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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Jesse Matthew Charged with First-Degree Murder in Hannah Graham Case; Chris Kyle's Life and Death Examined; Alabama Judge Fights Supreme Court Verdict on Same-Sex Marriage; White House Briefing

Aired February 10, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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


JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Terrible. Horrible. And, of course, they have the circumstantial evidence. They have the consciousness of guilt. He goes to the police precinct voluntarily, in fact. And then, of course, he leaves the police precinct and is found 1,300 miles away on a beach in Texas.

JACK FORD, FORMER COURT TV ANCHOR: The other thing about the death penalty is, the prosecutor might want to sort of hold onto that, dangle this out there. If you're trying to get a plea here, I mean this guy's got a lot of charges against him, you know, the prosecutor might say, look, here's the deal, I will stop considering the death penalty. In return, I want pleas of guilty from you from this, from the other charges against you." So, you know, it could be and still could be a negotiation tool...

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah. Well I am glad you mention that because I'm looking at the list in front of me one, two, three, four -- at least four other cases that are sort of interconnected, linked somehow but not officially linked necessarily. I have to drop that down as the last point. But you could both stay, I have a couple of other things I would -- questions I want to ask you about. This story is not over.

We are also looking at the clock, it is 12:30 and that is typically the time for the White House press conference for the media begins. And we're waiting for White House briefer-in-chief, so to speak, Josh Earnest to take that podium. And typically, it's news of the day and with the confirmation of the death of the American hostage from Prescott, Arizona clearly that will be a question without -- a question from the press corps. We want to make sure we fit a quick break in and when we come back, we're going to go live to that press conference.

Also, as millions of Americans are packing into the theaters to see the movie American Sniper, a Texas jury is about to get into their sits to hear opening statements in what you just might consider the real life sequel to that movie. The murder trial of an ex-marine accused of killing of the man who inspired American Sniper, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Live pictures for you right now. The exteriors of the White House. The interiors of the White House Press Briefing Room where the reporters are assembled, cameramen are waiting. 12:30 is the typical time for these briefings and obviously given the news that we've just had about the now confirmed death of American hostage Kayla Mueller at the hands of her ISIS captors or at least while she was in the hands of the ISIS captors. We're wondering if the administration is going to comment publically on this. Clearly there will be questions is that briefing room.

This news is coming 18 months after Kayla was captured in Syria and just days after ISIS made the claim that she's in fact have killed by those jets overhead, carrying out air-strikes against them.

Mueller's heartbroken parents are saying this in a statement. "Kayla was a companionate and devoted humanitarian. She dedicated the whole of her young life to those -- helping those in need of freedom, justice and peace. We are so proud of the person Kayla was and the work that she did while she was here with us. She lived with purpose and we will work everyday to honor her legacy."

We'll watch for that statement in a moment.

In the meantime, we're going to carry on with some other news because the White House Press Briefing Room is not yet ready but there is a jury that is - they are ready, they're seated. And opening statement in their case are set for tomorrow. It is the capital murder trial of this man, Eddie Routh. He's the man charged with killing of the real American Sniper, that movie was based on Chris Kyle's life.

Kyle's story has become legendary after the blockbuster Oscar- nominated film starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Texas where it is all playing out in real life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you live in Texas, chances or you've heard of Chris Kyle. In fact the story of Chris Kyle has reached legendary status across the country. The Navy SEAL is considered the deadliest sniper in U.S. Military history with at least 160 confirmed kills over four tours of duty in Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm ready.

LAVANDERA: American Sniper is a huge hit at movie theaters across the country. It's now the highest grossing war film ever, earning more than $300 million and it's nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture and best actor. But Chris Kyle's life from rodeo and ranches to war hero doesn't have a Hollywood ending.

Kyle and his wife Taya made no secret of how their marriage almost fell apart he returned home from war. It's what inspired Kyle to devote so much of his time and energy to helping other veterans transition back to everyday life.

In February of 2013, Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield, brought a Marine suffering from PTSD named Eddie Ray Routh to the Rough Creek Lodge and Resort. Kyle and Littlefield take Routh to this gun range so they can talk and bond, but instead police say, Routh turned the guns on the two men who are trying to help him.

Police say Routh left the scene and Kyle's pick up truck and drove to his sister's house right after the killings.

LAURA BLEVINS, EDDIE ROUTH SISTER: Listen, my brother just came by here. He told me that he's committed a murder.

911 OPERATOR: Who did he say he had killed?

BLEVINS: He said that he killed two guys. They went out to a shooting range. Like he's all crazy, he's (beep) psychotic.

