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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

The Challenges In Getting Aid To Kathmandu And Beyond After Massive Earthquake; Live Coverage From Freddie Gray's Funeral; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Defense Team In Court. Aired 12:30-1p ET.

Aired April 27, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00] ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Commercial flight that are coming in aren't able to land because of damage or because it's simply too crowded. That is the same problem that is facing some of these eight flights that are coming in. But then the issue isn't just getting the aid to Kathmandu, it's getting it to those areas that are so far away.

In the best of times it would take days to actually get there. Now, it's going to take even longer. The roads have been absolutely devastated. You have to have helicopter in to these places. And helicoptering rescue teams, helicoptering the kind of aid and assistance and medical assistance that is going to be needed to these remote areas, that is what is going to be so incredibly difficult. And whether or not Nepal actually had the air assets and whether or not it will be able to get air assets from other friendly nations who try to assist particularly in that effort. People don't really know what has happened in some parts of the country at this stage because they haven't able to get any information out of these areas. They're that far away.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: And any evidence yet of the U.S. military? We've got some reporting that came into us from the Department of Defense that two U.S. military Special Forces teams were actually already there. They were in Nepal and now they're providing a lot of this urgent logistical and medical assistance. One of them was actually doing emergency disaster preparedness days before this actually struck. Have you seen any evidence of the U.S. military personnel helping?

DAMON: We have not seen them around the city, granted we just got here this morning and we really were just going around Kathmandu to try to get an initial idea of what it was that this city had gone through and reaching those more remote areas is incredibly difficult at this stage. But you do see the international mist of the effort. There are aid groups here from all over the world, from Turkey we flew in with Turkish aids on the flight that we caught from Istanbul. You had aid groups from the Middle East, from Asia, from Europe, really from all over the world.

So many countries are sending in so much assistance, but again it's going to be very key right now in figuring out how to get the assistance to these very remote areas. And then also keeping in mind that every single building when it has the team at it, that team comprises dozens of individuals. So just trying to clear out one building is a very painstaking, time-consuming effort that takes up a lot of individuals as well.

BANFIELD: Arwa, thank you.

And I just want to add this report in as well. One of our producers has a Peace Corp friend who has sent information back to us just saying that the grave concern is that there are reports that some of these, this far-flung rural areas may have suffered as much as 80 percent of the homes being destroyed. And that there is grave concern also for the main thoroughfare, those two highways that effectively connects the Kathmandu Valley and provide all of what they deal with everyday, all of their supplies, their medicine, their fuel. They are not self-sufficient. They need those highways and with this kind of damage, those highways could be terribly, terribly affected. So there's still so much reporting to do and it is difficult to get there.

So our thanks to Arwa Damon and her team. And also my colleague, Sanjay Gupta. When he is capable of doing this, he does it. He is up and gone on a flight the minute something like this happens. You probably saw him in Haiti. He went there to report. He ended up in surgery. The same thing has happened again.

This morning, he operated on an eight-year-old girl. There is the evidence. And it's not the first time he's been called, it will not be the last time. He's going to join me live and tell me what now he's doing in this effort to report and help in Kathmandu.

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[12:37:24] BANFIELD: Though the main quake hit Nepal happened more than 48 hours ago, there is good news to report and it's this, a child pulled alive from the rubble and it happened just moments ago. This is after they were digging for a solid three hours, but there is the result.

Thank God.

On Mt. Everest, meanwhile, helicopters are doing their part to bring dozens of climbers who became stranded on the mountain down to a relatively safer place down at base-camp, but even that hasn't been safe. At least 17 climbers were killed at the base-camp in an avalanche that did terrible damage to that relative city. It's like a thousand people all getting ready to climb or finishing a climb or supporting all of that climbing and it had a terrible avalanche affecting it.

The group Mercy Corps is among at least to half dozen international aid organizations, joining 20 plus government in responding to the incredible needs that Nepalis only now just discovering it had.

Jeff Shannon is the Mercy Corps Director of Programs and he joins me live. He is also in Kathmandu.

First of all, Jeff, how are you and all of your colleagues managing, obviously having to sip through some of the same difficulties that our staff or Arwa Damon reporting? It's just so difficult to get a handle on the scope of the damage.

JEFF SHANNON, DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS, MERCY CORPS: It is. It's quite enormous and a bit overwhelming at times. But I want to thank you for the story about the child that was just pulled from the rubble. I think that's one of the important points that we're facing now.

We still have people who were buried under rubble, people who, for all instances and purposes, are simply invisible. They don't show up on registers, they don't show up on maps, and these are people that still need to be found.

BANFIELD: And your group, what effectively are you able to do at this early stage, given the fact that we're still looking for survivors? It's not at the point where we were trying to rebuild any infractures. We're trying to rescue people. We're still at that stage.

