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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Weather Causes Flight Cancellations; Pregnant Woman Killed by Snowplow; One-Year Anniversary of Pistorius Killing of Steenkamp; Inept Burglar Trapped by Security Glass; Massive Pileup Snarls Pennsylvania Turnpike; Are Babies Born Knowing Right from Wrong?

Aired February 14, 2014 - 12:30   ET

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

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And if you kind of think of the aggregate of that, over time, 75,000 cancellations since the beginning of just this year. And if you think about how many people impacted, it's about 5.5 million people.

And just imagine how much money they're spending out of pocket, outside of just their normal flights, and it adds up to more than $3 billion.

So, it's very expensive, especially Ashleigh, think about it. In this economy, who has extra cash to be dashing out, just because your flight gets delayed or canceled?

So, it's expensive, especially for families with kids, when flying. It's really, really pricey.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: $3 billion is a very big hit to the consumers in this economy who many are still looking for jobs, as well.

Rosa Flores, live for us at LaGuardia, thank you for that.

I have an update now for you on a story about a woman in New York City who died yesterday after she was hit by a very small tractor snowplow that was clearing snow at a store in Brooklyn. The 36-year-old woman was pregnant. The bobcat snowplow driven by a private operator was backing up when it hit her.

The woman's near full-term baby boy was delivered at the hospital by c-section. I believe she was eight-months pregnant. People who live nearby say that they are always wary of that plow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDA PEREZ, WITNESS: I was watching them this morning. Couldn't even drive it was going back and forth and turn around. Crazy.

And then it goes on the sidewalk and in the street. And there is a school down there and he just comes flying down the street to push the snow out. Every year, he does that, so know. We live around here so we know to watch it when he comes out.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BANFIELD: At this point, police are treating the woman's death as an accident.

But our Randi Kaye has been reporting the investigation does continue into the way the bobcat was being driven.

He was a famed Olympic athlete until one year ago today. Valentine's Day last year, Oscar Pistorius became an accused killer in the death of his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Now, just weeks before his trial is set to start, he's talking about her death.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Today marks the first anniversary of Oscar Pistorius' fall from Olympic grace.

It was one year ago today the double amputee known as the "Blade Runner" shot and killed his girlfriend at his home in South Africa.

He doesn't dispute he did it, but he says it was an accident. Prosecutors have charged him, though, with premeditated murder.

And now Pistorius is actually breaking his long silence, releasing this statement about Reeva Steenkamp's death, saying that "no words can adequately capture my feelings about the devastating accident that has caused such heartache for everyone who truly loved and continues to love Reeva.

"The pain and sadness, especially for Reeva's parents family and friends consumes me with sorrow.

"The loss of Reeva and complete trauma of that day, I will carry with me for the rest of my life."

CNN's Robyn Curnow has obtained new photos of the couple in happier times. She also has the very latest on the Pistorius upcoming trial.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These exclusive pictures from a source close to Oscar Pistorius appear to show a young couple in love, intimate and personal.

These would be some of the last photographs they would take together, because on Valentine's Day morning, exactly one year ago, it all ended.

Oscar Pistorius' agent awoke to a phone call.

PEET VAN ZYL, PISTORIUS' AGENT: Just had this voice of a girl frantically shouting, please, you have to come to Oscar's house, trying to make sense of what's wrong.

No, no, someone's shot, someone's shot. So I immediately thought it was Oscar that has been shot.

And no, no, no, Reeva has been shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breaking news.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Paralympic and Olympic star Oscar Pistorius has allegedly shot his girlfriend.

CURNOW: It was a shooting that shocked South Africa. The golden boy Olympian had killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, an up-and-coming model. He was arrested and charged with murder.

Pistorius denies the murder charge. He says it was a tragic mistake, that he thought Steenkamp was an intruder.

In just a few weeks, a high-court judge will hear the case.

Now, Oscar Pistorius' murder trial will take place in this courtroom. It begins on the 3rd of March.

Now, the state has listed 107 witnesses. Not all of them are expected to be called, but we do expect to hear testimony from Oscar Pistorius' family, some of his ex-girlfriends, as well as police forensic experts.

Pistorius' team says they'll counter with their own forensic evidence.

LAURIE PIETERS-JAMES, CRIMINOLOGIST: I think that the state does want to get this case over with.

They have booked the court for three weeks, I believe, and they should be able to present at least the state case in those three weeks.

CURNOW: After staying away from Pistorius' previous court appearances, Reeva Steenkamp's mother, June, and other family members are expected to attend the trial.

After a year of waiting, her family says they're looking for closure.

Robyn Curnow, CNN, Pretoria, South Africa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Today is the last day for workers at a car plant in Tennessee to vote on whether to join the United Auto Workers.

You may not think that's such a big headline, but it's a big deal for two reasons. The Volkswagen plant and the UAW hasn't rallied around a non-American company in several decades.

