Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
DNA Swab after Arrest is Legitimate Search; Teen Swept over Yosemite Waterfall; Bringing Back the Woolly Mammoth; Grumpy Cat Lands Movie Deal
Aired June 03, 2013 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right this just in to CNN. Word of a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling -- moments ago, the justices ruled that felony criminal suspects can be subjected to a police DNA test after arrest and that's before trial and conviction.
CNN crime and justice correspondent Joe Johns is live in Washington. So that means if I'm arrested for a felony crime, they can just take my DNA and I have no say in it?
JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Serious crime, Carol. This is a case out of the state of Maryland. It's called Maryland versus King. King is a guy who was arrested in 2009 on charges of assault. The police took a DNA swab from him and then later connected him to a crime that happened in 2003, a rape.
So the question of course, is whether the authorities have the right to take that DNA sample and later use it for another case. The answer is yes as long as it's a serious crime.
The next question down the road will be about those government entities including the federal government that take these swabs, what constitutes a serious crime? Of course, the big concern here in these Fourth Amendment cases has always been what's called suspicionless searches.
And among the people in the dissent, this was a very close 5-4 decision. Justice Antonin Scalia who called this quote, "A terrifying principle". So this is something that's going to continue to be fought out around the country. But for now, according to Supreme Court, you can take a DNA swab for a serious crime and later use that evidence in a crime the suspect was not arrested for -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well you just said the scary part, like what -- what is a serious crime and who decides that and you haven't been convicted of anything. You are an innocent person being arrested on a felony charge. So the police can then keep your DNA forever. Let's say you're totally innocent of the crime.
JOHNS: Well no, according to court and according to what's been going on in Maryland, if the individual who got the DNA swab is later exonerated of that crime, then they have to destroy that DNA evidence. So, it's not a complete open book, but it opens the door a little bit more and civil libertarians certainly will be raising some issues as we go forward on this, Carol.
COSTELLO: So I have to trust the police to destroy my DNA if down the line, you know, because sometimes it takes years to get to trial. That's kind of scary, too.
JOHNS: Well, they have to keep it in the law. As long as they stay within the law, it's OK. And the issue is if the law says, destroy that DNA when the individual is exonerated. They got to do that or in all likelihood, they'd have no case.
COSTELLO: All right. Joe Johns thanks so much, reporting live from the Supreme Court this morning.
Just ahead in the NEWSROOM a teenager on a church trip is swept away by a powerful waterfall in Yosemite National Park.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Park Rangers will continue their search today for a California teenager swept over a waterfall at Yosemite National Park; 19-year-old Aleh Kalman was swimming in the Merced River near the nearly 600-foot high Nevada Falls when he went over the edge.
Miguel Marquez is live at Yosemite National Park. Miguel, what happened?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're learning a lot more about how exactly this happened. He was at Nevada Fall as you say. But I want to show you this is Yosemite Falls here. It gives you an idea of just how rough and beautiful these falls are. This is about 1,400 feet the one he went off over was about half this size but still it was very rough down at the bottom.
Now the search is going down from 30 to 40 rescuers in the first couple of days to about five today. Because they don't believe that he survived. We spoke to a Ranger just a short time ago who gave as a better idea of how mister -- this young man got swept down the river.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARI COBB, YOSEMITE PARK SPOKESPERSON: They saw Kalman actually swim out into the river. And he went out into the middle of the river where there was a large boulder and he was hanging on the boulder having fun. And when it was time for him to swim back he got back in the water, started swimming back. And as he was coming out of the water and onto the shore the current actually caught him again and swept him. And he was unable to recover.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUEZ: Now, Aleh Kalman was in a part of the river that was about 20-feet wide they said but then it quickly funneled down to about 10 or 15 and by that time the water had been moving so fast that it would had been very difficult to get out of it. It is the spring runoff at the moment and in those very narrow channels, it is the most impossible to swim out of them. But clearly, he had gotten past the current once out to a rocks and had come on his way back in, got caught by maybe a same current or a different current that he hadn't caught before. And it just swept him -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Oh. So there were warning signs posted, right? Will any more be done to keep people out of the water?
MARQUEZ: There was. He was a part of three different church groups that were up here -- about 85 people total. They went up a very popular trail here, the miss trail. As you go up that trail, you pass by several different water falls. You actually feel the waterfalls. You can hear them. They are very, very powerful.