SHANNON: Well, fortunately just before the earthquake, we've been working in disaster risk reduction. And typically, every year, we have to deal with floods and landslides in different parts of the country. So, fortunately, we had a small stock of nonfood items, so blankets and cooking utensils, plastic, tarp. And this is fantastic right now, because people are afraid to go back into their homes.

Those who even still have homes standing, because so many have collapse, we're able to give this out and at least provide few days of protection.

But I think, you know, from -- after the earthquake and the aftershocks, we just set another really short sharp last about 45 minutes ago, people are running to the streets. They're really scared. They're uncertain. They don't know what to expect.

[12:40:09] BANFIELD: And what about you and your colleagues, are you safe where you are? I mean can you spend the night? It's after 10:00 there at night? Can you spend the night in the structure you're in? Can you continue to work with the infrastructure that you basically have found yourself in?

SHANNON: We're doing much as the same as the people on the street. We're putting up some plastic sheets in the compound. In fact, we have about 30 people, neighbors of ours who live in the same neighborhood, sleeping in the compound. And about 20 feet away, we have another group of people, maybe 50 to 60 people, just sleeping rough. We're doing much the same.

BANFIELD: Jeff, the monsoon season starts in about six weeks. And while that sounds like a long time given the scope of the destruction we're looking at right now on our screens, it is going to take so much longer than six weeks to try to get people back into those structures or get rid of those structures, or find the bodies that undoubtedly are still buried in those structures.

What is going to happen between now and the Monsoon? And how will Monsoon affect this?

SHANNON: It's an obvious and I'm glad you brought it up. But right now, we're having a very unusual bout of three rains. So it's been raining often on the last several days, after the earthquake. It's absolutely miserable for the people who are out there.

But as we gear up for the search and rescue, for the immediate emergency relief, and then the longer term things to help these people rebuild their lives, restock the shops, get back into their homes and feel safe again, we have to imagine everything we put out right now, everything that we plan, has to be ready for the monsoon season, and if we're not, it would simply be catastrophic.

BANFIELD: I think catastrophic is the word that will be echoed over and over again, even at this most early stage.

Jeff Shannon, thank you for your time. Thank you for your work as well. And the best of luck to you and your colleagues as you go forth in this terrible work that you are about to do.

Up next, defense lawyers for the Boston Marathon bomber will try to convince the court to spare his life, and that starts today.

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[12:45:18] BANFIELD: It has been 15 days since the arrest of a young man named Freddie Gray, who subsequently died in police custody, presumably from a massive spinal cord injury. And today, Freddie Gray is being laid to rest. It's happening in Baltimore and these are live pictures for you.

This is the New Shiloh Baptist church and the eulogy is right now underway by Dr. Jamal Harrison Bryant who is the pastor of the Empowerment Temple in Baltimore. Let's listen to him.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

JAMAL BRYANT, PASTOR, EMPOWERMENT TEMPLE: -- because of lead paint poisoning. We don't know why it is that he died and it could have been from excessive force by the police department of (roam). We don't whether or not, I have absolutely no idea if it was because he didn't have on a seatbelt. All I know is that he died. And somewhere, I'd hear the sound of Claude McKay riding from a one- bedroom apartment in the middle of the Harlem Renaissance. If we must die, let us nobly die. Let it not be like hold, shunted (ph, and pinned in an inglorious spot that make their mark of a (inaudible).

If we must -- Jesus walks up this mother. And contrary to what Congress Cumming, as he's had monitor us feasibility to d, "|Jesus sat to this mother, "Don't cry." Whatever you do don't cry, yes. A strange prescription to tell a family in pain, don't' cry. When the bible declares that weeping may endure (ph) for a night and joy comes in the morning, he says to the mother, "Don't cry." He was saying almost as a prophetic witness, I don't want you cry because I want you to start looking like it was getting ready to happen. If you could cry, people don't get confused and think justice is not going to come. But I came to tell this grandmother, I came to tell the honor, I came to tell the Freddie saying (ph)., I came to tell Freddie's five sisters, "Don't cry and the reason why I want you not to cry is because Freddie's death is not in vain.

After this day, we're going to keep on marching. After this day, we're going to keep demanding justice. After this day, we're going to keep exposing our culture of corruption, after this day, we going to keep monitoring our own neighborhood. Whatever you do, don't cry. And amazingly, Jesus does something. He lifts up his hand, and he changes the position of healing. Because (inaudible) every other time that Jesus has healed, it is always been a lateral move. He would reach his hand out, but when we find out, say, "I was in this and I reach to you for the very first time," and say (inaudible), "Jesus lifts his hands up.

And when he lifts his hands up, he touches the casket.

Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know where you are in this place, whether you're watching on the news or in this sacred space called sanctuary, but I'm praying to God that God will lay his hand on everything that's been trying to keep black people in a box. I don't know whether I'm talking about red lining of zip codes or

gentrification or whether I'm talking about a prison pipeline or inadequate public schools, but whatever box that has been placed around the life and the future of young black babies in this city, I'm praying God, put your hand on the box.

BANFIELD: You've been listening to part of the eulogy by Dr. Jamal Harrison Bryant in Baltimore. What's fascinating is that this is a man who has been calling for several demonstrations, but he is also calling for the kinds of demonstrations that would honor the memory of Freddie Gray. He has said do not destroy our own community, do not do what others think we are going to do. All of these at the same thing coming while there is now a credible threat the Baltimore police are announcing against members of his organization.

A credible threat apparently now coming form a number of different gangs who have entered into a partnership of sorts, gangs including the Black Gorilla Family, the Bloods and the Crips who apparently are calling to take out law enforcement officials. Very, very tensed times in Baltimore, this even during the funeral of Freeddie Gray.

We're back right after this.

[12:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: I want to just remind you, we are working on our communications with Dr. Sanjay Gupta who is live in Kathmandu, Nepal right now. And as soon as he's available, we're going to go straight to him live.

And we're also covering the defense of bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, because they have begun their efforts to try to save his life, while all the same time, panting his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev as the bad guy.

The reason Dzhokhar carried out the attacks at the Boston Marathon two years ago in this life or death case, well, in order to try to explain it, the defense is expected to call nine expert witnesses and 20 civilians over two weeks. Now what's fascinating is because some of the witnesses, maybe Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's own family members, also family members of Tamerlan.

Deb Feyerick is live outside the courthouse in Boston. Have they shown up in this court room yet? And are they there now if this effort begins today?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, so far we have not seen anybody resembling a family member of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. They're certainly not sitting in that court. They are expected to testify with the help of translators.

But I'll tell you, Ashleigh, a member of the defense witnesses in that court, they don't even want to be here. The only reason they're testifying is because they've been subpoenaed to do so. One of them, a high school friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's and also Tamerlan Tsarnaev's, talking about how Tamerlan began changing his appearance, his beard was long. He became very sort of Islamic in his beliefs, challenging aggressively anybody who seems to disagree with him.

But the defense is really painting a picture of this family as dysfunctional, saying both the parents have psychiatric disorders. The father had returned to Dagestan intending to die there. The mother soon followed and that left Dzhokhar, who was a sophomore in 2012, alone. The only one in charge, his older brother, Tamerlan. And they say look at the internet activity of both the brothers, we'll Dzhokhar's a saint echo of the obsession that Tamerlan had with Jihad.

And, you know, I'll tell you, that man who came in, the friend, the high school friend who came in to testify today, Ashleigh, he looked anywhere and everywhere except at Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He was so uncomfortable, he just did not want to be in that court room testifying. And you have to also wonder what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's thinking. He did glance over at his former friend, but he listened to his own lawyers, saying, "Look, put him away. Put him in a supermax prison where nobody will ever hear from him again." And the interesting thing, the supermax prison is in Colorado, Ashleigh. And when I saw it initially, it looked like it was a maximum security facility inside Siberia because it was snowy, it was desolate, it was black and white. And you have to wonder if Dzhokhar is thinking, "OK, my life is over." Whatever happens, his life is done, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Well, if it's the same place Ted Kaczynski and Richard Reid, the shoe bomber are, it is no picnic being in that facility. Probably a little different than the death penalty though. But one quick question for you, as all of these questions are being asked of these reluctant witnesses, subpoenaed witnesses, is anyone saying anything from that witness stand that sounds the least but sympathetic to this man?

[12:55:14] FEYERICK: Not sympathetic, Ashleigh, but what they are doing is they're absolutely talking all about Tamerlan Tsarnaev. All about -- this trial, this phase of the defense, it's about Tamerlan, it's about what Tamerlan did to his younger brother who was differential because of the Chechnyan, which, you know, respects your elders. But no, right now they're not saying positive things about Dzhokhar but what they are doing is they're showing that his brother, Tamerlan, was totally in charge, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: It's just fascinating to see this process play out. Deb Feyerick doing the job for us. Excellent work and thank you for that.

And by the way, I would just want to make sure you know, we got a special report coming tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, where you'll get the inside story of the Boston bombing. Deb Feyerick has been working on this. You'll learn what Tsarnaev did after -- right after those attacks. This is CNN's special report, Murder at the Marathon.

Another reminder too, we're working hard to get our communications up with Dr. Sanjay Gupta who will be coming up shortly live in the poll as well. Thanks so much for watching. Stay tuned, my colleague, Wolf, starts right after this quick break.

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[13:00:05] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer, it's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 6:00 p.m. in London, 10:45 p.m. in Kathmandu, Nepal.