relationship is not illegal. No it's not. But being married in certain states is illegal. ANDERSON: No. Again, you can't go to jail for committing a same-sex marriage. The question is what is next.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Go ahead, Ryan. Finish your sentence as absurd as it is. Go ahead.
ANDERSON: I don't really think it's absurd. I think you're being a little rude. I think a lot of Americans --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I don't appreciate you coming on --
ANDERSON: They want laws to reflect that. And it's not a matter of legality. It's a matter of what is marriage.
LEMON: If it wasn't legal, it would not be going to court to be legalized.
ANDERSON: Again, I think you're using the wrong terms. The question right now is redefinition. It's not going to legalize something. It's going to redefine --
LEMON: It's not going to the Supreme Court to be redefined. It's going to the Supreme Court so that it can be legal across the country. It's not going to be redefined. That's not why it's going to the Supreme Court.
ANDERSON: It is. Right now the definition of marriage for the federal government and for 41 states is the union of a man and a woman, a husband and a wife --
LEMON: That is the legal --
ANDERSON: -- a mother and a father.
LEMON: -- definition of marriage.
ANDERSON: Right now marriage is defined in 41 states and by the federal government as a union of a man and a woman, a husband and wife. And the case before the Supreme Court is asking the court to strike down those laws and redefine that, and then use the coercive power of the government to force everyone to accept a new definition of marriage.
LEMON: Ok. If each of you had 30 seconds before the Supreme Court to make your case right now, let's hear it. Ryan, what would your best argument be?
ANDERSON: The reason that the government's in the marriage business is not because of my romantic life or because of the desires of adults. The government's in the marriage business because men and women produce children. Children need mothers and fathers, and marriage is the institution that unites a man and woman as husband and wife, to then be mother and father to the children that they produce.
Mothers and fathers are different in this state. Children do best when raised by their married mother and father. And that's why government's in the marriage business. All Americans are free to live and to love as they choose. But no one has the right to redefine marriage for everyone.
LEMON: Ryan, there is so much wrong in what you said, that children do best when they're with their married parents because --
ANDERSON: You really don't believe that children need a mom and dad?
LEMON: No. Because not all married parents are good parents. Not all married parents are good parents. That's the reason there are divorces. That's the reason why some children are taken from homes of heterosexual parents. Not all heterosexual parents are good parents. Not all children --
ANDERSON: No one said that everyone --
LEMON: But that's what your argument is saying. Go ahead, John.
ANDERSON: I said that children do best with their married mother and father.
LEMON: That is not true. That is not true.
ANDERSON: It is.
LEMON: No it's not.
ANDERSON: All the social science evidence -- all the social science evidence --
LEMON: You're assuming that heterosexual marriages in a Utopian society are perfect. It is not.
ANDERSON: I never said it was --
LEMON: It's not perfect and --
(CROSSTALK)
ANDERSON: I never said we're living in Utopia.
LEMON: That is what your argument is saying.
ANDERSON: I'm looking at the evidence. Evidence shows that children do best.
LEMON: Ryan hang on. John -- it's time for John's 30 seconds. Go ahead.
JOHN SUTTER, CNN OPINION COLUMNIST: I think it's not fundamentally about this point-counterpoint and what social science says or doesn't say. I think it's about like listening to people across America and speaking with people who are in same-sex relationships or who do identify as LGBT.
If you listen to them with an honest and empathetic ear, you can understand where they're coming from that, you know, state borders matters incredibly to them in a way that they don't to anyone else in this nation. And that, you know, we basically have two legal systems set up, one for, you know, gay and lesbian people and one for the rest of the country.
And so I think it's more about just sort of taking like an honest and open approach to listening to these people and hearing what they have to say and where they're coming from.
And that's what I try to do with my, you know, reporting that was reflected in that video earlier.
LEMON: It's also important to come on to tell the truth and not spread rumors and infactual information when you come on to talk about --
ANDERSON: What did I say that was factually incorrect?
LEMON: Because you're saying -- forget it. What you're saying is that it's not illegal, and it is illegal. That's the whole reason it's going to the Supreme Court to challenge its legality.
(CROSSTALK)
ANDERSON: Show me in criminal law code where marriage is illegal. You're just wrong on this one, I'm sorry.
LEMON: Well, ok, thank you. We'll have to agree to disagree. Thank you both for joining us.
