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No Indictment for NYPD Cop; Orion Spacecraft Launch Scrubbed; Arrest Made in American Teacher's Death in UAE

Aired December 04, 2014 - 09:30   ET

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


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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: First Ferguson, and now anger in the streets of New York City. Peaceful protests erupting there and all over the country overnight after a grand jury decided not to indict a New York police officer in the death of an unarmed black man. There have been dozens of arrests, though, in New York. Forty-three-year-old Eric Garner died back in July after Officer Daniel Pantaleo forced him into a chokehold. The procedure has been banned by the NYPD since 1993. This dramatic confrontation captured on video. You can see officers wrestling Garner to the ground. Eleven times he said, I can't breathe. Minutes later, the father of six was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Garner's widow and mother spokes to "CBS This Morning" about what they're going through.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ESAW GARNER, ERIC GARNER'S WIDOW: It's been really hard since July 17th. I'm just trying to, you know, make sure that his death is not in vain. That, you know, it makes a change for my sons, as well as sons and brothers and fathers and grandchildren of other people that may be victims like I was a victim. I didn't choose to be a victim, you know? This is something that happened. I didn't expect when my husband left me that morning that I would never see him alive again. That was the last thing I expected. How do you wake up the next day without your life partner? He was somebody that I was supposed to share the rest of my life with, raise my grandchildren.

GWEN CARR, ERIC GARNER'S MOM: Justice is when everyone who was involved in my son's death that day stands accountable, and then I'll feel like I was justified, because that was so inhumane what they did to my son and her husband. I mean no mother, no grandmother should have to ever go through the pain that we went through.

GARNER: I appreciate everyone that's out there marching for my husband because had it not been for the tape, for the people, for Reverend Al putting it out there, he would have just been another black man killed and it would have been over. Three days after he died, it would have been a funeral. He would be gone and nobody would remember his name. This way, his name will be remembered. My grandchildren, they know who their grandpa was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The Garner grand jury was made up of 23 members, 14 of them were white, and nine were non-white members, blacks and Hispanics. They ultimately decided not to indict Officer Pantaleo. But why? What did the grand jurors see and understand that we didn't from looking at that videotape?

So let's talk about this. I want to bring in HLN legal analyst Joey Jackson.

Welcome, Joey.

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

I want to walk us through some of what the grand jury had to decide when they looked at that video of the police confrontation. And full disclosure here, I got this idea from "The New York Times." So let's take a look at our first image. Here it is. This is the confrontation. Mr. Garner begins arguing with officers. At what point would his arguing constitute resisting arrest?

JACKSON: You know, Carol, a picture, of course, we've heard it said, is worth a thousand words and so it's important. But in this discussion we're having this morning, it's important to keep in mind how it's being narrated to the grand jury. There's always ways to spin a photo. From our perspective, you're looking at it, if you're representing Garner and the family, he's not resisting. He may be, you know, complying and saying, OK, my hands are behind my back, but in no way is he striking the officers or engaging in any type of violent behavior. So the importance of this, Carol, is how it was narrated to the grand jury. Did the prosecutor say he's not complying, he's not resisting and, as a result, it's escalating, or were they saying the opposite of what I just said was that he's not engaged in any force?

COSTELLO: OK, screen grab number two. In this one, Mr. Garner proclaims his innocence and yells "it stops today." Now the core question here is, what did Garner mean by that? Because he also said, I didn't sell nothing. I'm minding my own business. But the grand jury could determine whether Garner was resisting arrest when they start to figure out what exactly Garner meant when he yells "it stops today."

JACKSON: Carol, it's a very important question because the intent of Mr. Garner is very important. Anyone, if you're engaged in or you're being accused of any crime, intent becomes important. So, was he intending to fight at that point and be non-compliant or was he just saying, look, this has to stop, not at all engaging in any criminality. So again, as we've discussed this, how was it narrated to the grand jury and it stops today. Are they and the grand jury saying that that was perceived as a threat, perceived that he was going to be belligerent, perceived he was going to be violent or, as we see it, he wasn't doing anything but expressing his frustration with, leave me alone.