LAVANDERA: Routh is expected to plead not guilty by reason of insanity in the deaths of Kyle and Littlefield. Routh served four years in the Marines including the tour of duty in Iraq in a humanitarian mission to help the victims of the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

He reportedly made several visits to the VA Hospital in Dallas and spent the two years before the killings in and out of treatment for mental health issues.

Journalist Laura Beal wrote an in-depth account of Eddie Ray Routh's struggles in the book called "The Enemy Within". She says shortly before the shooting, Routh's mother turned to Kyle desperate for help.

LAURA BEAL, AUTHOR "THE ENEMY WITHIN": Clearly they feel like he -- he could gotten better care. And had he gotten better care, she would not have approached Chris Kyle. I mean that's one important thing to remember. She only did it as an act of desperation.

LAVANDERA: Routh's murder trial will unfold in Stephenville, Texas, a town of nearly of 20,000. Chris Kyle went to college here in the early 1990s. He's such a legend in his home state that the second anniversary of his death was declared Chris Kyle Day by the Texas governor. But that popularity has Eddie Routh's attorney saying the trial should be moved out of this small Texas county.

The judge in the case has denied that request. And after three days of screening potential jurors, the jury is now set to hear the case, the panel will be made up of 10 women and two men. Opening statements will begin Wednesday morning.

Ed Lavandera, CNN Stephenville, Texas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: And as we pivot from the story in Stephenville, Texas, we are also standing by live in Washington DC where the White House press briefing is just getting underway, probably a little late today. It was scheduled for about 10 minutes ago. But we're speaking Josh Earnest, the press secretary to take to the podium, the live mics are hot. And that press corps likely to ask questions about what the administration knows about the devastating news that Kayla Mueller, the American hostage from Prescott, Arizona is in fact dead after being held for over a year and a half by ISIS. More on that in just a moment.

And also, for better or for worse, the United States Supreme Court clears the way for same sex couples to say I do in Alabama. But wait, it doesn't clear up the confusion with dozens of counties sticking by the voter-approved bans in a bitter new fight over states rights. But is that fight legal? And who is at the helm of that fight if it's not? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: And once again, we're awaiting a live news conference. The press briefing, it's a daily press briefing for the White House press corps, Josh earnest should have been at the mic about 14 minutes ago, but so far no show but that will change and we will be there live just as soon as he emerges from the door behind that pillar. And the questions begin. Undoubtedly, the questions from the press corps will be about Kayla Mueller, the confirmation from the administration and from her family in fact, that she is dead while being held by ISIS, captured over a year and a half ago.

We'll get to that in just a moment.

In the meantime, in the last couple of days, they've been filled with frustration and celebration all at the same time for gay couples in Alabama. The same day that same sex marriage became legal, some of the judges there refuse to issue the marriage licenses to gay couples.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very disturbing to see our tax payer money being wasted. Just set behind closed doors and hide when people are waiting to get married.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: It's a bit of a legal mess. I think that's an easy way to say it. And here to help sort it all out is CNN's senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin who's live with us from Washington. And also, joining us Attorney Roberta Kaplan who has argued in favor of gay marriage before the 10th -- or excuse me the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and she also argued before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of her now very famous client, Edith Windsor, a case that ruled a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act violated the Constitution for denying same sex couples a wide range of benefits.

So, Jeffrey, I'm going to begin with you sort of on the reporting side of it, and that is this, to make it real simple here, the Supreme Court said to Alabama, marriage for gay couples is a go. And then the Supreme Court judge, the state level judge in Alabama said no, even though he is not supposed to, nor does it seem legally, he can, although that's in question. And some people decided to follow his order. Where -- why am I -- what's missing? Why are they doing that? And can they?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, what's missing is that the Supreme Court justice, the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy Moore, is an eccentric. He's kind of a not (ph), and he has a long history of defying federal office, federal court orders. He was thrown off the Alabama Supreme Court awhile ago. And what he's doing essentially is defying the will...

BANFIELD: Jeffrey, I'm sorry. Jeffrey, I have to interrupt you, I'm sorry. Only for the White House press briefing, they're speaking about Kayla Mueller, the hostage has been confirmed dead.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: ... Carl and Marsha Mueller, it includes her brother Eric and his family and all those who work with Kayla in her all too short life. She is somebody who dedicated her life to serving others. And not just serving other people but serving those who were in crisis situations, who faced dire circumstances and who are relying on the generosity and kindness of fellow human beings to try to meet their needs.