We can hear -- Yosemite Falls, we're about a half mile, a quarter mile away, a half mile away. We can hear it from here. I mean you guys can't there. But it is incredibly powerful. There were signs all the way up, there are signs where he was swimming unfortunately and you know you're 19, and you want to have fun, you're hot. It is a -- it is a very, very difficult lesson to learn, obviously. And his parents are going to have a very difficult time for some days to come. They hope to find the body soon. But they -- they say it may take some time because if you get hung up in the rocks there, it can take until the water goes down significantly into the summer before they can get in there and search -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Oh Miguel Marquez -- reporting live for us this morning.
Have you heard about this? It could be one huge breakthrough for science, liquid blood found in a 10,000-year-old woolly mammoth. Oh could they clone one now? We'll ask the scientists next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It has been thousands and thousands of years since the woolly mammoth walked across the face of the earth. But guess what, it could soon return.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey little fellows, how about you and us against the pirates. You have no idea what I'm saying, do you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: May I try.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: I can guarantee the woolly mammoth if it came back would be nothing like that. We're talking about the real thing here. A well- preserved woolly mammoth was recently found buried in ice in Siberia and there is the possibility that frozen blood from that animal could eventually lead to the cloning of that extinct species, bringing with it many exciting possibilities.
Kevin Campbell is an associate professor at the University of Manitoba. He's helping with the project. Welcome. KEVIN CAMPBELL, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA: Hello.
COSTELLO: Hello. Thank you for being with us.
CAMPBELL: Oh, it's my pleasure.
COSTELLO: This is just so fascinating to me. We have some pictures, thanks to you, of this like frozen -- was it a cave where they found this woolly mammoth carcass. Describe what we are seeing.
CAMPBELL: Well, the samples, themselves, were taken just below the carcass itself which was entombed actually largely in ice, itself. So it was frozen in an ice block though the shoulders and back were out towards the surface in the permafrost and they were actually eaten by scavengers.
COSTELLO: So somebody poked a needle through the ice into the part of the woolly mammoth that was inside of this big ice cube?
CAMPBELL: Well, it was actually entombed in ice. So they're digging around the animal to try to, you know, get underneath it. Inside one of the cavities just below the body when they poked, out came well, blood.
COSTELLO: And it was liquid blood, right? Was it liquid?
(CROSSTALK)
CAMPBELL: And that's really strange -- yes, the temperature there was about -10 degrees centigrade. It was well below freezing. The sample was still fluid.
COSTELLO: That is just so strange. So what could you do with this blood?
CAMPBELL: So I study hemoglobin. And a few years ago, we actually synthesized mammoth hemoglobin in the lab using mammoth DNA and e. coli bacteria to synthesize it for us. And we studied it. But we're interested in getting, you know, our hands on the real thing.
COSTELLO: And then, you know, a lot of people are thinking, would it be possible that there would be intact DNA in that blood?
CAMPBELL: Well, mammalian blood is unusual in that it has very little DNA. Their blood cells don't have a nucleus. But the fact that the blood is so well preserved leads to the suggestion -- and we know that the muscle is extremely well preserved. It's actually still pink.
COSTELLO: Oh.
CAMPBELL: It looks very fresh even in spaces that if in the muscle or in the skin or possibly even the ovaries of this individual -- it was a 60-year-old female about -- that, you know, perhaps we can get some pretty good DNA out of that sample.
COSTELLO: So there are people out there who say that once you get a good enough sample, you might be able to clone a woolly mammoth?
CAMPBELL: You know, I know the group is working towards that. There is a lot of technological hurdles. Getting the DNA is definitely a step in the right direction. But even beyond that, they would have to take an egg, of course, out of an elephant. Nobody has ever done that yet. They would have to fertilize this egg and they would actually have to implant it and then wait for at least 20 months, which is the gestation for an elephant.
COSTELLO: And what are the dangers associated with that? I mean woolly mammoths are big mammals, right?
CAMPBELL: They are definitely big animals. They're also pack animals like they live in a group. They're very social animals. My focus is not so much on cloning but, you know, we'll leave that to the ethicists. I'm a scientist -- right.
COSTELLO: It's a scary proposition. But we look forward to talking with you again to see what you found out from this incredible discovery.
Kevin Campbell, thank you so much.
CAMPBELL: Thank you. My pleasure.