ANDERSON: Thanks for having me.
SUTTER: Thanks.
LEMON: Straight ahead, two hit-and-run cases, both victims African- American, the same Mississippi County. One of the cases was closed until CNN started asking some questions.
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LEMON: There's been a huge development on a story we brought you last week, the troubling story of the hit-and-run death of a black man in Mississippi nearly four years ago that was all but ignored by local law enforcement until CNN reported on it.
41-year-old's Garrick Burdette's body was found on the side of a rural road in Panola County, Mississippi in 2009 -- the obvious victim of a person hit and killed by a vehicle. Yet as our investigation revealed, for the last three and a half years, the local sheriff's department has done virtually nothing to solve the case.
Garrick's mother, Ruby Burdette Ellis (ph) has held out hope local police were conducting an investigation, but the police had not once even come to her house or talked to her about her son's death.
That is now all changed. And it changed it appears, because CNN got involved. Recently our Drew Griffin and producer Scott Bronstein began knocking on doors and asking questions. What they discovered is that three and a half years ago the local authorities seemed to have let what could be a murder case, grow cold.
Now we are learning that the case may have been solvable back then, and the details are coming from the police themselves who are not reaching out to the local newspaper. That story -- that news story that ran in the newspaper this week about the unsolved hit-and-run killing of Ruby's son three and a half years ago makes it pretty plain.
It turns out there was evidence at the scene. There were clues to follow. There was even a potential witness. Sheriff's investigator Bryan Arnold confirms to "The Panolian" newspaper a cold case investigation has been opened on the hit-and-run death and the investigators revealing never released details about the night Gary Burdette was killed.
Police have told the newspaper that a deputy driving on the scene saw another car on the road and that he thought police did not believe the car was involved in the accident. According to the stories, the investigator thinks that whoever was in that car might have seen something, yet there's no indication anyone ever looked for that car or the potential witness who was driving it.
There's more. There was also physical evidence at the scene from the car that killed Burdette. According to the deputy, quote, "There was radiator fluid all over the road", meaning a broken car, yet no indication that deputies checked any local garages at the time to see if a car had come in for repairs brought possibly by a driver claiming to have hit a deer.
Mrs. Burdette says when a investigator finally came to her house, well he apologized and told her the department will now do everything it can to help determine how her son was killed. The paper reports that a reward is being offered for anyone who can provide information in the case. We'll continue to follow.
The weather is severe in many parts of the country today -- ridiculous storms here, a blizzard there. We're live from snowy Dayton, Ohio in a minute.
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LEMON: No golf for you. This is the PGA's course in Orlando, Florida where Tiger Woods was leading before Mother Nature put a Smackdown on it. A driving downpour and tornado warnings sent all golfers running for cover. Now more play today. They'll finish the tournament tomorrow.
Those of you watching this evening in Missouri, Indiana and Ohio -- hang in there, spring is coming just not this weekend though. Some flurries blew through the Dayton area earlier today; snow and sleet and high winds gave a very wintery look so late in the year. Look at that.
Our Susan Candiotti is in Dayton right now. Susan, looks clear now but you've got more snow headed your way.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we got snow period heading this way. That's for sure, Don. Looking at it now, it's been overcast all day, occasional flurries. Now we're starting to get a bit of rain, but the temperatures have remained just above freezing, so that's why we haven't seen any kind of accumulation just yet.
The forecasters are calling for five to eight inches of snow, but mainly they say that's going to happen after midnight tonight. That's why the roads look clear now. That is going to change. In fact, they are talking about a really rough commute in the morning, possibly treacherous conditions between the freezing rain and the snow that is expected after midnight tonight. So difficult times ahead, but earlier this day we were talking to the people here in the Dayton area, some of them attending some of the March madness games here at the University of Dayton, and they didn't seem too concerned about the pending storm.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (on camera): They are talking about a ton of snow arriving tonight. What do you think about that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) Awesome, baby. I love it. It's a wonderful time of year.
CANDIOTTI: It doesn't matter about the snow?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
CANDIOTTI: What about you? Look, a lot of snow, might happen overnight. School tomorrow? What do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: T-R-O-A.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: Of course, sadly to say, Don, the worst is yet to come. However, these are hearty people here. It's yet another storm. Are they sick of the winter weather? You bet they are. Back to you.
LEMON: No doubt there. Thank you, Susan.
