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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

FBI Seeks Public Help in Identifying ISIS Terrorist; Foiled UK Terror Plot Involved Beheadings; Supreme Court Halts Gay Marriage in Idaho; Setting Your Date for Death; Woman Undergoes Experimental Treatment

Aired October 08, 2014 - 12:30   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: That's incredible. Paul Callan, Mark Geragos, can you still around? I've got a couple of other things I want to catch you on as well. Thank you.

We're getting some brand-new details on an alleged ISIS plot, one that was foiled in London and there were apparently plans yet again for public beheadings. The details live from London just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: So what can you do to help in the fight against ISIS because maybe it's a lot more than you think. The FBI thinks so. They believe that someone somewhere knows the voice behind the masked jihadi in an ISIS video, a propaganda video called "Flames of War."

You've probably seen these frames playing on the news. He flies between fluent Arabic and English, much like the speaker in the hostage videos. But this man speaks with an American accent, maybe a Canadian accent, but certainly North American. Listen closely and see if you can detect anything.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here in the 17th Division military base just outside the city of Raqqa and we're here with the soldiers of Assad digging their own graves in the very place where they were stationed, terrorizing the Muslims in Raqqa, and it's going to be carried out on these same soldiers by the brothers from the mujahedeen who captured them.

And behind them, you see the officer' residences filled with bullet holes. This is the end of everyone that we get a hold of. This is the end they face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: If you recognize that voice or if you recognize that face, what you can see of it, the FBI is asking you to help them by calling 1-800-call-FBI. The numbers are 1-800-225-5324.

In Britain, there are some pretty chilling details coming out on that terror plot that authorities say they interrupted with the arrest of four men in London. CNN's Atika Shubert is covering that story and joins me live now. I know we're getting additional details on the plot that allegedly these men wanted to carry out. What was it?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All that we know at this point is that it was at the very early stages of planning, and that is according to the Metropolitan Police, but we don't know the exact details of the plot.

One of the lines of inquiry that the police are following is the possibility of a beheading. Remember that here in London just two years ago, I believe, there was a British soldier who was actually hacked to death on the streets of London and including decapitated, and there were fears that there could be another attack like this.

That previous attack had nothing to do with ISIS, but because ISIS has made this open call for attacks, there's been a lot of concern that there could be these so-called lone wolf attacks in response to that call.

So this arrest appears to have been in part that terror investigation to see whether or not these suspects were in the stages of planning such an attack. We don't have the details. We're still waiting for more.

But as of this moment, those four terror suspects are still under arrest and still under questioning. They have not been charged.

BANFIELD: One of the details that came out yesterday I thought was interesting -- and it might not sound interesting here in America where we hear about tasers and guns and police force, was that this arrest was violent.

They had to tase one of the suspects, and it's very unusual for police in London to respond with weapons, and they were armed.

Can you sort of give us a picture of what they were thinking as they were going? What they must have known in order to prepare with armed police officers for these arrests?

SHUBERT: Well, you have to keep in mind that British police aren't normally armed, so for them to call in the firearms unit says that they felt that there was a reasonable chance that somebody inside might be using weapons of some sort, might be armed, and this is why they brought in that specialist unit.

I actually went to the home of one of those suspects today. You could see that the door had been blown in. And I talked to a number of neighbors. They say that the police -- there were dozens of police there.

They used stun grenades, and it's in this home that it's believed the suspect was actually tasered. The use of tasers is actually fairly common here. A number of suspects are tasered. It's a way of incapacitating a suspect and bringing him in. He did not require any medical attention, but we don't know why specifically this one young man, who we believe to be in his early 20s, was targeted.

BANFIELD: I find it amazing that when they're acting on these arrests that not everybody is considered to be armed or dangerous at some point.

Atika, thank you for that, Atika Shubert live for us in London.

What a difference a day can make on the issue of gay marriage. On Monday, the Supreme Court decided not to take up any of the cases that were challenging those state laws banning same-sex unions, which pretty much paved the way for gay weddings to take place in many of those states.

And now it's changed again, sort of, kind of, in a weird way. Maybe temporarily. We'll explain next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: It's the hour's breaking news here on CNN, the death of Thomas Eric Duncan, the 42-year-old man who had traveled to the United States from Liberia last month infected with the Ebola virus. He was the first and only diagnosed case here in the United States.

Duncan was isolated in a hospital in Dallas, Texas, and then doctors confirmed that he, in fact, had the disease.

Dozens of people have been identified as having had to come into some kind of contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, and many of those people -- as many as possible -- are being watched now in case they develop symptoms. And let's not forget, it's approximately a three-week period where that could be a possibility.