COSTELLO: OK, let's move on to screen grab number three. Now, here the officers move in and they grab Garner's wrist. And you can see the difference in size here between the two men. How would that sway the grand jurors?

JACKSON: Well, size is certainly significant in that obviously he's a very big man, that is Mr. Garner. But when you evaluate the size, you have to evaluate two things, the number of officers who are dealing with him in addition to what specifically is he doing. Is he striking the officers at this time? No. Is he fighting the officers at this time? No. Is he head butting or kicking the officers at this time? No. So, again, the narration to the grand jury in terms of how he was appearing is very significant in that grand jury deciding, did he pose a threat to the officers or was he not posing a threat at all?

COSTELLO: OK, on to screen grab number four. Here you can see numerous officers. They're holding Mr. Garner down. Now, Mr. Garner said, "I can't breathe" 11 times. How would the grand jury know that and see this and not decide to indict the officers?

JACKSON: It's a very good question, which raises other issues about the process, which if we get to and I'd like to I could address. But if you look at that picture there, Carol, but his palm is open. And with a palm being open, it certainly does not appear that he's engaged in any violent behavior. His feet are not kicking. He's not struggling with his arms or anything else and he's giving them the indication that he cannot breathe. And so clearly that at least goes to the officer's state of mind in terms of, does he represent a harm if he's not kicking, punching or doing anything else and he's specifically telling you, officers, I can't breathe. So that's a very significant photo and very telling.

COSTELLO: OK. So get into the process. Tell us what you want to say.

JACKSON: You know, Carol, the important thing to remember is this. When you're looking at a criminal prosecution, it's all about trust of the community, it's all about the community feeling that everyone is treated even handedly in front of a grand jury. And when you have a local prosecutor involved in an investigation concerning police, the question becomes, should that be the norm? Should we rely upon the local prosecutor, who works with police, who trusts police, who has cases involved with that particular police department, you know, in his office on his desk that he's relying upon for the future? Or should there be an independent source that goes into that grand jury?

Remember, the prosecutor controls the grand jury, and if you're going to have confidence in the system, you want to know, the case was presented, the order of witnesses was presented, the manner in which it was presented. And how can you have trust and faith in a system where the prosecutor is controlling everything and works with the police department? So if anything, there needs to be an examination of, is this process appropriate and is this the process we should have moving forward to ensure the trust and the respect of that community, so that they will know and that they can trust in the outcome of that grand jury process, and I think that's what's lacking here, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Joey Jackson, thanks so much.

JACKSON: Thank you.

COSTELLO: You always help us understand so much better and I appreciate that.

JACKSON: My pleasure, Carol.

COSTELLO: Joey Jackson, our HLN legal analyst.

Just a word about the Orion spacecraft. The launch sadly has officially been scrapped. First it was wind. And then it was a boat in the water. And they probably just decided to scrap it because the window was 9:44 Eastern Time, which is in two minutes. And then if they couldn't launch it after that time, they were going to scrap it anyway. So we'll look forward to a launch possibly tomorrow morning. Of course we'll keep you posted.

I'll be right back.

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COSTELLO: As I told you before the break, a big disappointment. Today's launch scrubbed on a critical NASA mission. You're looking at a picture of the Orion spacecraft. It's on a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center where it will stay, at least for today. CNN's Alina Machado is covering this for us. I was looking forward to watching its beautiful takeoff.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We were all looking forward to that, Carol. It's been a day full of anticipation, and as you said, followed by disappointment. There were several launch times that were set up today, and all of them have been scrubbed for different reasons. We started off the day with a delay because of a boat that was in a danger zone that was too close to the launch pad, followed by high winds. You can see that it's pretty windy here, and wind did factor into some of the delays. And then finally when we thought this was going to happen, we found out that there was a problem with some valves on two of the rocket boosters.