The FBI joining the search for a missing Brown University student. He didn't have his wallet or his cell phone when and he disappeared. We're going to talk to his sister. Coming up, next.
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LEMON: It's been more than three weeks since a schoolteacher went missing in New Orleans, and there's still no sign of Terry Lynn Monet. On the second of March, Terry Lynn walked out of a bar and vanished. Police now want to speak to a jogger who was seen on surveillance video running in the area at the time of her disappearance. Searchers have already scoured local canals and bayous with sonar but there's no still no sign of the missing 26-year-old.
And the FBI has joined the search for a missing Brown University student, Sunil Tripathi. He was last seen on March 16th in the campus area. He was on approved leave from his studies at Brown University. He did not have his cell phone nor wallet with him when he was last seen by his roommate. His sister now joins us. Sangeeta Tripathi joins us now from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Thank you so much for joining us. How are you and your family holding up?
SANGEETA TRIPATHI, SISTER OF MISSING BROWN UNIVERSITY STUDENT: Thank you. It's a hard time. Every minute is like a year, but we're continuing to try to focus on any facts that we can to help find our - my brother, Suni, (INAUDIBLE) member.
LEMON: We appreciate that you're so brave to come on. Your brother is a philosophy major and a talented saxophonist. Did your brother say or do anything unusual in the days leading up to his disappearance?
TRIPATHI: We've been scouring every phone conversation with family members and friends in the few days prior to his disappearance, and even up until midnight the day before, he had wonderful, normal conversations with everyone who loved him. So we're really confused and shell-shocked and really working with law enforcement and everyone to try to understand what happened and where Suni is.
LEMON: So you said he had wonderful and loving conversations with everyone, but was he going through anything at the time?
TRIPATHI: Suni was having a tough time. He took leave from school to really try to focus to getting his life back together. He was volunteering at a chess club and at the local library and spending (INAUDIBLE) classmates and friends. So he was going through a tough times but in the days prior to day of this event, nothing further out of the ordinary.
LEMON: OK.
TRIPATHI: Sunil, we would be in touch with him every day, multiple times a day. So this is a very shocking and scary moment for us.
LEMON: Was he dealing with depression? Was he depressed?
TRIPATHI: He was - he was struggling, and but you know, he had a lot of people who loved him and he loved a lot of people. And as you can see from a lot of the photos on Facebook and other things, he had a very vibrant life at school and the university.
LEMON: OK, Sangeeta, I understand. You don't want to reveal too much about your brother, so let's move on. What do you think happened to him?
TRIPATHI: We really don't know. We send - a lot of his family and friends are pursuing every option, we're canvassing every option and every nook and cranny of Brown University and the larger Providence community, extended into other cities, Boston, New York, Philadelphia. And we're just hoping he's safe somewhere, but we really don't know.
LEMON: Have you heard anything from police, or investigators, people who are looking for him, friends, family, neighbors, anyone?
TRIPATHI: Yes. No one has heard from him. All of his credit cards and bank account statements, there's been no activity since Saturday mid-day a week ago when he was last seen. But the word is out. There are over 150,000 who are joined into the public Facebook feed and who have been canvassing and volunteering in Providence and in the larger north east community and we're all just keeping our eyes and ears and hearts out there for him.
LEMON: All right. Listen, we hope Sunil is found very soon or he comes -
TRIPATHI: Thank you.
LEMON: And that you guys find out exactly where he is. Sangeeta, thank you and best of luck to you and your family. We're thinking about you in our thoughts and prayers. OK.
TRIPATHI: Thank you, Don. Thanks.
LEMON: Coming up on CNN, after fleeing Russia, because of a dispute with the country's president, a business tycoon is found dead and the case has the police mystified.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A key defense witness in the Jody Arias trial could face more jury questions tomorrow. Dr. Richard Samuels is back on the stand. The prosecutor will continue to cross examine him. Samuels says Jodi Arias suffers from PTSD and that's why she can't remember certain events about killing her boyfriend. The next witness for the defense is expected to be a domestic violence expert.
Amanda Knox will find out tomorrow if she'll face a retrial in connection with the death of her British roommate. An Italian court will rule on Monday. Knox and her ex-boyfriend were cleared of murder charges by an Italian appeals court in 2011. She was set free after spending four years in prison. Knox now lives in Seattle and is working on her memoir. She was reportedly paid $4 million to write a book about her experience.