And Kayla was a young woman who was willing to put her self in harms way to try to offer that relief. She saw this as a way to honor the God that she worshipped. And I will also indicate that I was personally moved by her comments that she saw God in the eyes of people who are dealing with terrible crisis. That is a particularly profound wise statement from such a young woman, but I think it does go to the character and generosity of the spirit that she embodied.

Over the weekend, Kayla's parents received a private message from her ISIL captors with additional information about her death. That information was shared with the intelligence community, they conducted a review and an analysis, and after that analysis was completed, they concluded that Kayla has in fact died. And the information that they reviewed did not allow them to arrive at a conclusion about her precise cause of death, but it did allow them to conclude that she had, in fact, died.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was there any information they were able to pull in about when she died?

EARNEST: It is -- I -- that's a good question. I do not believe that they were able to arrive at any conclusion about the timing -- the precise timing of her death.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know if they were able to rule out whether she was killed in a Jordanian air strike on Friday as just what the (inaudible).

EARNEST: I've seen those claims. Again, the intelligence community did not have a specific assessment about the cause of death. There are some things however that I can share with you about this air strike that I know that ISIL has referenced. And this is something that military officials have indicated as well.

The air strike that was carried out by the royal Jordanian air force on February 6th was against an ISIL weapons compound that that group maintained near Raqqa, Syria. This is a facility that have been struck previous occasions and it's not unusual for targets like this to be hit more than once. In previous strikes, this facility had been damaged, but like I said, it's not unusual for strikes like this to be carried out once again.

The information that we have is that -- and again, we have this information because this air strike was coordinated with the United States military. And the information that we have is that there is no evidence of civilians in the target area prior to the coalition strike taking place.

And that certainly would call into question the claims that are made by ISIL. What is not possible to call into question is that ISIL, regardless of her cause of death, is responsible for it. This after all was the organization that was holding her against her will. That means they are responsible for her safely and her well-being. And they are therefore responsible for her death.

JULIE (ph): The president has held up the counter terrorism campaign in Yemen as a model for what he's trying to do with the Obama state, and today, U.S. officials has been (inaudible) holding the embassy there.

Can you realistically hold that of now as the model for what you're trying to do in Yemen given the problems that have been happening with the government there, with rebels taking over capital and now having to close the American embassy?

EARNEST: Julie (ph), I don't -- at this point, I don't have an update on the status of the embassy. We have indicated for a number of weeks now that we have been closely monitoring the security situation on the ground in Sena and throughout Yemen, with an eye toward taking necessary steps to protect the safety and security of American personnel who are in Yemen.

In recent weeks, there have been some personnel that have been drawn down from the facility in Sena because of concerns about their safety and security. But for a status update about the facility itself, I'd refer to the state department. If there is an announcement to make about a change in the facility status, it will come from the state department.

But the president has indicated that the counter-terrorism strategy that we have successfully pursued in Yemen is consistent with the kind of strategy that we are pursuing against the ISIL.

And the reason for that is that it's consistent with our broader national security interest. What we've done in Yemen is sought to work with local officials in Yemen. We have sough to support ground forces in Yemen who can take the fight to the extremist in their own country. And we have backed up those ground forces with intelligence and with air strike capabilities have succeeded in applying significant pressure to extremists that are operating in that country and curtail their ability to strike American targets.

This is a threat that we remain very vigilant about. This is a dangerous organization that's operating in Yemen. And we continue to be very focused on taking the steps that are necessary to mitigate that threat. But the point that the president has made on previous occasions and one that you've heard me talk about a little bit too, is that is consistent with the kind of strategy that we're employing against ISIL, that this administration is working closely with the Iraqi government to build up the capacity of local forces in Iraq to take the fight on the ground to ISIL. They are being backed by coalition military airpower and with intelligence capabilities and with even some training capability to make them -- to maximize their effectiveness. And they have succeeded in blunting the advance of ISIL and even rolling back some of the progress that they've made.

There is an analogous strategy in placed in Syria. There is, of course, no central government within we are coordinating in Syria. So it means that we have to draw in different resources to coordinate with ground fighters in Syria. So you've seen this administration try to work with the moderate Syrian opposition and some of our partners in the region to train and equip those fighters so that they can take the ground -- take the fight on the ground against ISIL in their own country. And they will be backed by coalition aircraft as well.

And in the example of Kobani, a border town that had previously been seized by ISIL that local fighters in this case, Peshmerga and Kurdish fighters has succeeded with the backing of coalition air strikes in driving ISIL out of that town. That is one isolated example. But it's an indication that this strategy that president pursued can work. OK.

Jeff (ph).