Also breaking, the United States Supreme Court has now put a temporary hold on same-sex marriages, but in Idaho and maybe in Nevada as well.

Yesterday a federal appeals court struck down the bans on gay marriage in Idaho and Nevada, but it was the Idaho officials who then asked the high court, the supremes, to intervene on an emergency basis, and in an emergency way, block the enforcement of that lower-court ruling.

Earlier today, Justice Anthony Kennedy issued a brief order, brief, just really a day or so, stopping gay marriages from taking place in that state.

And joining me to talk about that decision and what it means for all those other states where it seems there's been a lot of momentum, Mark Geragos and Paul Callan.

Let's just talk about that for starters, the momentum, because if you went to sleep last week and woke up today, I think we went from like 19 states to something like 35 where you can get -- effectively get married or at least any moment now, will be able to get married if you're a gay couple. So what did Anthony Kennedy exactly do for like a 24-hour period?

MARK GERAGOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Called a time-out.

BANFIELD: On those two states.

GERAGOS: On those two states because they're in the same circuit, our Ninth Circuit.

I think it's a little surprising only because the people who do this for a living and were speculating as to what the Supreme Court was thinking and why they didn't take this issue up, had speculated the four conservative justices didn't know that they had -- or weren't sure of what Anthony Kennedy was going to do, and so that's one of the reasons they didn't take it.

BANFIELD: But when the Supreme Court said the other day, we're not interested in hearing this case, just go back to the way it was, which means no ban, then all of a sudden -

GERAGOS: This comes up.

BANFIELD: We hear Anthony Kennedy saying, no, I am interested in hearing your appeal.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, because, you know, I think what people forget is that the Supreme Court has the luxury of shopping for the right case that includes all of the issues that they want to hand down a decision about. And they may not have liked those other cases. They may be looking at this saying, you know, this would be a better case.

BANFIELD: What he told them in Idaho -

CALLAN: But it will affect the whole country, of course, when they rule.

BANFIELD: Yes, let's make sure people know.

CALLAN: Yes.

BANFIELD: He told these Idaho folks, look, you know, the gay marriage proponents, they can challenge you until tomorrow. They can -- and I'll review it and I'll put my -

CALLAN: Yes.

BANFIELD: So tomorrow we might have another story.

CALLAN: Time-out till tomorrow. Could be a whole new story tomorrow.

GERAGOS: Time-out till tomorrow.

BANFIELD: Well, time-out till tomorrow. For God's (ph) sakes.

All right, well, come on back tomorrow. We'll figure out where we're at, at least in those -- in that circuit anyway. Thank you, Mark Geragos, Paul Callan, always nice to see you.

A young woman diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor has decided to choose her own date to die, determined to end her life on her terms in one of the few states with the so-called death with dignity law. This is a story you will not forget.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: You know, we -- we're all accustomed to marking significant dates in our lives, like birthdays and wedding days and anniversaries, but Brittany Maynard has now decided to set the date for something few, if any, have ever planned before. She has set the date for her own death. Earlier this year, Ms. Maynard was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and she was given the promise of just months to live. Now in an online video, Maynard says she is choosing to die with dignity on November the 1st.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRITTANY MAYNARD, DIAGNOSED WITH TERMINAL BRAIN CANCER: I will die upstairs in my bedroom that I share with my husband, with my mother and my husband by my side and pass peacefully with some music that I like in the background. I can't even tell you the amount of relief that it provides me to know that I don't have to die the way that it's been described to me that my brain tumor would take me on its own.

I hope to enjoy however many days I have left on this beautiful earth and spend as much of it outside as I can surrounded by those I love. I hope to pass in peace. The reason to consider life and what's of value is to make sure you're not missing out. Seize the day. What's important to you? What do you care about? What matters? Pursue that, forget the rest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Joining me to talk about this now about the right to die is Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz.

You cannot be unaffected when you see this woman.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR: Oh, no.

BANFIELD: And yet only three states have the laws on the books to allow this. Two others by a case by case bases through an adjudication process. Why is that? Why is it that - why are we only there in America?

DERSHOWITZ: Well, it's terrible. I had a case in Florida several years ago, the exactly duplication of this case. A woman discovered she had terminal breast cancer and she decided to die on a given day. She watched a movie with her husband. Her parents were there. She took pills and it didn't work. She was unconscious. And then she began to come out of consciousness. So her husband, who's a doctor, prescribed other drugs and ultimately she died.