Overseas now, a mysterious death of a man with close ties to the Russian government and to billion-dollar businesses. Boris Berezovsky lived in London because he was a loud critic of Russia's leadership. Now he's been found dead. There's been on official cause announced yet but people are already speculating that it might not be from natural causes.
CNN's Phil Black has some background from Moscow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): People who knew about Berezovsky in the 1990s describe him as frantically energetic, driven and ambitious, not your average mathematician. He became one of the country's hated oligarchs. That small number of ruthless businessmen who quickly built enormous personal wealth, snapping up state resources cheaply as Russia chaotically embraced capitalism. He also charmed, pasted and lobbied his way into the Kremlin.
Becoming an influential political player. And as President Boris Yeltsin's health declined, Berezovsky was said to have played a role in helping to install Vladimir Putin as his successor. This is Berezovsky speaking to CNN in January 2000, just days after Putin took over.
BORIS BEREZOVSKY: I think that Putin will continue the way which President Yeltsin established in Russia.
BLACK: He was wrong. Putin quickly pushed all the pushy oligarchs out of Russian politics.
Six months later, Berezovsky told CNN Vladimir Putin was creating a dictatorship. That year, Berezovsky was investigated for corporate crimes, which he denied, and he fled Russia, never to return.
Berezovsky's death after 12 years in exile has not softened many Russians opinion of him. This woman says he betrayed Russia and wrecked many things for the country during its hardest times.
Damian Kudriavtsev used to work for Berezovsky and remained a family friend. He was one of the first to learn of his death.
DAMIAN KUDRIAVTSEV, BORIS BEREZOVSKY'S FRIEND: Selfish but positive. He was very difficult but a good friend. He tried to be a good friend and good man. Sometimes he didn't succeed.
BLACK: Despite those flaws and failures, he says he's proud to have witnessed Berezovsky's efforts to change Russia.
KUDRIAVTSEV: Business wasn't impossible for him. He relate to the money and business as resources to make changes.
BLACK: Kudriavtsev said his friend was unhappy, and he was in financial trouble, but he wouldn't have harmed himself. And he says Boris Berezovsky had always hoped to someday return to Russia.
Phil Black, CNN, Moscow.
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LEMON: During the summer marches of 1965, Tony Bennett and Harry Belafonte teamed up to fight hate. Now they're looking back on that historic event and looking ahead to what it means today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: This week marks the 48th anniversary of the third and decisive civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Harry Belafonte recruited Tony Bennett to march with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965. It happened just two weeks after police beat civil rights marchers as they try to cross Selma's Edmund Pettis Bridge. That day became known as Bloody Sunday. CNN's Chris Cuomo sat down with Belafonte and Bennett and they told him the message of civil rights still permeates today.
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Selma was different, that they were willing to kill, burn, bomb, destroy, so to ask our artists and people to go to Selma, there was a whole different game.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Harry Belafonte remembers the backdrop for a major flash point in the civil rights movement, the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. 50 miles had to be covered, but the real obstacle was hate. Not long after 600 marchers began on Sunday, March 7th, police brutally beat them, driving them back to Selma.
When Bloody Sunday happened and then Dr. King decided to march again after it.
CUOMO (on camera): What was the mood?
BELAFONTE: The mood was anger. The mood was rebellious. Of course, the question is, what do we do in the face of this kind of rage and this kind of mayhem. The bottom line was that we go back as often as necessary.
CUOMO: Belafonte, enlisted by Dr. King to bring artists into the movement, convinced the likes of Joan Baez, Paul Newman and Marlon Brando, but one of his first calls was to old friend and supporter Tony Bennett.
TONY BENNETT, SINGER: Well, I didn't want to do it, but then he told me what was going down, how some blacks were burned with gasoline thrown on them and they were burned. When I heard that's correct I said I'll go with you.
CUOMO: In that black-white divide, white faces would see your face. What do you think they thought about you?
BENNETT: That you're a god-damn traitor. There was a spirit that we decided we would just march right through it, no matter what.
CUOMO: After a federal court affirmed the right to march against the government and national guard troops were ordered to protect marchers, protesters grew from 600 to 25,000. To rally the crowd, the artists came forth, but one problem.
BENNETT: We found out we didn't have a stage. Somebody came up with a funeral parlor, and how many caskets were there?