And also Tennessee is what is called a right-to-work state which does not favor organized labor.

Conservative leaders and some lawmakers are very much against any union taking hold in Tennessee.

The workers have been voting now for the past three days.

Three children are dead in a house fire in Minneapolis this morning, according to our affiliate, KARE. Five other people have been taken to the hospital.

A neighbor says that a man and seven children lived in the upstairs duplex and that their mother had died just a few months ago. Just a tragic story all around.

I want to draw your attention to a crime video that came to our attention early this morning. I'll set the stage for you. A burglar, he breaks into a jewelry store. This stuff happens all of the time. And then he rattles the display cages and gets his jewelry and then he can't get out.

It's bullet-proof glass and he really, really can't get out and it turns out the cops can't get in either. So what does he do?

Let's roll it so that you can see the actual play-by-play, because it's quite delightful when you realize, ha, you didn't get away with it.

There he is, getting his goods, and, oh, darn, oh, gee, this thing doesn't kick down. Maybe I can use my fist. Yeah, that's not working either. Oh. Oh, dear god.

Maybe I should have a cigarette. I've had it. I'm so exhausted. Sorry. Cops got there. They can't get in either.

Ultimately, they called a key master. The key master comes, let's them in. The cops arrest him.

But it is kind of funny when you see this guy desperately trying to get out with his loot. Not going to happen.

The guy they should have called to the scene, the U.S. bobsledder Johnnie Quinn who was trapped twice in an elevator in Sochi and then in that bathroom, and that's how he got out of that papier-mache door in Sochi.

I think things were different in the jewelry store. We'll keep you updated on that guy who is an idiot. Not the bobsledder.

Travel still at a standstill right now on one of Pennsylvania's busiest roads because as many as a hundred vehicles involved in an eastbound lane mess-up and a total shutdown.

When will that turnpike reopen? How many people are stranded? Stuck on the PA Turnpike, story is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: I want you to take a look at something going on. If you're comfortable in your chair right now watching CNN, imagine these people sitting in the driver's seat, passenger's seat or any of those vehicles, yuck. The Pennsylvania Turnpike, there are as many as a hundred of these vehicles, cars, SUVs, tractor-trailers. People are just out, climbing the walls, fences.

They are all piled up on a stretch of the turnpike near the New Jersey state line. And the police are telling us that there are numerous accidents. Obviously, they all banged into each other, right?

Nothing is moving on the eastbound turnpike. Apparently the other side is being limited, too, because the emergency vehicles got to use it. They've got to get people in, get people out. Hundreds of people are stuck in this mess.

CNN's Margaret Conley is one of them, I've got her on the phone.

Margaret, how are they getting even the wreckers into this disaster to try to at least tow out the problematic vehicles?

MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Ashleigh, a state trooper described the scene as chaotic. We just got updated information I want to share with you off the top here. There have been at least 16 injuries, people have been taken to various hospitals in the area. Five of them are serious. So far we are not hearing of any fatalities.

There are about 100 cars involved in this incident. That's from the Pennsylvania State Police Department headquarters. They say the pileup is considered a series of separate crashes, as many as 20 separate accidents were involved in this case.

Now we've been watching the weather very closely, as you know, from this past week, we've seen power outages here, a lot of snow over the last few days. Turnpike officials have been telling us this morning, that it was not a factor in this pileup, but now police are saying that there could have been an issue with the sun glare that could be a factor. We were driving east on that turnpike towards New Jersey. The sun was directly in our eyes.

And this snow has melted in this area. So people, the police are saying, could have assumed the roads were clear. Thought that they were wet, but there could have actually been ice on the roads that could have been deceiving for drivers. So they are saying, people that are out there, leave extra distance when you're driving. Leave space between you and the car in front of you. It just takes one person to trigger an accident and cause a pileup like this.

Also this turnpike is unique because it's a large turnpike and there are not many on and off ramps. It's been a challenge for those emergency crews to get to the scene. Emergency workers, they're working on the backlog of traffic, especially in this cold. They are very concerned about the people in their cars, to make sure that medically everyone is OK. They want to make sure that people haven't run out of fuel.

So it is a very chaotic scene. They're doing their best to get the people that are stuck there out of the turnpike -- Ashleigh. BANFIELD: All right. Margaret Conley, watching this for us live as it transpires. But you heard the headline, 16 injuries, five of them serious. And at this point, luckily no fatalities.

Thank you, Margaret Conley.

This is the LEGAL VIEW. Obviously, a show about crime. People who do the bad thing. And knowing the difference between right and wrong, good or bad, you probably think it's a learned behavior, right? Many of us do.