JEFF (ph): Josh, can you give us an update on the president's plan for seeking authorization of force against ISIL with the Congress.

EARNEST: I don't have a timing update for you, Jeff (ph). As you recall, in the, you know, even the day after the midterm elections back in November, the president's convened a news conference in which somebody in this room asked the president about an authorization to use military force, and at that point he indicated very clearly that he would like Congress to act in bipartisan fashion to pass an authorization to use military force.

The president at that time has been and has been clear ever since that he wanted Congress to take that action not because he believes it's legally necessary. The president and his lawyers have concluded that he already has the authority that he needs to order military action against the ISIL. But he does believe it would be a powerful symbol for the Congress to send to the American people, to our allies and even to our enemies, that the United States of America is united behind the strategy that the president has laid out to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL, and we are hopeful that Congress will act on an authorization to use military force relatively soon.

I should say that in the intermitting periods since the president first discussed this back in November and even before the president made this announcement back in November, administration officials had been engaged in conversations with democrats and republicans in both the House and the Senate to try to arrive at language that could be supported by democrats and republicans in the House and the Senate.

The president does believe that this message is even more powerful if it has bipartisan support. And so, certainly in recent days, we've stepped up our engagement to -- with democrats and republicans on the Hill to try to finalize language that could be submitted by the administration to Congress and we're hopeful that we can provide that information relatively soon, that language relatively soon. And hopefully, there will not be a significant delay in Congress acting on that legislative languge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe you said last week that the language would be coming this week. And then other said that it would be arriving by Wednesday, is that no longer the case?

EARNEST: Well, relatively soon would include any of the days remaining in this week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could also be the following week or the week after. I mean, can you just give us sort of a time window for when...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which we expect this to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... whether it's been delayed or not.

EARNEST: I'm not aware of any delay. This is something that has been, you know, part of continuous effort here on the part of the administration. There have been senior NSC, National Security Council officials involved, certainly numbers of the council's office who've been involved in these discussions. There have also been other senior members of the President National Security team that will participate in these discussions. Individuals that -- officials at the Department of Defense, Department of State and other places.

So this is a broad effort. There are number of conversations that have taken place, and I think the fact that some of these details have been leaked by congressional sources, I think, is an indication of the large number of conversations that are ongoing between administration officials and officials in Congress. But I don't have a more detailed timing estimate to offer you other than relatively soon, and acknowledge that could include any of the days that are remaining in this week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... Newsweek magazine's Twitter account has been hacked, and the hackers issued a threat against the president and his family. How concerned are you about that hacking and how seriously are you taking that threat?

EARNEST: Well, I don't have any response made -- I don't have any response to the claims that are made by these hackers. I can tell you that we've seen a number of high profile incidence in recent months where media organizations and other important institutions have been compromised in some way, or at least their computer systems have compromised in some way. This particular intrusion is one that is already being investigated by the FBI. So, I'll refer you them for specific questions on that matter. But I can tell you as a general matter, it is a good reminder of how important it is for Congress to act on the cyber security legislation that the president put forward just last month. That there are some common sense things that we can do to better protect the American people and their data, and better respond to these incidents when they occur, OK?

Jim (ph).

JIM (ph): Getting back to the (inaudible), it is fair to say that the presidents wants this to be tailored to the war against ISIS, is that right?

EARNEST: Well, Jim (ph), I don't want to get into the contents of the legislative language that will be produced by this ongoing process. But it is fair for you and your viewers to assume that the reason the president is seeking this right-sized AUMF, I believe it what -- the way that he'd has previously described it, is because of his desire to see Congress act in support or at least demonstrate their support for the strategy to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.

JIM (ph): And will ISIS be defeated while the president is in office?

EARNEST: Jim (ph), I think we've been pretty clear. The president has been pretty clear about the fact that this -- that what we're looking at here is a longer term challenge. And the president has been pretty forthright about that, and there are a couple of reasons for that. And I think the most important reason for that is that ultimately, this is not a situation where it's the United States alone is at war against ISIL. That this is a broader effort that involves the entire international community and that is focused on ensuring that there are local capabilities that are built up to take the fight to ISIL on the ground.

The president does not believe it is any longer in our national security interest for us to put a large deployment of American military personnel on the ground in a combat role in Iraq and in Syria. That what we need to do is we need to build up...

JIM (ph): Who is advocating that? We hear that from the administration that this large deployment of ground forces in Iraq or in Syria to go after ISIS. Who is recommending that.

EARNEST: I've seen a number of people who imagine themselves sitting in that office in 2017 who have advocated, at least keeping on the table sending a larger number of combat troops to Iraq and Syria.