So, one thing after the other has led to the situation that we're in now, which is that this launch has been delayed. It could happen tomorrow. NASA says they are hoping it will. Carol?

COSTELLO: I hope so, Alina Machado many thanks. I appreciate it. We'll be right back.

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (voice-over): Checking other top stories for you at 50 minutes past. An American hostage pleading for his life. 33-year-old Luke Somers seen here in a video recently released by an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen. In the recording, the terror group threatens to kill him if Washington does not meet their demands in three days. Somers is a photojournalist, he was captured back in September. Reports say U.S. Special Forces narrowly missed freeing him in a rescue mission just last week.

President Vladimir Putin is sticking up for the Kremlin's foreign policy, a policy that's seen by Western governments as aggressive. In his annual state of the nation address, Putin defended Russia's annexation of Crimea in March, accusing the West of using the Ukrainian crisis as a pretext to slap sanctions on Russia.

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COSTELLO (on camera): An arrest has been made in the brutal overseas stabbing death of an American teacher. 47-year-old Ibolya Ryan was brutally stabbed in the restroom at a high-end mall in Abu Dhabi, which is the capital of the United Arab Emirates. CNN's Becky Anderson is here with more.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, 48 hours after the stabbing death of an American woman in that shopping mall, an upscale shopping mall toilet, just miles from where we are here at the CNN bureau, UAE police raided the house of an Emirati woman in her late 30s and took her into custody.

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ANDERSON (voice-over): That is what we learned from a press conference about an hour or so ago here, held at the Interior Ministry. Now, the woman you see in this video is suspected of stabbing to death 47-year- old Ibolya Ryan on Monday. And you're seeing these images showing a veiled figure on what is a mission of malice. Police now say though, shortly after the stabbing attack, the mysterious suspect was already aiming at her next target, Carol, another U.S. citizen. This time a Muslim American doctor. This time with a home made bomb. Fortunately a plan that was foiled.

This looks like a terror plot. It feels like a terror plot. It smells like a terror plot or attack, and certainly a deadly attack on the American victim. But what authorities will say only is that the suspect probably meant to spread fear and chaos. You're looking at pictures here of the authorities raiding the house of this suspect. She fled in a car from the scene of the original killing. And some 90 minutes later, she was at the apartment of the second potential victim, this happening some 24 hours later. The police in this raid also finding walkie-talkies and other knives and a lot of what looked like sort of fairly naive looking, but possibly quite dangerous bomb making equipment. Listen, whatever the circumstances, they are certainly, Carol, highly unusual in a city that is renowned for safety. And these, some of these - -

COSTELLO (voice-over): Becky, Becky, I'm just looking at this video of this arrest. Becky, the video of this arrest. It has music behind it. It seems very well produced. I'm just intrigued by that.

ANDERSON: Well, and so were many, I think, of the Western journalists who were at the press conference earlier on today. It has to be said that the Interior Ministry originally released some of this footage of this suspect dressed in (inaudible) gloves and the (inaudible), that was yesterday. And that original footage, which is CCTV images, also had a music bed put under. It was released in a very polished sort of way, almost like a sort of thriller movie, as it were. And again, what we were presented with today was this very polished film of the events that led to the arrest of this suspect after what has been apparently, and allegedly, this random set of events.

She apparently didn't know the American school teacher who she murdered through the heart with the knife, but it appears she may have known the doctor who could have been her second victim. But fortunately, the home made bomb that she left outside his apartment didn't go off.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON (on camera): There is a lot still perhaps, let's put it this way, there is a lot still to discover about what happened. The investigation is on going. You're certainly right to point out that this is all very dramatic stuff in the way it's being presented to us as the media and the way, therefore, that we are presenting it to the outside world, as we have had it filed to us. But certainly, you know, I think the bones of this are that there is a dead American school teacher, and the potential for a second, an attack, though, that was thwarted. So, yes, an ongoing investigation. Bizarre and very frightening for the people who live here in the city.

COSTELLO (on camera): Becky Anderson, thanks so much. The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

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