COSTELLO: Just ahead in the NEWSROOM, who knew? Fed chair Ben Bernanke cracks his audience at Princeton commencement.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Don't adjust your set for this story. The Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke and he can be a really, really funny guy -- really. Just ask those who heard his commencement address at Princeton. Here's a sample.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN BERNANKE, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL RESERVE: The poet Robert Burns once said something about the best laid plans of mice an men ganging at the glay -- whatever a glay means. A more contemporary philosopher Forrest Gump said something similar about life and box of chocolates and not knowing what you're going to get. They were both right. Look what happened to me. A dozen years ago, I was minding my own business, teaching Economics 101 in Alexander Hall and thinking of good excuses for avoiding faculty meetings. Then I got a phone call.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: You know who that phone call was from, it wasn't from Alison Kosik.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, look, he was funny, right? He may not be ready for stand-up but who knew? You know, the chairman of the Fed is a funny guy.
COSTELLO: Only you would think he is funny. KOSIK: Of course, I do. Oh come on. After the stuff we had to listen to at those fed meeting, this stuff is hilarious, Carol, compared to that. He did have some great advice for the graduates of Princeton University in this speech. He used to teach there, by the way.
So after congratulating the students, Bernanke gave some credit to the parents, too, talking about how tough it is to put your child through college these days. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BERNANKE: Some years ago I had a colleague who sent three kids through Princeton. My colleague also used to say that from a financial perspective, the experience was kind of like buying a new Cadillac every year and then driving it off a cliff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: And his speech was kind of peppered throughout with that kind of humor along with some deeper pieces of advice. He stressed the importance of focusing on becoming a better human being. He talked about how money isn't everything and to remember that it's a means not an end. And one of the pieces of advice, call your mom and dad once in a while. Remember, he said, they paid your tuition to Princeton.
Also, Carol, Big Ben, he's got some love advice for all of us saying he's offered beauty, romance, sexual attraction. Bu those aren't the only things to look for in a partner. Bernanke has been married 35 years. He says, quote, "I can't imagine any choice more consequential for a lifelong journey than the choice of a traveling companion. So quantitative easing, , asset lending facility, not the only stuff he can talk about -- Carol.
COSTELLO: He values his wife because she's a good traveling companion.
KOSIK: Yes, she's been down the road with him, I guess.
COSTELLO: Although, I'd still like my husband to say that I was, you know, beautiful. But anyway -- because I'm shallow.
KOSIK: You are, Carol.
COSTELLO: Alison Kosik, thanks so much.
Still ahead in the NEWSROOM, Internet fame, a book, and a movie deal. It's enough to make you get grumpier.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: I know you have seen the Internet sensation known as "Grumpy Cat". Well, it seems success hasn't gone to this kitty's head. Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Getting a movie deal seems like a reason not to be grumpy but grumpy cat is still frowning even though her owners have just sold her grumpy persona to movie producers.
BRYAN BUNDESEN, GRUMPY CAT'S "UNCLE": We want grumpy cat to become the next feline icon that stands the test of time like Garfield has.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, you little suck up.
MOOS: Watch your back Garfield. Grumpy may be the next animated cat though her expression is anything but animated. Even though they say she is a very sweet kitty.
So she looks grumpy, morning, noon and night?
BUNDESEN: Absolutely. All the time.
MOOS: You've never seen her not look grumpy.
BUNDESEN: Oh no. She doesn't smile.
MOOS: Bryan Bundesen is the one who first posted grumpy cat's photo online. The cat belongs to a sister. Overnight, fans started adding captions. "I had fun once, it was awful." "There are two kinds of people in this world and I don't like them."
BUNDESEN: She's like an emotional expression of everybody's bad day.
MOOS: An expression that has inspired artists to do their own versions of grumpy cat for charity. This is Sir Grumps a Lot. Her grouchy mug has ended up on coasters, clothing, even in unhappy birthday card. She has a book coming out. The "Wall Street Journal" reports there is now a deal for grumpy cat coffee in cans.
BUNDESEN: A lot of people are grumpy until they have their coffee.
MOOS: Bryan won't say exactly how much but grumpy cat has already earned them somewhere in the low six figures. That's a lot of cat food. She just won the 2013 Webby Award for meme of the year. Her imagined reaction, "Oh, great, a webby award. Let's add that to my pile who gives a --"
Grumpy cat's real name, by the way, is tartar sauce based on a misspelling of the word by the owner's daughter. She thought the cat's fur looked the color of tartar sauce. In "Grumpy Cat", the movie, she will probably be animated but she could play herself. Check out her effortless indifferent acting. In this Frisky's game show entitled "Will kitty play with it?" Yes, no.
Well, let's celebrate anyway.
MOOS: That's about the way she's celebrating her new movie deal.
Jeanne Moos, CNN --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn that frown upside down. MOOS: New York.
COSTELLO: Good for them. Thanks for joining me today, I'm Carol Costello. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now.