BANFIELD: And he was prosecuted for murder. DERSHOWITZ: Her husband was indicted for first-degree capital murder.

BANFIELD: Which is a death penalty case in Florida.

DERSHOWITZ: We persuaded a jury, within minutes, to acquit because the jury understood, there but for the grace of God go we. But nonetheless, this man had to go to jail and stand trial for simply helping his wife fulfill her dying wish.

BANFIELD: Look, and ultimately, in Florida, the law is the law. That's not one of the states covered.

DERSHOWITZ: No.

BANFIELD: So effectively by law he did commit -- that jury nullified. I mean --

DERSHOWITZ: Absolutely. And many juries will nullify in cases like this. But dying people deserve more than jury nullification.

BANFIELD: But then why is America - but if you think more juries will do that, the law be damned in their state, then why do we have so few laws on the books state to state that allow this?

DERSHOWITZ: Two reasons.

BANFIELD: Is it - is it a family - what if this family - by the way, they're very much on board with Brittany's decision. But what if the families aren't? Do they have any say in any of this?

DERSHOWITZ: No, not if the person is competent and can make the decision. There is some fear that right-to-die laws might be abused, particularly in the cases of unconscious patients where people anxious to get the inheritance might facilitate the process. There are also some religious objections which shouldn't count in a country which separates church and state.

BANFIELD: In states.

DERSHOWITZ: I think this is an issue whose time is coming. And I think soon we will see more and more states accept the right to die. But it's difficult. It's difficult. There have to be procedures. It has to be clear that this is a choice without any pressure from anybody.

BANFIELD: And prior to your competence becoming an issue as well it would have to be.

DERSHOWITZ: Absolutely.

BANFIELD: And speaking of competence, psychological depression, I mean that could provide a very slippery slope for those who say that they'd like the right to die, when they're just afflicted with something that's very treatable.

DERSHOWITZ: You don't want a 19 or 20-year-old kid who's just read Chopenhower (Ph) to decide to kill themselves. You want to make sure that this is only reserved for people who have terminal illnesses. This woman has said she is not committing suicide. Every cell in her body wants to live. It's the cancer that's killing her. She is just determining the date of her death.

BANFIELD: It's just such a -- especially with those wedding pictures from just a year ago.

DERSHOWITZ: Oh, it's just so tragic.

BANFIELD: To be 29 - I mean it's not an 89-year-old.

DERSHOWITZ: It's so tragic.

BANFIELD: This is a 29-year-old. And you only can wonder if there might be some treatment.

DERSHOWITZ: Well, she has decided to get the pill and she said she might decide ultimately not to take it.

BANFIELD: And 30 percent of people decide not to take it.

DERSHOWITZ: But she has the pill in her pocket. And it's in her hands, and that's where it should be.

BANFIELD: Alan Dershowitz, thank you. Great at your Harvard Law professor days. Also wrote the book "Terror Tunnels: The Case for Israel's War against Hamas." Thanks for coming in.

DERSHOWITZ: Thank you so much.

BANFIELD: Appreciate your time. Appreciate your insight as well.

And our breaking news today, also I need to tell you, the death of that Dallas Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan. More details on that just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The only thing I did different that morning was unbuckle my seatbelt.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a split second decision that forever changed the life of 26-year-old Katie Sarafi (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was driving down on Interstate 5. A drive that I'd done hundreds of times.

GUPTA: But this drive turned terribly wrong. Sarafi says the last memory she had of that day was unbuckling her seat belt and reaching down to grab a can of soda that was rolling around on the floorboard.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I didn't really think anything of it. I've done it before. You know, you kind of reach over, grab your purse, grab whatever on the passenger side.

GUPTA: But Sarafi's car veered off the highway, ejecting her from the back windshield.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that - that was it. I snapped my back in half, compressed my spinal cord.

GUPTA: Instantly paralyzed from her mid chest down. Just days after the accident, Sarafi was asked to participate in the world's first human embryonic stem cell trial for spinal cord injuries. Doctors need volunteers like Sarafi to act as human guinea pigs in order to test the safety of experimental treatments. But it would not help with her recovery now, she was told. In fact, doctors warned her it could possibly make things worse. But still Sarafi said yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would like for future injuries to have an option, have a treatment available, have hope, because I know it's -- it's very hopeless in the beginning and you just think your life is over.

GUPTA: Two years since the accident, Sarafi's life is far from over. She's back to school, has become a young advocate for stem cell research and this summer she even learned how to surf.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Thanks, everyone, for watching. My colleague, Wolf Blitzer, starts right now.