I've got some babies who are going to tell you something pretty astounding. And they are so cute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: So there is just nothing cuter than a bunch of babies, right? But there is nothing cooler than babies who can actually teach you something about who we are and how we become who we are. Like are we good? Are we bad? Do we learn that, or are we just born that way?

Turns out, there is an Infant Cognition Center at Yale University, better known as like the baby lab in New Haven, and my colleague, Anderson Cooper, went up there, because they were doing this very cool, cute little bunny experiment with the kids that really taught us -- I think these kids come out with the moral compass. Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, ANDERSON COOPER 360 (voice-over): It's hard to believe, but these little babies are helping to answer one of life's biggest questions. Are we born knowing right from wrong?

Researchers here at the Infant Cognition Center at Yale University, known as the baby lab, have been studying the minds and behaviors of babies for years. They believe that humans are born with an innate sense of moral beliefs, which means babies don't need to be taught the difference between right and wrong. They're born already knowing it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Up goes the curtain.

COOPER: We watched babies as young as three months old as they were presented with a puppet show. Here a puppet struggles to open a box. First we see a green bunny who comes along and helps to open the box. Good behavior, good bunny. Then we see an orange bunny slam the box shut and run away. Bad behavior, bad bunny.

When given a choice between the two, over 80 percent of babies chose the good bunny. And with babies that are only three months old, it goes to about 90 percent.

Researchers at the baby lab are taking these studies even further. If babies recognize good characters and bad characters, what does it take for them to interact with a bad character?

It's an experiment they nicknamed the "Deal with the Devil." Karen Wynn runs the Yale baby lab and says research shows that babies are predisposed to want to interact with good people and avoid bad people. Here's an example.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Up goes the curtain.

COOPER: Twelve-month-old Lucy watches the puppet show repeatedly and seems to recognize the good behavior and bad behavior right away. After the show, the good green bunny and the bad orange bunny each offer Lucy some graham crackers. The good bunny has just one cracker to offer, but the bad bunny has two. Which one will Lucy choose?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lucy, whose do you want? That one?

COOPER: She takes the one cracker from the good puppet. It's a baby version of a sacrifice.

KAREN WYNN, INFANT COGNITION CENTER, YALE UNIVERSITY: Most of them choose the one cracker from the nice guy rather than choosing, you know, two crackers from the mean guy.

COOPER (on camera): Two crackers.

WYNN: So it shows that babies are really willing to take a cost to avoid interacting with the mean guy.

COOPER (voice-over): Over 80 percent of babies will avoid the mean guy, but only it seems when they have just a little bit more to offer than the nice guy.

(On camera): How old is Jeff?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thirteen months.

COOPER: Thirteen months. So cute.

(Voice-over): So what happens when the mean guy has a lot more to offer than the nice guy?

Jack is presented with the same puppet show, but a different choice. This time the bad bunny has eight graham crackers to offer, the good bunny still just one cracker.

WYNN: Whose do you want?

COOPER: Jack goes for the eight crackers from the bad bunny.

(On camera): So if someone may be unpleasant to deal with, but if there's a reason to deal with them, if they have more stuff or more things that we want or need we'll do it.

WYNN: You know, it's interesting. I've tended to think of it the flip version of it, which is the positive that it exhibits not only that we have an aversion to interacting with the negative people but also that there really is a cost to being a negative person. And that is you have to have more -- you know, there's a cost and you have to work to overcome it in some way or another. COOPER: I tend to see the negative.

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER (voice-over): Although most babies end up taking crackers from the bad guy, one-third will still choose to take the cracker from the nice guy. This is a good sign to Karen Wynn who says babies as young as 12 months old can override their selfish instincts, full-grown adults should be able to also.

WYNN: We are creatures that are conducting cost benefit analyses on all aspects of our actions.

COOPER (on camera): You mean babies are weighing these considerations.

WYNN: Even very, very young ages are weighing these competing considerations and, you know, deciding where their own threshold is.

COOPER (voice-over): For Baby Jack, his threshold was just hunger, and the choice perhaps too tempting.

(On camera): You got to do what you got to do, Jack.

WYNN: You got to do what you got to do.

COOPER (voice-over): Anderson Cooper, CNN, New Haven, Connecticut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: I'm with Anderson. I think we all have a price. Honestly. But how adorable is that? I mean, I probably would have taken both plates. But I'm not obnoxious one with a tennis racket down there. So there's that.

Hey, by the way, Anderson has this three-part series that's just terrific. And tonight he is moving on to part three, what are they really thinking? And this one will really knock your socks off. He's going to discover through this Yale baby lab if babies discriminate. That's right. Do they do this before they learn much about the way the rest of the world actually thinks?

That's "AC 360," tonight, 8:00 Eastern Time.

Thanks for watching, everyone. Happy Valentine's Day, have a great weekend. And stay tuned, because my colleague Wolf is on a program called "WOLF" and it starts right after this quick break. Take care.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)