BELAFONTE: I think the number was about 50, 50 to 80 caskets.
CUOMO: Fifty to 80 coffins?
BELAFONTE: Yes, how did you feel about that that the stage was built on coffins?
BENNETT: Well, it was different.
CUOMO (voice-over): to say the least. Yet singing on top of coffins may be an apt metaphor for the marchers and they succeeded. Later that August, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: This purpose is not to divide, but to end divisions.
CUOMO: Change that Bennett could feel even in the place that scared him the most.
BENNETT: Many years later I went back to Selma, just as an engagement. I was pretty concerned about it, how I would be treated. It changed that area. There were much more human, much more civilized about just accepting good souls. So it made me feel like it worked, it really worked. That march worked.
CUOMO: But that work is unfinished, says Belafonte. He wonders if today's black celebrities will take up the cause.
(on camera): You talked about the next generation, and where is the new Harry Belafonte?
BELAFONTE: Never before in the history of this country has there ever been a pool of celebrities more numerous than we have today, and never have the black people in this country been less spoken for by a community of celebrities that, in the snap of a finger, could say and do so much who have opted to do nothing.
CUOMO: Why?
BELAFONTE: They're so busy becoming hedonistic about the harvest and the material successes, that they have received as a result of the success of that mission, that they have forgotten there was ever a mission.
CUOMO (voice-over): His message is clear. The march is in the past, but the movement for fairness under law for all, for justice, must continue.
BELAFONTE: Civil rights is a constant. It's never of the past. It's with you all the time. Every society, every millennium, every decade is going to need its vigilant watchers of the democratic process.
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LEMON: And here's one footnote. Earlier this month, the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma was designated as a national historic landmark.
Coming up, after this quick break -
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LEMON: The album that defined a generation hits a milestone. Find out how fans of Pink Floyd are marking the event.
Plus this -
What could possibly make me do this? On national TV?
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LEMON: Money, this record made a lot of it. Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" is one of the best-selling albums of all time. And this may make you feel old. Today is the album's 40th anniversary. Can you believe it? To mark the occasion, the group's official website will be streaming the album in its entirety.
And it was 50 years ago this week that the Beatles truly came out to play
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LEMON: Their debut album "Please, please me," was released on March 22nd, 1963 and brought the world instant classics like "I Saw Her Standing There," "Love Me Do" and "Twist and Shout." It took a mere nine hours and 45 minutes to record the monumental album.
It's the kind of sound bite that every journalist can hope to get, dramatic, unpredictable and wildly entertaining and every now and then one comes along that becomes an internet sensation. Remember this one?
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SWEET BROWN, ESCAPED APARTMENT FIRE: Well, I woke up to go get me a cold pop, then I thought somebody was barbecuing. I said "Oh, Lord Jesus, there's a fire." Then I ran out. I didn't grab no shoes or nothing, Jesus. I ran for my life. Then the smoke got me. I got bronchitis. Ain't nobody got time for that.
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LEMON: YouTube star Sweet Brown has already racked up some 80 million hits, or how about kai? He's the homeless hitchhiker with the hatchet who stopped a crazed driver.
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KAI, HOMELESS HITCHHIKER: These two women are trying to help him. He runs up and he grabs one of them, man. Like a guy that big could snap a woman's neck like a pencil stick. So I ran up behind with a hatchet. Smash, smash, smash!
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LEMON: Now there's a new clip to add to the list, it features Michelle Clark from (INAUDIBLE) Texas. Listen as she describes a hailstorm to our affiliate KPRC this week.
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MICHELLE CLARK, DESCRIBES HAIL STORM: It's like ka-poo-ya. And the water, hail just in and I looked up, opened my door and I looked up and my door started hitting me in my head. I took off running, (INAUDIBLE) and then I called my mama to see if she was all right. We had a hail party at 2:00 this morning. Everybody was outside. Man, those jokers were big, the size of a quarter, doggone. They were big. They were hitting hard, too, man. Look it. Here in Brookshire, Texas, man, it's like snow in March over here.
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LEMON: Sweet Brown has my vote. What about you? Sweet Brown. I'm Don Lemon at the CNN World headquarters in Atlanta. Thank you so much for watching us. See you back here at 10:00 Eastern.
"THE JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE EXPERIENCE" begins in just a few seconds here on CNN.
